Use of Information by the Clergy: a State of the Issuet

Abstract

This paper aims to review methodological purposes published in prior research papers regarding information use by the Clergy. Connections among outputs delivered in prior research are described with hindsight in this paper. Firstly, research in this field was conducted to gather statistical evidence about the Clergy’s reading habits. Subsequently, researchers were interested in identifying the significance of information in the Clergy’s roles, such as: preaching, conducting services, counseling, caregiving and teaching. Currently, research has been conducted to approach the Clergy’s information behavior in the digital environment. This paper is the result of documentation research employing retrospective analysis about published papers to identify the impact of these outputs on further investigations. The Clergy as a collective has been barely subject of study by librarians and information professionals. It is therefore one of this paper’s most findings that the most of research has been made in US and Canada. Few researchers are from Latin America and the Caribbean. This Is contradictory to religious tradition that runs very deep in this region. LIS Researchers have been interested in certain Clergy’s role such as: preaching or teaching, focused particularly on information resources to prepare for ordination to the priesthood. Finally, this paper concluded that there are fields for LIS research, such as counseling and information use, identifying information used by the Clergy when they are evangelizing people during conversion for instance. Moreover, another new topic for research would be the Clergy’s work with vulnerable groups, especially regarding oral information passed among community.