A Survey of Information Seeking-Behavior of Academic Staff in a Nigerian University in Digital Age

Abstract

The paper surveys the patterns of information-seeking behavior of academic staff in Nigeria in the emerging electronic information environment. Academic staff in Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt, Nigeria were used as respondents in the survey. Questionnaire survey was used as research method for data collection. The findings of the study have shown that, the information-seeking behavior of academic staff in RSUST is in favor of electronic information sources on the Internet, as the Internet was the most frequently used information source (31.59%), closely followed by personal contacts/collections 23.98%, workshop/conferences/seminars (23.72%) than the traditional library (20.71%). The paper recommends that, the librarians, university managements, the governments etc. must respond proactively to meet the changing information-seeking behavior of academic staff through effective development of electronic information sources – the Internet and virtual libraries in Nigerian universities for efficiency in research and sustainable national development.