Louise Limberg

Constructing meaning through information artefacts

The paper presents and discusses results from the first round of empirical data collection within the framework of a three-year research project named Learning via the School Library. The research is set within a project comprising eight elementary and secondary schools in Sweden. The overall research question of the study focuses on how students construct meaning through the artefacts (books, digital information and pictures) that are offered via the school library. Data were collected through observations, interviews and a questionnaire in three classes (11-year-olds) during a 10-week assignment. Results indicate that students adopted a fact-finding approach, that they frequently used pictures in information sources and that they transported text/pictures from sources to their own reports. Students’ learning process was oriented towards procedure rather than content. The results raise questions about school libraries as cultural contexts for information seeking and use and about the possible reasons for...

A study of children's information behaviour in a school context

This study examined research bearing on the relationship between information seeking and use and learning in a school context. Studies examined included research on how school assignments, reading ability, access tools and childrens understanding of information seeking and use influence their information behaviour and learning outcomes. Library catalogues and databases covering several disciplines were searched and the results were correlated with the findings of a bibliometric study in order to locate relevant research. The results indicate that little research has focused specifically on the relationship between information seeking and use and learning outcomes, although all research taken up in the study elucidates aspects that touch upon the relationship. Taken together, research shows that a strong relationship exists between schoolchildrens understanding of information seeking and use, the nature of school assignments, the quality of access tools and childrens experience and knowledge of them. It...

Information practices in elementary school

This article presents a qualitative study that examines the roles of pedagogues in elementary schools with regard to young childrens information literacy. The concept of information literacy is seen from a sociocultural perspective, as a dimension of literacy that varies in different social practices. Further, from this perspective the importance of the mediating functions of tools used in information seeking is stressed. Data was collected from a Swedish village school from one focus group interview and two individual interviews with different kinds of pedagogues. Problem-centred teaching was also observed in five forms with pupils aged 6–8. In the analysis an overarching division or two discourses connected to information literacy emerged. On the one hand, literacy, aesthetic activities and the reading of fiction were the focus and, on the other hand, there was a focus on information literacy, utilitarian information-seeking activities and ICT-tools. It is also shown that information seeking is given a certain meaning in problem-centred activities in elementary school. The authors consider that the discourses found in the empirical material might have implications for the concept of information literacy, if they are explored to a fuller extent.

Learning and Information Seeking

The purpose of this entry is to present and analyze the relationship between learning and information seeking. The analysis draws on research studies on information seeking set in educational contexts and is framed in theories of learning, mainly constructivism. Themes of the entry are based on five dimensions of the relationship between learning and information seeking: 1) seeking information for learning purposes; 2) learning information seeking; 3) teaching information seeking; 4) learning from information; and 5) reshaping conditions for information seeking and learning through information and communications technologies (ICTs). Conclusions are that the fields of learning and information seeking draw nearer to one another partly due to educational ideas based in constructivism and partly due to the development of digital tools that reshape conditions for learning in postmodern society. This development contributes to the transformation of the professional role of librarians, implying an emphasis on the pedagogical aspects of the profession. Future prospects for information seeking research and practice linked to learning may involve strengthened interests in the cognitive authority and expertise of information as well as information sharing through communicative interaction

Conceptions of task as a methodological issue: Scandinavians on information seeking and retrieval research (SIG USE).

Conceptions of task as a methodological issue : Scandinavians on information seeking and retrieval research

Credibility and authority of information in learning environments

The objective of the panel is to discuss the credibility and authority of information in learning environments, considering the changed circumstances of digital media. The panelists will use theore ...

The Enactment of Information Literacy: An Exploratory Study Among Interdisciplinary PhD Students

This paper reports a practice-based study of the enactment of information literacy (IL) in a network of interdisciplinary PhD students. Previous research on this topic is scarce. The empirical material was produced through semi-structured interviews and work-place visits. It is concluded that the enactment of IL in the practice under study is a collectively sustained project that unfolds in dialogue with others and through interaction with material objects. This process comprises activities such as participation in seminars and conferences, which offer opportunities for discussions about work in progress, and is situated in socio-material practices shaped by historically developed conceptions of what it means to be an interdisciplinary researcher.