‘Helping people with literally everything under the sun.' : Exploring the work and information behaviours of constituency caseworkers

Introduction. This study explores the work conducted by constituency caseworkers in Scotland with a focus on their information behaviours. Caseworkers act as information intermediaries, finding and sharing information with constituents on behalf of elected political representatives. As yet they have not received much examination in information science. Method. 20 constituency caseworkers across Scotland were interviewed. In semi- structured interviews, participants discussed their role and responsibilities, revealing a variety of different information behaviours. Analysis. Interviews were transcribed then subjected to thematic analysis, identifying and categorizing recurring phenomena. Results. Findings showcase caseworkers’ role as information intermediaries with a wide range of information behaviours. These include information elicitation, information tailoring, and information signposting. Networking was also found to be crucial to the role to keep informed and find critical information for clients. Conclusion. Gaining a deeper understanding of unexplored information intermediaries contributes to the information behaviour field as well as providing practical implications for governments to motivate greater support for caseworkers, who are given little training for their critical role.