National study of information seeking behavior of academic researchers in the United States

  • Authors:

  • Xi Niu;Bradley M. Hemminger;Cory Lown;Stephanie Adams;Cecelia Brown;Allison Level;Merinda McLure;Audrey Powers;Michele R. Tennant;Tara Cataldo

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360;School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360;NC State Library, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7111;School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360;School of Library and Information Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019;Colorado State University Libraries, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019;Colorado State University Libraries, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019;Tampa Library, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5400;Health Science Center Libraries and UF Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0206;Martson Science Library, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7011

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

As new technologies and information delivery systems emerge, the way in which individuals search for information to support research, teaching, and creative activities is changing. To understand different aspects of researchers' information-seeking behavior, this article surveyed 2,063 academic researchers in natural science, engineering, and medical science from five research universities in the United States. A Web-based, in-depth questionnaire was designed to quantify researchers' information searching, information use, and information storage behaviors. Descriptive statistics are reported. Additionally, analysis of results is broken out by institutions to compare differences among universities. Significant findings are reported, with the biggest changes because of increased utilization of electronic methods for searching, sharing, and storing scholarly content, as well as for utilizing library services. Generally speaking, researchers in the five universities had similar information-seeking behavior, with small differences because of varying academic unit structures and myriad library services provided at the individual institutions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.