Young women choosing contraceptives: stories about information literacy practices related to evaluation and use of information sources

Results from a PhD project of information literacy practices in a Swedish everyday life setting are presented; how young women (aged 18-23 years) involve in information literacy practices when choosing a contraceptive. The aim of this article is to understand the young women’s perspective, expressed in stories about their sources and how they evaluated these before making the choice.
Method inspired by narrative interviews was used in combination with visual aids. Findings of previous relevant studies that included interviews and observations at youth centres are also drawn upon. The material was analyzed with the analytical concepts of tools, affordances, cognitive authority, and approaches to credibility assessment.
It was found that the most important affordances, according to the young women, were close relations, attributed authority through trust. Furthermore, the most useful affordances, according to the young women, were midwives and youth centres, authority based on their professional training. Control and balance were the used approaches to credibility assessment.
The association between the midwives and the state is discussed as well as the varying understanding of the tools of source criticism vocabulary. Finally, the predominant understanding of information literacy practices as related to texts only and implied causal relations between information literacy skills and actions are critically examined.