Peer relationships and information sharing between LIS doctoral students

Abstract

ABSTRACTDoctoral students rely on their peers as important information sources. However, information behavior studies in academic settings most often describe peers as intermediaries who simply assist individuals’ information seeking for academic resources. To address this issue, the authors interviewed six LIS doctoral students at Florida State University in order to explore the types of peer relationships and information sharing between LIS doctoral students. The preliminary findings confirmed the existence of close, social/academic, and other peers that can be categorized as special, collegial, and information peers using Kram and Isabella's continuum of peer relationships. In addition, it was found that work‐related and everyday life information is shared in all three types of peer relationships, while relational strength influences the scope and depth of information sharing. Future work will investigate the role of peers as mentors and agents of socialization in academic settings, and will further address the types of information shared as part of such mentoring relationships.