• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.30-48
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• 2016

Information seeking behaviour is an activity of an individual in the process of identifying information that suits his/her knowledge pursuit. It is observed from the review of literature that there is no single study on the information seeking behaviour of faculties of pharmacy either at state level or national levels in India. Therefore this research has been conducted to bridge the gap on information seeking behaviour of pharmacy faculty in Tamil Nadu in view of the recent developments in information seeking behaviour, with objectives such as: to identify the information needs and seeking behaviour of faculty of the pharmacy educational institutions in Tamil Nadu (India); to examine the motivating factors for information seeking behaviour of the pharmacy faculty; to examine faculty opinions about the comprehensiveness or otherwise of respective institutions' library collections; and to analyse the extent of use and dependence on various sources of information for teaching and research. A total of 729 questionnaires have been distributed among 41 pharmacy educational institutions in Tamil Nadu, out of which 601 have responded, and the response rate is 82.44%. Based on the findings of the study certain implications have been derived as measures to enhance the quality of the pharmacy libraries in Tamil Nadu.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.18-31
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• 2020

Cognitive biases can influence human information behaviour and decisions made in information behaviour and use. This study aims to identify the biases involved in some aspects of information behaviour and the role they play in information behaviour and use. Twenty-five semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted in an exploratory qualitative study with graduate (MA and PhD) students who were at the stage of their dissertation/thesis research. Eisenberg & Berkowitz Big6^TM Skills for Information Literacy was adopted as a framework for interviews and the analysis was done using grounded theory coding method. The findings revealed the presence of twenty-eight biases in different stages of information behaviour, including availability bias (affects the preference for information seeking strategies), attentional bias (leads to biased attention to some information), anchoring effect (persuades users to anchor in special parts of information), confirmation bias (increases the tendency to use information that supports one's beliefs), and choice-supportive bias (results in confidence in information seeking processes). All stages of information seeking were influenced by some biases. Biases might result in a lack of clarity in defining the information needs, failure in looking for the right information, misinterpretation of information, and might also influence the way information is presented.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.7-18
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• 2019

The main objective of the study is to find out the level of information-seeking behaviour of auto mechanics working at Siwdu and its impact on the work they do. Two methods of data collection instruments were used; these included a questionnaire and interview schedule. The researchers personally administered fifty-three questionnaires of which forty-eight completed ones were received. Twelve (12) people were interviewed at their respective workshops. The respondents were registered members of Siwdu Auto Mechanic Association and the total number of sixty respondents used represented 20% of total number of members. Quantitative data obtained mainly from the questionnaire were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20. Responses for the interview were analysed thematically. Some of the major findings are as follows: The majority of the respondents did not know how to get information from the library; some of the respondents preferred consulting their "Masters" for help; majority of the respondents had Android phones but did not know how to access relevant information; respondents were aware of the benefits of authentic information; and respondents recommended that Management of libraries should organise seminars and workshops for auto mechanics to enable them know how and where to access information. Information is needed by everybody to enhance efficiency therefore creating the awareness of the sources of information is a way of increasing productivity. Knowing the level of information-seeking behaviour of people in every manner of job is essential in the nation's human resource development.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2017

Nowadays the enormous growth of modern information communication technologies and its massive use have influenced information users all over the world. Such a digital environment has drastically changed the information seeking patterns of information users of every community. These also tend law students to use various legal information sources and services in digital environments while seeking information. But there have been few empirical user studies on the aspect of digital information seeking behaviours of law students in either law or library and information science literatures. This paper aims to draw out patterns of information seeking behavior of students of law in digital environments at the University of Dhaka. A stratified random sample survey was conducted for this study. The results show that students prefer the electronic format of information rather than printed format. Major e-resources used by them and the influential factors of use were also identified in this study. This study also identified some crucial problems for seeking information and provides suggestions for the development of electronic legal information systems.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.182-192
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• 2022

All the aspects of human life have been affected by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). It has rapidly spread in most countries including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a result, early precautionary actions aiming to minimise the virus effect are taken by the Saudi government. One of these actions is the sudden shift to online classes and suspending the attendees to all educational institutes. Such immediate change can have a significant effect on the educational process, especially for students. One can argue that students' information-seeking behaviour within the current situation can affect their learning quality and outcomes. Therefore, this paper examines the Saudi students' information-seeking behaviour by taking a sample of students from Umm Al-Qura University. A descriptive analysis is conducted with 193 students and two approaches are used to collect data, questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The results showed that the majority of students face difficulties when searching and retrieving e-resources from the university library website. The problems range from mainly poor User Experience (UX), network connection, multiple errors and lack of subscription with academic publishers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2231-2238
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• 2014

This study investigated how self-rated health and socioeconomic status are associated with behaviour of cancer survivors regarding desire for information. For this association, we compared survivors who did not seek information about cancer with those who did. We examined how sociodemographic, socioeconomic, cancerrelated, and health information factors are associated with self-rated health (SRH) by health information seeking/avoiding behavior in a survey of 502 post-treatment cancer patients. In the information seeking group, all four factors exhibited significant relationships with SRH. SRH values were significantly high for women (p<0.05), non-Hispanic White (p<0.05), and educated (p<0.01) participants, and for those who had high self-efficacy to use health information by themselves (p<0.01). Furthermore, in the information avoiding group, not only were there no significant relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and SRH, but there were negative associations between their attitude/capacity and the SRH. In terms of communication equity, the promotion of information seeking behavior can be an effective way to reduce health disparities that are caused by social inequalities. Information avoiding behavior, however, does not exhibit a negative contribution toward the relationship between SRH and SES. Information seeking behavior was positively associated with SRH, but avoiding behavior was not negatively associated. We thus need to eliminate communication inequalities using health intervention to support information seeking behavior, while simultaneously providing support for avoiders.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.23-37
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• 2014

The Trust and Authority in Scholarly Communications in the Light of the Digital Transition research project1) was a study which investigated the behaviours and attitudes of academic researchers as producers and consumers of scholarly information resources in respect to how they determine authority and trustworthiness. The research questions for the study arose out of CIBER's studies of the virtual scholar. This paper focuses on elements of this study, mainly an analysis of a scholarly publisher's usage logs, which was undertaken at the start of the project in order to build an evidence base, which would help calibrate the main methodological tools used by the project: interviews and questionnaire. The specific purpose of the log study was to identify and assess the digital usage behaviours that potentially raise trustworthiness and authority questions. Results from the self-report part of the study were additionally used to explain the logs. The main findings were that: 1) logs provide a good indicator of use and information seeking behaviour, albeit in respect to just a part of the information seeking journey; 2) the 'lite' form of information seeking behaviour observed in the logs is a sign of users trying to make their mind up in the face of a tsunami of information as to what is relevant and to be trusted; 3) Google and Google Scholar are the discovery platforms of choice for academic researchers, which partly points to the fact that they are influenced in what they use and read by ease of access; 4) usage is not a suitable proxy for quality. The paper also provides contextual data from CIBER's previous studies.

• Journal of the Regional Association of Architectural Institute of Korea
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.123-130
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• 2006

This paper discusses issues faced by individual building industry clients. These form the majority of clients but, because they do not possess high purchasing power, they attract less attention in the industry. Given that key decisions on project definition and procurement strategy are made at the pre-project stage, the industry would benefit from knowing relevant aspects of its clients' attitudes and behaviors, so that it can support them. There is a lack of research on this subject, and so we first describe a theoretical framework and research methodology that were developed for this specific group of clients. Theory adopted from consumer behavioral research was introduced to develop a general behavioral model of individual clients. In this model, individual clients are assumed to seek and then process information after acknowledging normative activities. To validate our model, a field survey was conducted using randomly selected individual clients. Their opinions on the importance and difficulty of 12 normative activities were analysed to establish a general attitude. Information seeking behaviour was investigated by measuring the frequency and type of source that they contacted to conduct the normative activities. The attitudes and information seeking behaviour presented in this research will contribute to the development of project tools for supporting these clients.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.25-43
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• 2015

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the information needs and information seeking behavior of foreign students. A survey method was used for the undertaken study. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire, self-administered to 120 foreign students (60 males & 60 females) with 88 (47 males & 41 females) returns. The research is limited to post-graduate, M.Phil. and Ph.D. foreign students in University of Delhi. It was found that post-graduate students need information regarding their program of study while research scholars need information for writing research articles and for doing their research work. Most of them seek information through the internet. Research scholars used electronic resources such as databases, e-journals and e-theses and dissertations. 88.6% of the respondents also use books for seeking information. Their use of the library is limited with complaints about library staff and too few computer terminals. The present study will be helpful in designing new systems and services for the foreign students so that their information needs can be fulfilled easily. Further, findings of the study indicate that how the library professionals should assist foreign students to accomplish their information needs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6249-6254
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• 2015

Targeting breast cancer awareness along with comprehensive cancer care is appropriate in low and middle income countries like India, where there are no organized and affordable screening services. It is essential to identify the existing awareness about breast cancer in the community prior to launching an organized effort. This study assessed the existing awareness about breast cancer amongst women and their health seeking practices in an urban community in Mumbai, India. A postal survey was undertaken with low or no cost options for returning the completed questionnaires. The majority of the women were aware about cancer but awareness about symptoms and signs was poor. Women were willing to accept more information about cancer and those with higher awareness scores were more likely to seek medical help. They were also more likely to have undergone breast examination in the past and less likely to use alternative medicines. High income was associated with better awareness but this did not translate into better health seeking behaviour. Organized programmes giving detailed information about breast cancer and its symptoms are needed and women from all income categories need to be encouraged for positive change towards health seeking. Further detailed studies regarding barriers to health seeking in India are necessary.