Edinburgh Napier University

  Individuals’ cultural backgrounds influence their use of societal resources, including libraries. A literature search and review was completed on the treatment of culture in library and information science (LIS) in the body of work on information behaviour and use. While much of the literature reviewed cites culture as an important influence, few researchers define culture as a concept, nor do they explore in detail the factors that it comprises. In this body of work culture is primarily used in two ways: (1) to differentiate groups of library users; and (2) to draw attention to questions of integration.