Item
Information Seeking Behavior of Academic Scientists
- Author
- Bradley M. Hemminger, Dihui Lu, K.T.L. Vaughan and Stephanie J. Adams
- Year
- 2006
- Publisher
- JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 58(14):2205–2225, 2007
- Abstract
- The information seeking behavior of academic scientistsis being transformed by the availability of electronicresources for searching, retrieving, and reading scholarlymaterials. A census survey was conducted of academicscience researchers at the University of North Carolina atChapel Hill to capture their current information seekingbehavior. Nine hundred two subjects (26%) completedresponses to a 15-minute Web-based survey. The surveyquestions were designed to quantify the transition toelectronic communications and how this affects differentaspects of information seeking. Significant changes ininformation seeking behavior were found, includingincreased reliance on web based resources, fewer visitsto the library, and almost entirely electronic communica-tion of information. The results can guide libraries andother information service organizations as they adapt tomeet the needs of today’s information searchers. Simpledescriptive statistics are reported for the individual ques-tions. Additionally, analysis of results is broken out bybasic science and medical science departments. The survey tool and protocol used in this study have been adopted for use in a nationwide survey of the information-seeking behavior of academic scientists