H gskolebibliotekariers informationss kning i teoretisk belysning

Facing both technological, educational and vocational change, academic librarians’ professional practices are subjects of interest within LIS research today. Information seeking and literacy are often spoken of as important competences, thus the assumed information seeking expertise of academic librarians stands out as a matter to investigate. This article aims at gaining a deeper understanding of academic librarians’ information seeking. Furthermore, two theoretical perspectives as tested for their usefulness as analytical tools. This is achieved through literature studies and primarily theoretical discussions. Melissa Gross’ conceptualisation of imposed and self-generated information seeking is found applicable for the purpose along with central concepts derived from a sociocultural perspective as presented by Olof Sundin and Jenny Johannisson, and a new institutional perspective in accordance with Ragnar Audunson’s research.