As a land, sea, and space-grant institution, Louisiana State University and A&M College (LSU) has a responsibility to acknowledge, honor, and affirm Indigenous culture, history, and experiences. LSU is a community of higher learning built upon the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous peoples. LSU recognizes the communities native to this region including the Caddo Adai Indians of Louisiana, Biloxi Chitimacha Confederation, Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, Choctaw Nation, Coushatta Tribe, Four Winds Cherokee Tribe, Muscogee (Creek), Point au Chien Tribe, Tunica Biloxi Tribe, United Houma Nation, and others whose memories may have been erased by violence, displacement, migration, and settlement. As a University, we thank them for their strength and resilience as stewards of this land and are committed to creating and maintaining a living and learning environment that embraces individual difference, including the Indigenous peoples of our region.
Information behavior is defined as, “The totality of human behavior in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information seeking and information use,” (Wilson, 2000, p. 249). In other words, information behavior is how people, usually of a specific demographic, search for, respond to, and engage with certain information.
Though libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions are striving to become more accessible, these institutions can be intimidating to those who have historically had trouble with accessing the information that they seek. For cultural heritage institutions to become more inclusive and accessible, they must understand the information needs of those who have not been accommodated in the past. Specifically, researching the information seeking behavior and information needs of the LGBTQIA+ community can better equip libraries and their staff to be as welcoming and accessible as possible. Furthermore, by understanding the information behavior of the LGBTQIA+ community, specifically younger members of the community, cultural heritage institutions can become more accessible and as prepared as possible to meet their users' needs.
Choose Key Words
Using key words help narrow your search. Using key words related to LGBTQ+ youth information behavior will help yield useful results. Examples of such keywords can be found below.
Subject Headings
You can use subject headings, which are like specific labels that identifies the subject of a material, in order to find relevant materials. You can find a list of subject headings on the Library of Congress website or choose from the following list: