Information Literacy of Older Newly Arrived People

Abstract: The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explore the information literacy of newly arrived people and to obtain knowledge about how they are looking for important information. The research questions are as follows: How do newly arrived people access information in the new society? What strategies do they use to overcome the difficulties/obstacles?How do newly arrived people learn about being information literate? Previous research has examined the importance of information literacy of newly arrived people and discussed how they are looking for important information. In this work, in order to gain an empirical insight, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven women from Syria. The timeframe for the collection of this empirical data was more than two months. The results conveyed that the ‘newly arrived people’ are looking for important information by friends, relatives and social network. Said individuals have a tendancy to spend copious amounts of time to gain reliable and relevant information. Likewise, newly arrived people are in need of more support which would require further facilitation when entering into the labour market and integrating into society. The analysis also provided traits of newly arrived people needing more support and help learning about information literacy. What can be concluded, is that the newly arrived people did not have enough knowledge about library instructions when offering services. Among other issues, the results showed a great interest in culture, as well as an ambition to learn language and more about society, especially the new arrivals whom are looking for jobs despite the fact that they have been in the country for a short period.