?Jag är hemlös, inte lealös?
En undersökning om hemlösas informationsbehov
The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study the information needs of the homeless. The main focus is to investigate what kind of information needs that are to be found among the homeless and also how information is exchanged and shared by the group. Another aspect of our study includes the sources that are used to fulfil these information needs. The homeless use of the library, as one of these sources, is also examined. The empirical material was gathered through 8 qualitative interviews with homeless persons in two Swedish cities. The literature review covers material deriving from the library and information science field as well as sociological studies of homelessness. In the analysis we have in part used the theoretical concepts Social Network Analysis and Theory of Information Poverty as well as our own empirical material in order to add another perspective to our results. Findings from the study show that homeless people prefer to exchange information with their friends rather than authorities, although many of them also find help-organisations valuable. The main information needs stated by the informants are life necessities such as food and shelter. Other results confirm that the homeless who use the library have a positive view towards it and mostly take use of the libraries resources in a quite traditional way.