Open Access
Subscription Access
Open Access
Subscription Access
Information Seeking Behaviour of Learner in an Open University Libraries:Issues and Challenges
Subscribe/Renew Journal
Information Seeking is the process or activity of attempting to obtain information in both human and technological contexts. Information seeking is related to, but yet different from, information retrieval (IR). Much library and information science research is focused on the information seeking practices of practitioners in various fields of professional work. Studies have been carried out on the information seeking behaviour of librarians, academics, medical professionals, engineers and lawyers. Much of this research has been drawn on the work done by Leckw, Petttigrew and Sylvain, who in 1996 conducted an extensive review of the library and information science literature on information seeking behavior of professionals. Some experts report on a study concerned with understanding people‟s adaptation to new information searching environments. The experts have investigated how people with varying degrees of familiarity with information retrieval systems and varying models of information retrieval processes, interacted in an information retrieval system which did not support exact match retrieval with structured queries, but which did support best match ranked output retrieval with unstructured queries and automatic relevance feedback. The results include a classification of normal information retrieval strategies, the description of several adaptation strategies and the relationships between type and strength of people‟s mental models of information retrieval and their searching behaviours in the new information retrieval context.
Keywords
Information, Information Seeking, Search Engines, Open Universities, Open University Libraries.
User
About The Authors
Information
- Abels (E). Information seekers' perspectives of libraries and librarians. Advances in Librarianship. Vol. 28; 2004; p151-170.
- Asemi (A). Information searching habits of Internet users: A case study on the Medical Sciences University of Isfahan, Iran. Webology. Vol. 2(1); 2005. Article 10. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2005/v2n1/a10.html
- Brown (C M). Information seeking behaviour of scientists in the electronic information age: Astronomers, chemists, mathematicians, and physicists. Journal of the American Society for Information Science. Vol. 50(10); 1999; p929-943.
- Challener (J). Information seeking behavior of professors of art history and studio art. Master Dissertation, School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University, 1999. Retrieved September, 5, 2005,
- Jeevan (V K J). Electronic information services: are we turning away users or are they by passing libraries. Herald of Library Science. Vol. 41(1-2); Jan-Apr 2002; p16-26.
- Leckie (G J); Pettigrew (K E); Sylvain (C). Modeling the information seeking of professionals: A general model derived from research on engineers, health care professionals, and lawyers. Library Quarterly. Vol. Vol. 66(2); 1996; p161-193.
- Shokeen (A); Kushik (S K).. Information seeking behaviour of social scientists of Haryana universities. Library Herald. Vol. 40(1); 2002; p8-11.
- Suriya (M); Sangeetha (G); Nambi (M A). Information-seeking behaviour of faculty members from government arts colleges in cuddalore district. In: Kaul, H.K. & Patil, S.K. (Eds), Library and information Networking (NACLIN 2004). New Delhi, 2004, p285-292.
- Wales (T). Practice makes perfect? Vets‟ information seeking behaviour and information use explored. Aslib Proceedings. Vol. 52(7); 2000; p235-246.
- Wilson (T D). Human information behavior. Informing Sciences. Vol. 3(2); 2000; p49-55.
Abstract Views: 393
PDF Views: 16