How do upper secondary school pupils experience their information seeking? A study at an independent school without access to a school library

This masters thesis aims to investigate how upper secondary school pupils experience their information seeking in a school context without access to a school library. It is the pupils own thoughts and opinions about information seeking and criticism of the sources that is the main focus. The literature that has been used consists of material from research concerning youth and different aspects of information seeking such as the information seeking process, information seeking on the web, criticism of the sources and how pupils interact with other people in order to acquire information. The method that has been used is group interviews. Twelve pupils from an independent school without access to a school library have been interviewed in groups of three. The theoretical framework in this thesis comes from Louise Limbergs three categories of description of information seeking. These categories are used as levels of awareness of information seeking. The results show that most of the pupils have a rather high awareness of information seeking. The Internet is their main source but the public library is also important to them. The pupils often experience that the Internet is not enough to satisfy their information need. They are independent and do most of their information seeking after school and mostly at home. They get on quite well without a school library but some of the pupils would improve their awareness of information with some extra tutoring and support in information seeking and criticism of the sources.Uppsatsnivå: