Information-seeking behavior of academic library users

Abstract

Today, information has become the least needed in everyday life. For anything and everything, information is required. Information can be gathered from a variety of sources. Libraries serve as a center for always providing the right information to the right people. User studies are to be recognized as an important part of the information packages. Information providers such as libraries need to be aware of their information-seeking methods so that they might be able to provide better library services. This paper studies the information-seeking behavior of university and college library users in the university libraries and College libraries in Maharashtra state. The respondents are postgraduate students, research scholars, and staff members. Data has been collected from a sample of 900 respondents. The major objectives of the present study are to identify the library users, their need for information, their frequency of visits, the amount of time they spent in the library, their usage of formal information sources, and their usage of e-resources. The significance of the study is to analyze and evaluate facts and facets pertaining to the Information Seeking Behavior of iwomen students, scholars, andfaculty members in the university libraries in Maharashtra. The study reveals that the majority of PG students and research scholars refer to e-resources to update their general knowledge as well as current information about their subjects.