The Impact on University Libraries of Changes in Information Behavior Among Academic Researchers: A Multiple Case Study

To better understand the information needs of young university researchers, an observational study was performed at three universities in Stockholm, Sweden. The observations revealed that most of the researchers used Google for everything, that they were confident that they could manage on their own, and that they relied heavily on immediate access to electronic information. They had very little contact with the library, and little knowledge about the value librarian competence could add. One important conclusion of the project is that librarians have to leave the library building and start working in the research environment, as well as putting some thought into the fact that library use is considered complicated, but Google (etc.) is easy. The findings of this project will influence changes in library services in both near and in a more distant future.