Kuhlthau, C. C. ( 2004). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. 2nd edition, Westport CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Seeking Meaning was first published in 1993. It has since become a widely used professional resource and required reading in library and information science schools in the United States and abroad. This book offers essential knowledge for anyone providing library and information services.

Library and information services for intellectual access“ the interpretation of information and ideas within sources-and the process of seeking meaning are detailed. Presented is a theoretical framework for a process approach to library and information services, which was developed in a series of studies of the Information Search Process of users. The framework has helped to illuminate the user’s perspective of information seeking, and has offered insights into pressing problems of seeking meaning in an overabundance of information.

The second edition incorporates the original research and series of studies that underlie the model of the Information Search Process, including the articulation of an uncertainty principle for library and information services and the concept of a zone of intervention for implementing a process approach. New chapters reflect the authors studies and ideas in the ten years since the previous publication. Also described are recent studies on the implementation of a process approach to library and information services in education; an investigation of these concepts in the workplace; and a treatment of systems and systems design. A summary of the conceptual perspective and the development of process-oriented services and systems that enable the constructive process of users seeking meaning, with recommendations for further research, make this important contribution an essential text to understand the seeking of meaning through information.

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K. & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. Westport CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Noted researcher Kuhlthau has teamed up with a curriculum specialist and a museum educator and to create this foundational text on Guided Inquiry, a dynamic, integrated approach to teaching curriculum content, information literacy, and strategies for learning. Grounded in Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process and built on solid professional practice, this innovative team approach inspires students to gain deeper understandings and higher order thinking using the rich resources of the school library, the community and the wider world. This book provides the vital tools for educators to create collaborative environments where students experience school learning and real life meshed in integral ways – learning in the 21st century.