In order to establish the ‘conceptual bridges’ referred to by Stake it is necessary to determine the current state of knowledge within your topic area. If you think of your research as a grand adventure, then the literature review is the runway to that grand adventure, it is the thing that gets you off the ground and ready to fly. The literature review is an adventure in itself; discovering what is already known about a particular topic, sometimes from within a number of different disciplines, and bringing it together, often for the first time. This means exploring your topic both within your own academic discipline and across discipline and across disciplines. For example if you were interested in how young people interact with information you may find yourselves exploring the literature information science, communication, education, psychology and sociology. It is the topic that drives the investigation and that means sometimes having to look outside the obvious to determine the state of knowledge. A literature review is a ‘runway’ because it should.