Information Seeking And Research Behaviour In Digital Environment

Abstract

newlineResearcher or a student, anyone who need information have their own, different newline purposes behind it. And in order to fulfill their information requirements, they follow newline a defined sequence of steps that eventaully constitute information seeking. This newline particular behavior involves the understanding of people who need certain newline information, what type of information and what is the purpose behind this need and newline eventually how this much needed information is found. It also looks at how this newline information is evaluated , used for their defined purposes. It is observed that newline information seeking is carried out purposefully by users which involves stages like newline searching, selecting, evaluating and finally meeting their needs. newline Libraries and information centers strive hard to meet the information needs of their newline clientele. Libraries always feel that it is their obligation to satisfy the research and newline other information needs of their usesrs through quality information support services. newline In this age of internet, the web based library services play a defining role in newline effectively providing information to their users. newline The dynamics of web based environment provides multiple platforms and ways to newline seek information. With increase in integration of ICT in libraries, the higher education newline has witnessed a paradigm shift in the research and information seeking behaviour in newline the social science discipline. It is observed that researchers tend to use a variety of newline information products in various digital formats and do so in multiple ways. Extensive newline use of internet by social science researchers has grown to become a remarkable newline phenomenon that has changed the dynamics of information seeking process itself. newline This study explores the information seeking and research behavior of scholars in newline social sciences in digital environment and tries to investigate questions like how newline researchers seek information both on-line and offline, understand how scholars search newline for and use digital content for research, understand the emerging research behavior newline xiii newline trends across the main subjects in social sciences, use emergent technologies of newline internet for information seeking and research collaboration process. newline The study examines the trend in the research behavior (collaborating, sharing and newline dissemination) among scholars and seeks to understand it in detail. It also examines newline as to what is the extent of awareness and use of emergent Internet tools for research newline collaboration. newline Present study utilizes a combination of literature review, questionnaire survey, focus newline group discussions and interviews for data collection. Study populations are research newline scholars from three social science institutes in Mumbai, namely TISS, IGIDR and newline IIPS. This study gains significance because the findings can influence the policies of newline all stakeholders in the information industry like: Researchers, Libraries, newline Institutes/Universities, Funding agencies and also commercial research information newline providers like publishers, aggregators. newline Key Words: Information Seeking , Research Behaviour, Capacity Building- newline Researchers, Digital Environment-Research, Social Sciences Researc