| Summary: | The main purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how Swedish upper secondary school librarians and related staff relate to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. The research is placed in the all-embracing context of information literacy and source criticism on the Internet. The study was carried out in the form of qualitative interviews and based on two theoretical bases: firstly, the concept of cognitive authority stipulated by Patrick Wilson, and secondly the idea that Wikipedia has a draw towards late modern epistemological assumptions. The latter theory was also associated with the perceptions of knowledge among the library staff interviewed. According to the results, there seems to be a connection between a) the library staff’s perceptions of knowledge, b) the library staff’s actual knowing about Wikipedia, c) the library staff’s attitudes toward Wikipedia and d) the teaching performed by the library staff about Wikipedia. The results also suggest the cognitive authority of the traditional encyclopaedia to be strong, especially among those within the library staff not very familiar with Wikipedia. Those positive to Wikipedia possibly represent perceptions of knowledge with a draw towards the late modern. Finally, possible solutions regarding the improvement of information literacy and of Wikipedia usage among the upper secondary school pupils are discussed.
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