Information seeking behaviour in digital environment: a study of the social scientists of Manipur

Abstract

Users have their own purposes for the need for information. In order to satisfy these needs they actively undergo the process of information seeking. The attempt of the user in obtaining the needed information has been resulted from the recognition of some need, perceived by the user. Information seeking behaviour is mainly concerned with who needs what kind of information and for what reasons, how information is found, evaluated and used, and how their needs can be identified and satisfied. It is a process in which the users purposefully search for information by identifying, searching, selecting, interacting and analysing with the appropriate sources of information. Social sciences constitute a major component of the existing universe of knowledge. Scientists who are engaged in different branches of social sciences, can, loosely, be taken into consideration as the social scientists. They constitute one of the biggest components of the user communities who accumulate process and analyse, retrieve and disseminate information in the field. As a group of information users the social scientists have their own nature and purpose of information needs. To meet their varied and complex information needs, also they undergo a number of strategies and activities in the process of seeking the right information in different environment. Their information needs have to be satisfied by the libraries, information centres, systems, etc. through their services and other facilities. In today s digital era, ICT-based services play an important role in serving the needs of the users. They can be benefited in many ways from the newly emerged digital environment. A new shift in the information seeking behaviour of the social scientists has also been observing since last few decades. They are found to use different e-resources through various modes. Use of internet by them, since recent past, has become a common phenomenon in the process of seeking for web-based resources.