Biosketch: Professor Louise Limberg

Dr. Louise Limberg is Professor Emerita of Library and Information Science (LIS), specialising in information seeking and use, at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden. Her research interests concern the interaction between information seeking and use and learning, linked to issues of information literacy. A series of studies have been conducted, where the particular object of research was directed to students' ways of interacting with information systems and sources as well as with fellow students and adults throughout the learning process. Other studies have focused on educators' (teachers and librarians) perspective of the same theme of interaction between teaching, learning and information seeking practices in school environments. Main conclusions are that variation of the quality of students' information seeking and use interacts closely with variation of the quality of their learning outcomes, indicating information literacy as a critical feature of learning via digital tools and information sources. Theoretical approaches adopted have been phenomenography and a socio-cultural perspective of learning. Dr. Limberg is a member of the permanent committee of the international research conference Information Seeking in Context (ISIC).

Current research activities/projects

Dr. Limberg is a member of the senior advisory board of the Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society (LinCS).

She is also chair of the International Network on Information Literacy Research.

Current projects

• EXpertise, Authority and Control on the InterneT (EXACT): a study of the formation of source credibility in Web 2.0 environments for learning. Swedish Research Council (VR)
• The role of school libraries in Swedish library politics

A few recent publications (in press)

Alexandersson, M., & Limberg, L. (2009). Elevers "forskning" via datorn - mantra, metod eller meningsfullt lärande? [Students' 'research' via the computer - mantra, method or meaningful learning?] I. J. Hedman & A. Lundh (red.) Informationskompetenser: om lärande i informationspraktiker och informationssökning i lärandepraktiker. [Information literacies: on learning in information practices and information seeking in learning practices] (pp. 85-107). Stockholm: Carlssons bokförlag.

Francke, H., Limberg, L., & Sundin, O. (forthcoming). Debating credibility: The shaping of information literacies in upper secondary schools.

Limberg, L., & Alexandersson, M. (forthcoming). Learning and Information Seeking. In M. Bates & M. N. Maack (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. 3rd Edition. (pp. 3252-3263). New York: Taylor and Francis Group.

Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S. (2009). Teoretiska perspektiv på informationskompetens [Theoretical perspectives on Information Literacy]. I J. Hedman & A. Lundh (red.) Informationskompetenser: om lärande i informationspraktiker och informationssökning i lärandepraktiker. [Information literacies: on learning in information practices and information seeking in learning practices] (pp. 36-65). Stockholm: Carlssons bokförlag.

Limberg, L., Alexandersson, M., & Lantz-Andersson, A. (2008). To be lost and to be a loser through the Web. In T. Hansson (ed.) Handbook of Research on Digital Information Technologies: Innovations, Methods and Ethical Issues. (pp. 248-262). Hershey, PA. Information Science Reference.

Limberg, L., Alexandersson, M., Lantz-Andersson, A. & Folkesson, L. (2008). What matters? Shaping meaningful learning through teaching information literacy. Libri, 58, (2), 82-91.

Lundh, A. & Limberg, L. (2008). The role of the pedagogue in pupils' construction of information literacy. Libri, 58 (2), 92-101.

Sundin, O., Limberg, L. & Lundh, A. (2008). Constructing librarians' information literacy expertise in the domain of nursing. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 40 (1), 21-30.