Abstract
Purpose: There is ample evidence that students and teachers often seek academic information using participatory online social sites (POSS). The purpose of this study is to explore the intent of social information seeking (SIS) among library & information science research students in Pakistan. The study also attempts to examine the relationship between change in information behaviour and information retrieval strategies while seeking information from online social spaces. The influence of online collaboration in the use of social media was also examined. Methodology: Quantitative research method was used to conduct this study. Data was collected from 123 research (MPhil & PhD) students currently enrolled in seven postgraduate library schools in Pakistan. The data was gathered using survey questionnaire (using 5-point Likert scale items), administered both in print format and online through Google Form. SPSS version 19 was used to analyse the data. Findings: Major findings of this study were that there is a strong positive correlation between SIS and change in the overall information behaviour of research students. Majority of participants responded that social websites help in reshaping the information behaviour in a collaborative environment thus contributing to upsurge the SIS practices among research students. The study also found that LIS research scholars in Pakistan prefer to consult interactive websites more than social media spaces for academic information. Gender has been an influencing variable in SIS practices, however, time spent and frequency of using POSS does not affect one’s SIS practices. Originality: Social Information helps people to connect with each other and is comparatively a new concept in the field of Information Seeking Behaviour. This is the first study on SIS with respect to LIS research students in Pakistan.
Highlights
Social information has been the part of library and information science field since 1975 [1], the trends have been shifting from fundamental social theories to social aspect of information and communication technologies
Test) that there is not enough evidence to suggest an association between amount of time spent on social media and social information seeking practice of the research students
There are five elements that must be in place for social information seeking (SIS) to occur and this study attempted to investigate all these elements individually in the Pakistani LIS graduates to assess their level of understanding and practice of SIS especially for research and academics
Summary
Social information has been the part of library and information science field since 1975 [1], the trends have been shifting from fundamental social theories to social aspect of information and communication technologies. The social information seeking (SIS) has emerged as field of study which focuses information from the user perspective and from the perspective of social context and contents of social information. Social Information Seeking (SIS) in simple words refer to the communication and interaction (that mostly take place in the online environment between people) that influences human information seeking behaviour. It “involves studying situations, motivations and methods for people seeking and sharing information in participatory online social sites, such as Yahoo! It “involves studying situations, motivations and methods for people seeking and sharing information in participatory online social sites, such as Yahoo! Answers, Answerbag, WikiAnswers and Twitter as well as building systems for supporting such activities” [2]
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