Dagens monteringsarbete skiljer sig nämnvärt från det monteringsarbetet som utfördes för 50 år sedan. En stor skillnad är dels att produktionssystemet skiljer sig men även att en montör i dag måste ha ett sätt att förhålla sig till den information som finns om monteringsarbetet. Om inte montörer har ett informationsbeteende som är anpassat till det produktionssystem som är aktivt så föreligger det stor risk att kassaktioner uppstår. För att undersöka hur montörers informationsbeteende ser ut så har en observation genomförts i form av en fallstudie på Volvo Powertrain i Skövde. Observationen gick ut på att studera de montörer som arbetar på en arbetsstation och undersöka hur de förhåller sig till den information som finns tillgänglig om deras arbetsuppgifter. Observationerna har påvisat vilket vikt det är av att montörernas informationsbehov sammanfaller med organisationens mål. Som ett resultat av arbetet så har även ett förslag om ett signalsystem påvisats för att stödja montörernas informationsbehov.

The outcome of the Brexit referendum sparked a discussion in the media about ill-informed voters. There are few studies that investigate the information behaviour of voters, and even fewer of referendum voters. This thesis explores a small population of students at Scottish universities to gain insight in how they sought, received, and communicated information before the Brexit referendum. The aim is to investigate the students' information behaviour before they voted. Twenty-two students were interviewed, using a survey interviewing technique that also included open questions. The findings show that students were active, and interested, information seekers, but that they experienced a lack of quality information. Instead of trusting media sources, they turned to friends and family for information, although few changed their mind from their original conviction. The conclusions show that political awareness affected the information behaviour of the students, which is supported by Zaller’s Receive-Accept-Sample model, and that there was a high level of political awareness among the participants, in part because of the previous Scottish independence referendum. Wilson’s model of information behaviour was applied, and the analysis shows that intervening variables such as environment, role relations, and source characteristics affected information seeking, as well as other intervening variables like the lack of information and distrust of information sources.

Homebrewing of beer is a worldwide growing hobby, and using Stebbins’ theories on leisure, brewing can be classified as a serious leisure. Using a qualitative approach, the aim of this explorative bachelor’s thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of a group of serious leisure homebrewers through the use of semi-structured interviews. The research questions are: Which information resources are used by home brewers? Which information activities do homebrewers perform? To what extent do homebrewers share information with other home brewers? The transcribed interviews were analysed using Lloyd’s concept on information landscapes, Talja and Hansen’s concept on information behaviour and previous studies on the information behavior of hobbyists.The homebrewers use a variety of text-based, social and physical information resources for their hobby. Beer is the most important information resource, as interaction with different categories of beer create the brewers own taste. Taste act as a catalyst for consequent information activities. The brewers own experiences of brewing is also a valued resource since it creates know-how about the processes involved. The main information activities associated with brewing revolve around the making of recipes: brewers search for recipes that they compare, alter or combine to suit their own preferences. Information sharing is prevalent among the brewers in the study as it is expected by the homebrewing community at large. Sharing is seen as a method of transferring information from brewer to brewer in their quest for the ultimate brew.

The aim of this thesis is to compare scholarly articles published in 2009–2019 that have used “information behavior” or “information practices” to denote the research, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how the two concepts have been used in the scientific literature. The research questions are: 1. What journals, countries and subject areas are the most prominent for each concept? 2. Which researchers constitute the research front of each concept? 3. What areas of interest can be distinguished within each concept? 4. What domain analytic similarities and differences can be seen between the two concepts? The study uses the bibliometric methods of author bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence analysis of author keywords, content analysis to determine subject areas and visualizations of networks using VOSviewer to examine the data. The results of the study indicate that information behavior is the dominating concept of the two. There are also indications of two separate research fronts in regard to researchers and their geographic locations. There is an overlap between the areas of interest of each concept. The general nature of the concepts, in addition to the different discourses that exist regarding them seems to be contributing factors to the confusion surrounding the definition, implication and use of each concept.

This qualitative study examines the browsing behaviours of patrons at two Swedish public libraries. Our methods were semistructured observations and semistructured interviews. The purpose of this thesis is to generate knowledge on how browsing behaviours manifest in practice, especially in the lesser-studied public library context. The research questions were: 1. Which browsing types and browsing activities can be found in our data? 2. How do the patrons describe the changes in their browsing behaviour in relation to the specificity of their information need? 3. How do the patrons describe that their behaviours and choices are influenced by the libraries’ marketing of resources in the physical library room, for example book displays and themed shelves? The results were then analysed in relation to a typology of browsing behaviour proposed by McKay et al. (2019), and in relation to models of browsing behaviour created by Kwasnik (1992) and Bates (2007). The models by Kwasnik and Bates were found to be accurate and useful in describing the browsing behaviours of the patrons we observed. Our data supported some of the types presented by McKay et al.(2019), while other types have been slightly redefined to better reflect our data. The good enough type was proposed as an alternative to McKay et al.’s satisficing type. The patrons displayed different browsing behaviours corresponding to the specificity of their information needs. The patrons show different views towards the library displays. A few patrons looked at them very rarely, while most looked at them more often.

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute knowledge about what pregnant people’s information behaviours look like. With this study, we want to find out how people who are currently pregnant seek and avoid information and how they experience information is being conveyed to them. Based on earlier research the study looks for these answers using a web survey and a qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The study uses McKenzie’s (2003a) model of information practices and Sweeny et al. (2010) research on the concept of information avoidance. Due to the lack of access to research in this area, this quantitative and qualitative study tries to extend the knowledge by examining information habits from fortycurrently pregnant individuals, from a library and information science perspective. We examined how the pregnant persons seek information, what information they are passively assigned and what information they actively avoid. The results in this study show that pregnant women have a great need for information. They actively seek information to get answers to questions related to pregnancy, childbirth, and life after childbirth. They value reliable, fact-checked sources and they want the information to be true and based on science. This also means that they avoid sources where they see a risk that the information is incorrect. They are also assigned information in numerous ways, such as receiving tips on where to find pregnancy-related information.

The purpose of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of players’ information behavior in regard to MMORPGs’ external information sources. Despite MMORPGs being a popular recreational activity, and players of this genre of games demonstrating novel information search strategies, this is still an understudied aspect of LIS research. The empirical material was gathered by conducting five semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using a model based upon Harviainen and Savolainien’s (2014) theory of MMORPGs as information systems, along with Wilsons (1999) nested model for information-seeking and information search behaviour. The findings show that external information sources play an important role for players in the information infrastructure of MMORPGs as is also confirmed by previous research on this topic. Which information sources players choose to access is determined based on convenience, habits and the nature of the players information need. The players demonstrate differences in their information behavior depending on if they are less experienced or experienced players. Less experienced players prefer utilizing other players before utilizing external information sources, while experienced players prefer utilizing external information sources as their first option. The findings show that the MMORPG Warframe is also applicable in Harviainen and Savolainen’s (2014) theory of MMORPGs as information systems. The different types of information behaviors that a player can manifest during play seems to align with previous research on the subject.

Information behavior is a research field in library and information science concerned with how people seek, use and exchange information. This paper seeks to contribute to information behavior research in the domain of leisure, which has previously been explored to a lesser extent compared to academic and professional contexts. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the information behavior of hiking and outdoor life hobbyists. Two research questions are posed: 1) How do hiking and outdoor life hobbyists seek, use and exchange information in their hobby? 2) What information needs do hikers have and which sources of information do they use to fulfill these needs? The theoretical framework consists of sociologist Robert A. Stebbins’ (2009) Serious Leisure Perspective and Anders Hektor’s (2001) model of information behavior. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with six hiking and outdoor life hobbyists and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show that the participants seek, use and exchange information in various ways in their hobby, such as searching and gathering information when planning hikes and exchanging information with fellow hiking and outdoor enthusiasts. Information needs include information about the terrain, information about locations, information about equipment and practical information such as information about accommodation and weather information. Important sources of information include websites, social media, blogs, magazines, books, other people, and maps. The conclusion is made that hiking and outdoor life can be viewed as serious leisure and that this particular hobby means considerable interaction with information.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the information seeking behaviour of graduate students at Uppsala University, Sweden. Using a qualitative method I gain deeper knowledge of the students’ information behaviour. Method – I interview four master students concerning their information seeking. Two of the students are from the social sciences and two from the medical sciences. Findings – The findings show that students primarily use electronic information resources. The students prefer to access scientific articles electronically, and they rarely use printed books in their studies. The students prefer to use library databases over Google Scholar. The reason for this is not only the access to material, but also that they prefer the more advanced search options provided by the library. Further results show that the students tend to avoid interaction with librarians. Paper type – Two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

The aim of this study was to examine how children in ages 3 to 4 use the public library with the research questions: What does children’s, in ages between 3 and 4, information behavior look like when they visit a public library in leisure time with a parent? What is the nature of interaction between child and parent, child and the staff of the library, and between child and other visitors? What is the function of the cultural tools in relation to the children’s information behavior? The theoretical frame of reference consisted of Lev Vygotsky’s “the zone of proximal development” and Roger Säljö’s theory about using cultural tools. To answer the questions I have observed 4 children together with their mothers and siblings at a public library. From the result of the observations I found that every child had their own information behavior. Two of the children only used one kind of cultural tool – books. The two others used different kinds of cultural tools. They used the computer, the drawing table, read comics and books. They were on different levels in using those cultural tools, depending on earlier experience at the library. The ones who influenced the children’s information behavior most, were the mothers. The children did use the library like their parents did. All the children got some kind of help in their zone of proximal development from their mothers. / Uppsatsnivå: D