Information-seeking behavior of health sciences faculty: the impact of new information technologies.
This paper reports on an ongoing investigation into health sciences faculty's information-seeking behavior, including their use of new information technologies. A survey was administered to all faculty in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was similar to one administered to the same population in 1991. The survey asked about faculty's use of electronic resources, documented any shift from the use of print to electronic formats, and measured the utilization of library training. The response rate was 48.5% for medicine faculty, 45.0% for nursing, and 62.5% for pharmacy. The study found that use of the print Index Medicus among faculty was in transition: While 30.5% continued to use the print resources, 68.0% of faculty accessed MEDLINE through electronic means. Faculty preferred accessing electronic databases from their offices to doing so from the library. Health sciences faculty used a wide variety of databases, in addition to MEDLINE, to fill their information needs. Most faculty did not take advantage of either in-house or electronic training sessions offered by librarians. The study concluded that the training preferences of faculty need to be further explored.
Curtis
K L
KL
Library of the Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago 60612, USA.
Weller
A C
AC
Hurd
J M
JM
D016251:CD-ROM / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003200:Computer User Training; D003625:Data Collection; D005178:Faculty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016240:Grateful Med / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007087:Illinois; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016239:MEDLINE / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009862:Online Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires