Nurses in continuing education, their information needs and use of libraries : A user study.

This Master´s thesis is a user study of nurses participating in continuing education. The nurses graduated before 1993, when education to become a nurse changed in Sweden. Now they are studying for 40 credits in Nursing at a university in order to get the same level of education as a newly graduated nurse. They were also working as nurses when this study took place. The main purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of what kind of information the nurses think they need and to find out if and in what way they use libraries in their studies and in their work. The empirical material was collected by qualitative, semi-structured interviews with six nurses. To analyze the answers Kuhlthau´s model of information search process, Sundin´s concept of the symbolic value of professional information and Wilson´s concept of cognitive authority were used.The results of this study show that the nurses need course literature, scientific articles and help to search for information in databases. They all felt anxiety for not finding the right information exactly as Kuhlthau´s model shows.The nurses know it is important to keep updated with new information in their specialty in nursing and they know where to find the information. Professional information could help the nurses in their cooperation with other occupational groups, for example physicians.They all use libraries; to borrow books, find articles and also to use the librarian´s expertise in searching. They prefer to visit the medical library at their work and they appreciate the library staff´s knowledge