Production of academic texts such as Bachelor theses is here seen as an activity embedded in the academic discipline in which the texts are produced. Bibliographic references in student theses are analysed in order to identify disciplinary differences in information seeking and use. According to an emerging socio-cultural perspective on information literacy, education in information seeking should pay careful attention to disciplinary traits. The purpose of the present study is to lay a foundation for a discussion about different student categories’ ways of using information. The questions asked are: how do reference activities vary between product design engineering students and nursing students; to what extent do the students refer to information sources; and what kind of sources do they refer to? The results show that nursing students predominantly use scientific information, such as peer-reviewed articles, whilst writing their theses. Product design engineering students, on the other hand, favour information found on the web, such as product and company-information. The article concludes by recommending that information-literacy education take disciplinary traits into careful consideration.