Bókasafnið - 01.06.2011, Side 39

39
bókasafnið 35. árg. 2011
material consists of interviews with eight individuals and of
one participant observation which was conducted in a health
center for CAM.
The findings of this study indicate that, in the beginning,
the main motivations for seeking information on CAM was
the need for solving health issues and/or a strong interest in
theories and methods applied in CAM. Originally participants
mainly encountered information on CAM by accident, either
in conversations with friends and relatives or in the media.
These encounters led 7 of 8 participants to complete studies
in diverse health treatments and to begin practicing alterna-
tive medicine. After the participants began practicing CAM
the nature of their information seeking became increasingly
goal oriented with practical information regarding their oc-
cupation as the main objective. Their principal information
sources were personal experience of the effects of divers
healing methods, conversations with colleagues and the
Internet, as well as books, courses and lectures. Participants
had little or no experience of information seeking in libraries
or in electronic databases.
The information sharing of participants took place in rela-
tion to their practice of CAM. The aim of their information
sharing was patient consultation and promotion of CAM.
The majority of the participants had experienced harsh cri-
ticism among the general public, medical doctors and nurses
concerning their use and practice of CAM. As a consequence
participants were cautious when discussing these topics.
For example, they generally avoided to bring up matters
concerning CAM when they consulted health professionals.
On the whole participants had a strong penchant for const-
ricting information seeking and information sharing to those
initiated in the theories and use of CAM.
It is important to bear in mind that this study reports only
the experience and opinions of a limited number of individu-
als. Therefore it is inadvisable to make general assumptions
based on this study.
Heimildaskrá
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Myndskreytingar með þessari grein eru sóttar í Flóru
Íslands eftir Stefán Stefánsson, 2. útg., Kaupmannahöfn 1924.