The purpose of this master’s thesis is to find out in which ways a group of first generation immigrants use Swedish papers and magazines in a public library and which information needs this group has about Swedish society. One important aspect in this essay is integration of immigrants in the Swedish society as a possible effect of newspaper reading. The method used in this study is qualitative. Data is generated through semi-structured interviews. The immigrants have been represented by eight persons from different ethnic groups. Through a literature survey of earlier research I have presented a background to immigrants’ information needs and possible connections between on the one hand education, employment, gender, duration of their stay in the country and on the other hand on the impact on information needs patterns. The study has two theoretical starting points: Diaz’ integration theory and a modified version of Höglund – Perssons’ model of information use. Of great interest for this essay have been the effects of the information use, especially integration of immigrants in Swedish society. The results of the analyses show that information seeking and information use have had a more profound effect on integration in the language community (kommunikativ integration) than on the social, structural and political integration. The majority of immigrants in the study do not feel integrated in the Swedish society. However we can conclude that this study tends to show that reading and information seeking have effect on some aspects of integration and that the public library has an important role in this process. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis studies is to examine how information seeking is taught from a pedagogical and didactic perspective. The questions at issue are:• What is the content in information seeking education?• What aims are focused in information seeking education?• What methods are used in information seeking education? The methods being used are empirical studies and studies of literature, within the subject area. The study is inspired by phenomenographical learning theories. Through eight qualitative interviews we have examined how the respondents describe the content, the aims and the methods in their information seeking education. These interviews have been taped, transcribed and categorized. Our theoretical framework is based on pedagogic theories of knowledge and a didactic theory. To subsequently clarify the dynamic relation between these a pedagogical triangle of practice were used. This essay points out that the information seeking educations are reflected in a pedagogical and didactic perspective to some extent only. Our study shows that all our respondents are well aware of many of the students’ difficulties in the information seeking process and there is a discrepancy between this awareness and the measures taken in the teaching. According to the authors of this essay, the school librarian work would be facilitated if they have knowledge in pedagogical and didactic theory and that teachers ought to make information seeking to an explicit learning object where their knowledge of pedagogical and didactic theory are used. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate a few economy students’ perceptions of user education connected to essay work, focusing on aspects of information literacy of importance to the studies and the role of the user education in this context. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach. Five economy students were interviewed regarding their experiences of working with information, their perceptions of user education and its impact on their essay work. The interviews were transcribed and analysed with Bruce’s (1997) relational model of information literacy. The results show that the user education focused mainly on presenting various electronic databases and how to use them effectively. This is consistent with the first two of Bruce’s conceptions of information literacy. The areas in which the students experienced difficulties during the process of seeking and using information were in part corresponding to the user education and the students generally found the education to be helpful to their studies. However, within some areas of difficulty the students received no instruction, neither through the user education nor through the teachers in their subject field. These areas concern strategies for performing critical analysis of sources and enhancing the essays reliability, and are consistent with the third and the fifth conceptions of information literacy, concerning the information process and knowledge construction. To increase the awareness of information literacy as a complex concept and facilitate the students’ work, it should be included in the main education to a greater extent, and not be limited to the library’s courses. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master thesis is to study how teachers in adult education view the phenomenon of information seeking in education. We have interviewed adult education teachers, and the method used when working with the data was phenomenography. We found three categories in our material: 1. Information seeking is the student’s responsibility; 2. Information seeking is the responsibility of the library; 3. Information seeking is the teacher’s responsibility. Views expressed in the interviews were e.g. the importance of the librarian, and also that the information seeking was not important itself, but rather how the students used the information found. Since the students are adults, teachers expect them to be able to find information, i.e. the teachers did not find it necessary to teach about information seeking. This despite the fact that adult students often had little education, or had failed previous studies. The conclusion of our study is that the teachers want to work with the librarians, but they have a very limited view of how to do this. The lack of time is another aspect mentioned to why there is such poor interaction between the professions. We see a need to discuss who is responsible for information seeking in adult education; is it the student’s, teacher’s or the librarian’s responsibility? It is important as well, to discuss what is considered to be significant when it comes to information seeking, as well as what it means to be information competent. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this essay is to explore how students in secondary school seek out and use information. More specifically, the essay examines how the search and use of information differs between students working in groups and students working independently. The essay draws on in-depth interviews with six students. Two different theories are used to analyse the transcripts from the interviews. The first theory consists of Carol Kuhlthau’s six different stages showing how the students’ feelings, emotions and actions change during the information seeking process. The second theory is Louise Limberg’s category describing the different approaches to information seeking among students in secondary school. The analysis of the results shows that the interviewed can be contained in Limberg’s category A. This means that the students lack knowledge when they search for and use information. Even students who are working together lack knowledge in this. However, the students are rather good at evaluating the information. At the same time, many of the interviewed did not feel confident during the process of information seeking. To obtain help in searching for information, the students use their supervisor (teacher) rather than the librarian. The conclusion is that the method of working in groups should be changed and students can learn to work together in groups if the teacher takes a more active role during the process and help the students to work together. They also need more help from their teachers in processing and evaluating information and the students also need more help from the librarian in searching for information.

The main purpose of this work was to examine the information behavior of nonfiction publishing Company editors. Three problem areas were presented and expressed in the following questions:- What is the information need of the editor in every day work?- Which sources of information do the editors use when they are looking for information and how do they make use of them?- Are there any factors that have an influence on the information behavior of the editors and in what way do the factors effect the information behavior of the editors in their everyday work? And finally, do the editors experience any factors as barriers to information behavior?Six editors, all with academical background, all employed in different publishing companies were interviewed. The result of this study have been analysed within a theoretical framework influenced by the work of Tom Wilson, Lars Höglund and Olle Persson and Block and Lagberg. The result shows that the editors had various regular needs of information in their every day work. They needed new information to get a grip on the market and competitors. Furthermore they needed inspiration and feed-back. They also needed information to confirm and explain tasks in manuscripts. It was important for the editors to have quick access to reliable information sources. Therefore the use of oral information from colleagues both face-to-face through interpersonal communication and through the Internet was frequently used. Internet was a very important tool for their information seeking and collection of information. The private collection of books of the editors was important. I found that non-word oriented sources such as pictures and the daily use of books influenced their information behavior. The editors often browsed information haphazardly, which generated finding information by serendipity, information to use in their work. Factors influencing the information behaviour of editors were the organisation, work tasks, geographical environment and personal interests and preferences. Barriers to information were also found.

This Bachelor’s thesis is related to the area within library and information studies that focuses on information seeking and information practices. The study deals with how politically engaged young people seek information in relation to their political interests. The purpose of the study is to create an understanding of the roles that different forms of information-related activities play within the framework of political interest and of the feelings, experiences and challenges that such activities may give rise to for those involved. The study also discusses purposes and motivation for information seeking and use in political engagement. In order to address the problem statement I have conducted a qualitative interview study where I interviewed four politically active young people. The findings of the study indicate a number of recurring trends but also variations in the information practices of the informants. Daily news updates and the social interaction appear to be among the most important information-related activities. Some of the information-related activities are connected to the elements of the engagement that are more personal and private in nature, while other information activities are related to the social dimensions of the engagement. It would seem that political engagement is divided in two different spheres, a social and another more individual sphere. This finding is important for our understanding of how the different information-related activities are linked to each other. The findings and the conclusions of the study are presented in a theoretical model.

The main purpose of this Master’s thesis is to contribute to anincreased understanding of student teacher’s informationseeking for their studies. The role of cognitive authorities andapproaches to the critical evaluation of sources are taken intoaccount as well as what student experiences of informationseeking imply for their future profession. The study takes asociocultural perspective and the empirical material is based oninterviews with six student teachers at the end of theireducation. The interviews have been analysed with a departurepoint in the research questions to the following themes; seekingand finding information, critical evaluation of sources and,analysing and using information.The major findings concern the teacher students’ emphasis onthe importance of the critical evaluation of sources and theirscepticism towards Internet use, both for their own studies aswell as for their future pupils. The student teachers expressedawareness of cognitive authorities when seeking information informal printed sources, but they were not fully aware of the roleof teachers and supervisors as cognitive authorities. Several ofthe informants expressed a need for teaching methods related toinformation seeking. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine the importance of the hospital library for nurses´ information literacy. The hospital library can play a key role for nurses interested in evidence-based approaches to their work. Two main research questions are posed: In what ways does the hospital library work to support nurses´ information literacy? How do nurses view the hospital library as an information resource? To address these questions three hospital librarians and three nurses are interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Christine Bruce’s Seven faces of information literacy were used in the analysis to examine varying experiences of information literacy. The results show that the most important categories relation to information literacy are; information technology, information sources, information process and information control. What seems to be of great significance for the nurses is the possibility to use the hospital librarians as a resource. Their competence is regarded as invaluable and of significant importance to nurses that are library users. Context also seems to be important for information seeking processes. The hospital library seems to be more important for nurses when they are doing research or studying, than in the context of clinical work.

This thesis investigates clinical nurses’ information seekingand information use through semi-structured interviews withsix nurse practitioners, nurses with further education.Previous research shows that nurses have problemsimplementing evidence-searching at the clinic because oforganization, stress and heritage of an old practice that doesnot incorporate the academic education.The theoretical framework consists of T.D. Wilson’sinformation seeking behavior model and R.H. Orr’s model ofinformation needs. The empirical material is analyzed to findproblematic barriers and solutions. Furthermore the studygives answer to the questions; what the nurses’ think of theireducation, what the barriers towards information seeking andinformation use are and suggestions of solution. The resultshows that older education contained more medicine andpractice. Modern education emphasizes nursing theory andreflection to a higher degree, which effectuate nurses to bemore self-contained and better information seekers. Clinicalnurses have a hard time seeking information evidence ineveryday work. To participate in projects, groups ofinterests, meeting a clinical librarian at work, meetings andnursing rounding were found positive but only possible iforganized. A problem is that the librarians are forgotten as aresource and that the clinical nurses do not view them as anordinary team member as for instance the physiotherapist.Most of the nurses wish for more support and inspirationdialogue, especially with clinical lectors that could work asbridge builders between clinic and academy. They also wishfor more contact with clinical librarians, standard nurse plansand more open and allowing leaders. / Program: Bibliotekarie