Information needs and behavior of LGBT students in Zadar related to the „coming out“ process

Cilj ovog rada je saznati koje su informacijske potrebe LGBT studenata na Sveučilištu u Zadru i kako dolaze do informacija vezanih uz coming out iskustvo te na koje prepreke u pristupanju informacijama pri tom nailaze. Coming out iskustvo predstavlja razotkrivanje vlastitog seksualnog i/ili rodnog identiteta i otkrivanje istoga drugima. U samom radu, bliže će se definirati pojam LGBT zajednice i njen trenutni položaj u Republici Hrvatskoj. U nastavku će se prikazati dosadašnji radovi na temu informacijskog ponašanja, potreba i prepreka u pristupanju informacijama na koje nailaze LGBT pripadnici kao i korisne informacijske izvore. Nadalje, metoda korištena u radu bila je intervju, iz razloga što se na taj način pružio bolji uvid u individualna iskustva ispitanika. Rad se nadao rasvijetliti informacijske potrebe i ponašanje jedne još uvijek relativno marginalizirane skupine.The aim of this paper is to find out what are the information needs of LGBT students at the University of Zadar and how they get information related to coming out experience and what obstacles they encounter in accessing information. The coming out experience represents revealing oneˈs own sexual and/or gender identity and revealing the same to others. In the paper itself, the term LGBT community and its current position in the Republic of Croatia will be more closely defined. In the following, previous works on the topic of information behavior, needs and obstacles in accessing information encountered by LGBT members, as well as useful information sources, will be presented. Furthermore, the method used in the paper was an intervju, for the reason that it provided a better insight into individual experiences of the respondents. The paper hoped to shed light on the information needs and bahavior of a still relatively marginalized group