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How public library policies, practices and services support the information needs of people experiencing homelessness was investigated using a qualitative-phenomenological design. Data were collected through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with four homeless participants and seven librarians from four public library networks from a particular New Zealand region. The findings revealed that while none of the participating libraries had policies or services that were targeted at homelessness individuals, the libraries were perceived as providing services that largely met the information needs of their homeless patrons even if there were areas for improvement. It was noted that libraries could provide services that contribute to the strengthening of cultural identity and that policies and services should take relevant socio-cultural contexts into consideration. The findings inform public library policies and practices so that services could be developed and improved in order to enable equitable and effective use by homeless individuals, without unnecessarily segregating this user group.

Information access to bibliographic metadata needs to be uncomplicated, as users may not benefit from complex and potentially richer data that may be difficult to obtain. Sophisticated research questions including complex aggregations could be answered with complex SQL queries. However, this comes with the cost of high complexity, which requires for a high level of expertise even for trained programmers. A domain-specific query language could provide a straightforward solution to this problem. Although less generic, it can support users not familiar with query construction in the formulation of complex information needs. In this paper, we present and evaluate SchenQL, a simple and applicable query language that is accompanied by a prototypical GUI. SchenQL focuses on querying bibliographic metadata using the vocabulary of domain experts. The easy-to-learn domain-specific query language is suitable for domain experts as well as casual users while still providing the possibility to answer complex information demands. Query construction and information exploration are supported by a prototypical GUI. We present an evaluation of the complete system: different variants for executing SchenQL queries are benchmarked; interviews with domain-experts and a bipartite quantitative user study demonstrate SchenQL’s suitability and high level of users’ acceptance.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to challenge librarians to reconceptualize their professional self-image and practice so that it more closely aligns with the information science discipline that is part of the Masters of Library and Information Science degree. Design/methodology/approach This column is primarily theoretical and philosophical but also draws on the author’s observations of trends and patterns in both librarianship and changes in information needs in recent years. Findings Urgent, high-cost information needs created by COVID-19 and climate change coexist in a reality where technological change has made traditional librarian roles and functions less critical. By developing their information science skills and strengthening their professional identity as information scientists, librarians have the opportunity to address the urgent information needs of the day while remaining highly relevant professionals. Practical implications Librarians will need to strengthen their science-related skills and knowledge and begin to promote themselves as information scientists. Social implications Librarians are in a position to make a meaningful contribution to two of the most pressing challenges of the day, climate change and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value This paper is relevant to all librarians at any stage of their career. It will help them to reflect on both their skillset and career path and to make any needed adjustments so that they can remain relevant in a volatile and demanding information environment.

PurposeThe purpose of this case study is to assess and compare the performance of an academic library, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on data collected from the library management system, usage reports of online databases, and monthly reports and archives to evaluate and assess library performance in managerial activities, collection development, collection treatment, collection circulation, usage of digital resources, quality control, reference services and information literacy activities. Frequency distributions and non-parametric tests were used in identifying differences and testing hypotheses.FindingsThe study found that library performance before the COVID-19 pandemic outperformed library performance during the pandemic in collection development, collection treatment, collection circulation, access and use of digital resources, quality control and information literacy. On the other hand, the library demonstrated higher performance in managerial activities and reference services during the COVID-19 pandemic than that of before the pandemic period. Interestingly, the analysis of the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test revealed statistically no significant difference in the library performance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results supported all the eight hypotheses stated in this study.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a case study based on data collected from an academic library in the UAE before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings may not be generalized and may differ if more data are analyzed from many academic libraries.Practical implicationsCOVID-19 pandemic is a turning point for library managers to increase the number of digital resources and services, to ensure that library staff are equipped with essential and up-to-date information and communication technology (ICT) skills and knowledge, to ensure that library users are equipped with essential and up-to-date information literacy skills and knowledge. These will enable them to satisfy users' information needs and ensure library operation in disasters and crisis periods.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies conducted in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to evaluate library performance before and during COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the study could be an important reference in understanding how libraries responded to COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East. The results of the study may contribute to the provision of digital resources and services during the pandemic and disasters in the UAE and the Arab world.

This study offers a critical review of selected studies. A point of departure is the focus on the methodology used and the related issue of whether the inferences drawn are justified by the methodologies used. This is thus meant to be potentially useful for researchers in the broad area of information –seeking behaviour of the users in a digital environment. Eleven studies were selected for a deeper understanding of their users’ information needs and information-seeking behaviour and to make suggestions on how to enhance the effectiveness of library services and their efficient utilisation. The libraries selected for the present study are diverse–college libraries, university libraries, public libraries and a Government Department library. Our review is based on the results obtained through critical study and examination of the literature with the main focus on the Information Seeking Behaviour of the users. There is a diverse range of libraries and users covered by these studies, and several interesting hypotheses could be statistically validated. Without statistical validation of hypotheses, the inferences lack robustness. This is a striking weakness of the extant literature-including the sample examined here. However, some constructive suggestions are made. These include a focus on special libraries, methodological extensions and refinements, and a broadening of the hypotheses and validation of inferences. We believe our review fulfils an important gap as scant attention is given to analytical rigour.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to assess the impact of personality traits and sense of coherence (SOC) on concealing information needs out of shame. The study also investigates the link between concealed information needs and the use of experiential information for psychological wellbeing.Design/methodology/approachA Partial Least Square ‐ Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach is used to assess and analyse the proposed conceptual model, which is based on the responses of 412 upper secondary school students.FindingsThe findings reveal that personality traits not only have direct significant effects on concealing information needs but that their effects are also mediated by SOC. The positive relationship between concealed information needs and the use of experiential information is confirmed in the study.Originality/valueThis study is the first to show that personality and SOC influence concealing information needs. Two pathways are found. Firstly, negative emotionality and a low SOC lead to a heightened sense of shame. Secondly, introversion induces a more guarded behaviour. The study, moreover, quantitatively demonstrates a link between concealed information needs and the use of experiential information for psychological wellbeing.

Forschungsdatenmanagement ist seit den ersten Anforderungen der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft 2015 zu einem Bestandteil guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis geworden. Hochschulen sind dadurch aufgefordert, Forschende bestmöglich zu unterstützen. Seit 2013 erfolgten deutschlandweit Umfragen, um Desiderate bei Infrastruktur- und Serviceleistungen zu ermitteln. Eine Evaluation der Bedarfsäußerungen fand bisher jedoch kaum statt. Der Artikel fasst Entwicklungen und Handlungsfelder auf Basis von zwei Bedarfserhebungen der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin zusammen., Research data management has become a part of good scientific practice since the first requirements of the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft were introduced in 2015. Universities are thus required to provide researchers with the best possible support. Since 2013, surveys have been conducted throughout Germany to identify desiderates in infrastructure and services. However, an evaluation of the needs has hardly taken place so far. The article summarises developments and issues-based on two needs surveys conducted at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Purpose Many search engines in digital libraries are restricted to the terms presented in users’ queries. When users cannot represent their information needs in terms of keywords in a query, the search engine fails to provide appropriate results. In addition, most search engines do not have the ability to visualize search results for users to help them in their information journey. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new approach for search result visualization in digital libraries. The visualization approach enables subject-based visualization of search results and search queries. Design/methodology/approach To enable subject-based visualization of search results in digital libraries, new subject-based document retrieval is proposed in which each document is represented as a vector of subjects as well. Then, using a vector space model for information retrieval, along with the subject-based vector, related documents to the user’s query are retrieved, whilst each document is visualized through a ring chart, showing the inherent subjects within each document and the query. Findings The proposed subject-based retrieval and visualization approach is evaluated from various perspectives to amplify the impact of the visualization approach from users’ opinions. Users have evaluated the performance of the proposed subject-based retrieval and search result visualization, whilst 67% of users prefer subject-based document retrieval and 80% of them believe that the proposed visualization approach is practical. Research limitations/implications This research has provided a subject-based representation scheme for search result visualization in a digital library. The implication of this research can be viewed from two perspectives. First, the subject-based retrieval approach provides an opportunity for the users to understand their information needs, beyond the explicit terms in the query, leading to results, which are semantically relevant to the query. Second, the simple subject-based visualization scheme, helps users to explore the results easily, whilst allowing them to build their knowledge experience. Originality/value A new vectorized subject-based representation of documents and queries is proposed. This representation determines the semantic and subject-based relationship between a given query and documents within a digital scientific library. In addition, it also provides a subject-based representation of the retrieved documents through which users can track the semantic relationship between the query and retrieve documents, visually.

Objective – Evidence based medical education requires supportive information services to facilitate access to the needed educational evidence. Information services designed specifically for evidence based medical education are limited or locally developed for educational units. For librarians to have an opportunity to cooperate efficiently with medical educators in evidence based medical education, they require an empirical prototype for transmission of clinical evidence at the right place and the right time. Therefore, there is a need to recognize types of information services which support evidence based medical education. The purpose of this review is to identify implementation trends of evidence based educational information services. Methods – We found related studies by implementing search strategies in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, LISTA, and Google Scholar with keywords like: evidence based medical education, information services, and library services. We used reference-checking and citation-checking of related articles for completing the process of locating relevant articles. After employing inclusion and exclusion criteria, we selected 11 articles for inclusion in the review and analyzed them using a narrative review technique. Results – After analyzing the results of the included studies, we identified two elements categorized as program development and five elements categorized as implementation trend. Prerequisites of program and the process of designing were essential parts of program development of information services. Schedule and type of access, how to receive educational-clinical questions, information services types, responding time, and providing evidence based outputs were the elements of the implementation process of educational supported information services. Conclusion – Designing an evidence based educational information service strongly depends on the information needs of learners at each educational level. Schedule and type of access to information service, time of responding to the received query, and preparation of evidence based output are essential factors in designing practical educational-developed information services.

As a mechanism to guide users towards a better representation of their information needs, the query reformulation method generates new queries based on users’ historical queries. To preserve the original search intent, query reformulations should be context-aware and should attempt to meet users’ personal information needs. The mainstream method aims to generate candidate queries first, according to their past frequencies, and then score (re-rank) these candidates based on the semantic consistency of terms, dependency among latent semantic topics and user preferences. We exploit embeddings (i.e. term, user and topic embeddings) to use contextual information and individual preferences more effectively to improve personalised query reformulation. Our work involves two major tasks. In the first task, candidate queries are generated from an original query by substituting or adding one term, and the contextual similarities between the terms are calculated based on the term embeddings and augmented with user personalisation. In the second task, the candidate queries generated in the first task are evaluated and scored (re-ranked) according to the consistency of the semantic meaning of the candidate query and the user preferences based on a graphical model with the term, user and topic embeddings. Experiments show that our proposed model yields significant improvements compared with the current state-of-the-art methods.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the characteristics, as well as the purpose and posts of the COVID-19 Facebook groups. Design/methodology/approach A systematic search for COVID-19 Facebook groups was conducted on June 1, 2020. Characteristics of the groups were examined using descriptive statistics. Mann-Whitney test was used to study the differences between groups. The study of the most popular groups’ posts was also carried out using the content analysis method. Findings The groups had a combined membership of 2,729,061 users. A total of 147,885 posts were received. There were about approximately 60% public groups. A high percentage of the groups (86.5%) had descriptions. The results showed a significant relationship between the groups’ description status and the number of members (p-value = 0.016). The majority of COVID-19 Facebook groups (56%) were created to meet their members’ information needs. The highest number of studied posts were related to vaccination (35.2%), followed by curfew rules (19.6%) and symptoms (10.6%). Originality/value Translating these insights into policies and practices will put policymakers and health-care providers in a stronger position to make better use of Facebook groups to support and enhance public knowledge about COVID-19.

PurposeTo better meet people's information needs under the public health crisis, this study explored the information needs and seeking behavior of college students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis research utilized a survey and the convenience snowball sampling method. A sample of 400 college students was obtained.FindingsThe results revealed that college students have paid great attention to COVID-19-related information. They sought the information mainly for personal protection, obtaining the latest information and seeking information for family and friends. Their COVID-19-related information needs were diverse; at different stages, the concerns were different. Social media and mass media were both found to be the most useful tools for seeking COVID-19 information. Too much repetitive information, unclear authoritative and reliable informational sources, and difficulties in judging the authenticity of the information were the most common obstacles for them in information seeking. Nevertheless, the majority of the students agreed that they were very satisfied and somewhat satisfied with the current information services. This did not affect the students' understanding of the importance of health services provided by libraries.Originality/valueInsights into the people's information needs and information-seeking behavior of this study could help the information providers to offer appropriate information in better ways to improve the public's virus protection capabilities and maintain the stability of social order.

Drawing upon Wilson’s framework on information needs and user studies, this article investigated student entrepreneurs’ demographics, characteristics, and their fundamental cognitive, affective, an...

In this paper, we propose a novel query generation task we refer to as the Strong Natural Language Query (SNLQ) problem. The key idea we explore is how to best learn document summarization and ranker effectiveness jointly in order to generate human-readable queries which capture the information need conveyed by a document, and that can also be used for refinding tasks and query rewriting. Our problem is closely related to two well-known retrieval problems—known-item finding and strong query generation—with the additional objective of maximizing query informativeness. In order to achieve this goal, we combine state-of-the-art abstractive summarization techniques and reinforcement learning. We have empirically compared our new approaches with several closely related baselines using the MS-MARCO data collection, and show that the approach is capable of achieving substantially better trade-off between effectiveness and human-readability than have been reported previously.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic introduced significant information challenges for older adults worldwide. Given the widespread disparities in information infrastructure and access between developing and developed countries, the challenges presented during this period may be even more grave in the developing world. This interview study examines how older adults (age 65+) in two countries—the USA and India—experienced information needs, sources, and barriers. The results indicate distinct experiences among the two populations, with individuals in the USA expressing more diverse needs, while Indian respondents focused on the impact of COVID-19. The American respondents also indicated much greater use of Internet resources compared to the Indian respondents, who used television and print resources more frequently. Far more Indian respondents reported significant challenges finding information to satisfy their information needs. The findings of this study have important ramifications for the design of intervention, education, and support for the information-related needs of older adults worldwide.

In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Monash University Library in Melbourne, Australia, and the Penn State University Libraries in Pennsylvania, USA, leveraged their previously established international sister-library partnership to host a virtual engagement event focused on promoting the partnership and selected special collections at both institutions. The Monash–Penn State Great Rare Books Bake Off, a friendly competition collaboratively developed by the two academic libraries, engaged both institutions’ communities with their collections and resources by inviting participants to bake featured recipes from their collections and post evidence of their experiences on social media platforms. In addition to promoting awareness of the institutions’ international partnership and their respective collections, a primary goal of the collaborative project was to offer their local communities an enjoyable and creative outlet during a difficult time. This illustrative case study describes how the two institutions planned, executed, and assessed the project.

Mesmo diante de várias mudanças para aperfeiçoar os sistemas de recuperação de informação, o último desafio da pesquisa na área ainda é proporcionar sistemas que sejam capazes de recuperar as informações relevantes disponíveis para melhor satisfazer a necessidade do usuário. Recentemente, no desenvolvimento de sistemas de recuperação da informação têm sido privilegiadas abordagens que considerem os aspectos humanos em recuperação da informação. Este artigo apresenta as áreas de Recuperação da Informação, Information Search Behavioure Interação Humano-Computador, e discute a importância da sinergia entre elas para a avaliação e o desenvolvimento de sistemas altamente interativos. Além disso, evidencia que a interseção entre estas áreas formou uma especialidade de pesquisa denominada de Recuperação da Informação Interativa que tem como objetivo capacitar as pessoas a entender e a solucionar suas necessidades de informação através das interações com os sistemas. Even with several changes to improve information retrieval systems, the ultimate challenge of the research in the area is to provide systems that are able to retrieve relevant information available to best meet the users' needs. The developments in information retrieval systems have prioritized approaches that consider the human aspects in information retrieval. The aim of the article is to present the areas of research in Information Retrieval, Information Search Behaviour and Human-Computer Interaction and to discuss the importance of the synergy among them the assessment and development of highly interactive systems. In addition, shows that the intersection of these areas resulted in a research specialty called Interactive Information Retrieval that aims to enable people to understand and to solve their information needs through interactions with the systems.

The purpose of this study is to examine the information needs of Egyptian doormen/women, including their behaviour. An adapted form of snowball sampling of a heterogeneous demographic group of participants in the doormanship in Egypt was conducted. This sampling was used to select focus groups (n = 6) to explore a range of relevant issues. Demographically, Egyptian doormen/women appeared to be mostly males, with average formal education, with an average age of around 30s and 40s, characterized as low-income people and mostly married. A large number of Egyptian doormen/women suggested that they have not been fully aware of their information rights and a majority of them have not been able to address their information needs in an appropriate way. The study also showed a remarkable diversity in the information needs of doormen/women, particularly concerning the individual and family need, the needs of work-related activities, and the need to find a better place to work in. Regarding their information behavior profile, a large number of doormen/women preferred undocumented oral sources, as well as the frequent informal sources between them and their relatives, peers, and employers, whether through direct interaction, face-to-face meetings, or through mobile and social media. The reasons why doormen/women are searching for information were mostly intended to help in the performance of tasks that are closely associated with their jobs. A large number of doormen/women preferred oral or informal sources over written ones, such as communication with their peers, family, and friends. The experience gained was also one of the most important sources on which doormen/women relied. Time, illiteracy, psychological pressure, bad social image, the lack of awareness of basic and fundamental rights, especially information rights, lack of financial resources, lack of skills and training, and financial burdens were the most important challenges.

In an academic set up the ‘library’ plays a pivotal role. It stores, analyses, interpret and disseminate information among the users to fulfil their information needs. It has been observed that recent technological advancement has revolutionised library services to a great extent. Now libraries are providing both physical as well as web-enabled library services to their users. In this context, library websites act as a major gateway in providing web-enabled library services. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the physical mode of library services. However, to support the ongoing teaching and learning process, libraries need to continue their services despite the lockdown. Therefore, the present study seeks to find out whether academic libraries are ready and adequately equipped to perform basic services during this critical juncture. The present study was directed towards exploring the readiness among the academic libraries by assessing their websites based on selected evaluation criteria. Hence, in this study top, 100 NIRF ranked institutes websites were examined by adopting 30-point evaluation criteria. These criteria were selected from the extant literature. These criteria were grouped into 04 categories i.e., basic website information, resource discovery, availability of resources and reference services. The readiness index of each library was calculated based on the availability and non-availability of the said criteria. The findings of the study reveal that 64 per cent of the libraries have failed to secure their score of 50 per cent on predefined criteria. It was also found that the preparedness index is independent of NIRF ranking. Overall findings of the study make it clear that academic libraries need to improve and up to date their web-based services to play a proactive role in the present and post-pandemic situation.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the gap between information needs and services for autism in China.Design/methodology/approachThe gap is revealed by investigating the status quo of autism information needs and services. The authors extracted categories and subcategories of information needs through content analysis of academic documents and then supplemented the subcategories through text mining of an online forum. Meanwhile, categories and subcategories of information services were extracted through content analysis of autism websites. Finally, the authors matched the two to explore the gap and designed a quantitative index to measure it.FindingsA total of eight and ten categories of information needs and services are extracted, respectively. In total, six categories of information needs can be partly matched, but nearly half of the subcategories failed. Huge gaps in economic support, sociality and policy mechanisms categories are observed through the quantitative index and medium gaps in social resource services and employment categories while almost no gaps in psychological/emotional counseling, rehabilitation skills training and professional knowledge/information categories.Originality/valueThis study takes a deep insight into the gap between autism information needs and services in China, providing evidences and suggestions for information providers to improve their services. Academic documents and online forum data are adopted to avoid the impact of stigmatization, which provides a multi-source data analysis approach for the information needs of special groups.

PurposeWith ready access to search engines and social media platforms, the way people find image information has evolved and diversified in the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on image information needs and behaviors.Design/methodology/approachFollowing an eight-step procedure for conducting systematic literature reviews, the paper presents an analysis of peer-reviewed work on image information needs and behaviors, with publications ranging from the years 1997 to 2019.FindingsApplication of the inclusion criteria led to 69 peer-reviewed works. These works were synthesized according to the following categories: research methods, users targeted, image types, identified needs, search behaviors and search obstacles. The reviewed studies show that people seek and use images for multiple reasons, including entertainment, illustration, aesthetic appreciation, knowledge construction, engagement, inspiration and social interactions. The reviewed studies also report that common strategies for image searches include keyword searches with short queries, browsing, specialization and reformulation. Observed trends suggest common deployment of query analysis, survey questionnaires and undergraduate participant pools to research image information needs and behavior.Originality/valueAt this point, after more than two decades of image information needs research, a holistic systematic review of the literature was long overdue. The way users find image information has evolved and diversified due to technological developments in image retrieval. By synthesizing this burgeoning field into specific foci, this systematic literature review provides a foundation for future empirical investigation. With this foundation set, the paper then pinpoints key research gaps to investigate, particularly the influence of user expertise, a need for more diverse population samples, a dearth of qualitative data, new search features and information and visual literacies instruction.

This poster presents preliminary findings of a study which examines New Yorkers' everyday life information seeking (ELIS) behavior in the context of coping with COVID‐19. Based on semi‐structured interviews with 10 New Yorkers, this study identified 15 major categories of everyday life information needs, and developed a typology of New Yorkers' preferred ELIS sources. These typologies show New Yorkers' specific ELIS behavior during the pandemic, such as actively seeking information regarding grocery shopping and delivery, health safety guidelines, and current events. Social media became a popular source for immediate, local, and relevant information in New Yorkers' daily lives. These findings could form a knowledge base to inform the development of information services to assist residents of large urban areas in coping with public health crises.

An information retrieval system (IRS) is used to retrieve documents based on an information need. The IRS makes relevance judgements by attempting to match a query to a document. As IRS capabilities are indexing design dependent, the hybrid indexing method (IRS-H) is introduced. The objectives of this article are to examine IRS-H (as an alternative indexing method that performs exact phrase matching) and IRS-I, regarding retrieval usefulness, identification of relevant documents, and the quality of rejecting irrelevant documents by conducting three experiments and by analysing the related data. Three experiments took place where a collection of 100 research documents and 75 queries were presented to: (1) five participants answering a questionnaire, (2) IRS-I to generate data and (3) IRS-H to generate data. The data generated during the experiments were statistically analysed using the performance measurements of Precision, Recall and Specificity, and one-tailed Student’s t-tests. The results reveal that IRS-H (1) increased the retrieval of relevant documents, (2) reduced incorrect identification of relevant documents and (3) increased the quality of rejecting irrelevant documents. The research found that the hybrid indexing method, using a small closed document collection of a hundred documents, produced the required outputs and that it may be used as an alternative IRS indexing method.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between customers’ knowledge management and their loyalty to academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted by the descriptive-survey method. After determining the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire, 400 questionnaires were distributed among the undergraduate students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) by stratified sampling method. Finally, 373 questionnaires were considered as the basis for data analysis. Structural equation method was used for data analysis. Findings In this study, nine hypotheses were examined and tested. The results of the path analysis indicated that factors such as perceived value, knowledge about customer, satisfaction, perceived quality, knowledge for customer and knowledge about customer had the most to least impact on customer loyalty to academic libraries. In addition, this study highlighted the role of perceived value. Data analysis showed the important role of perceived value as an interface between customers’ knowledge management and its direct and indirect relationship with them. Practical implications Based on the findings of this study, it seems that the managers and the librarians of academic libraries need to consider the relationship between customers’ knowledge management and perceived quality, as well as the satisfaction of their customers to use the customer knowledge management capacities for developing their loyalty. Originality/value In this case, an effective step can be taken toward developing the knowledge management of users and ultimately encouraging them to show their loyalty to academic libraries and satisfying their information needs and providing the justification for the survival of these types of libraries.

This article presents the results of a quantitative empirical study on the information needs and sources of Arab visual artists as they engage in creative work and associated tasks. The stu...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the professional competence and attitude of library personnel towards digital services in selected university libraries in Nigeria. Despite the evolution of digital technologies in university libraries, as well as massive investment and research on digital libraries particularly in developed countries, it has been observed that many university libraries in Nigeria are still relatively reliant on traditional library services which no longer serve and satisfy the twenty-first-century users’ needs. Design/methodology/approach The population of the study comprised all the 196 library personnel from the 5 purposively selected university libraries in Nigeria. The total enumeration sampling method was adopted; while the questionnaire was the main instrument for data collection. Findings The findings of the study revealed that internet service was the most available digital service in libraries. It further revealed that most of the library personnel have requisite proficiency skills in basic computer operations. However, inadequate power supply was the major problem affecting digital services in the university libraries. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to a specific geographical area and selected university libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria. Accordingly, further studies need to be carried out on the same or similar subject matter, in other states or regions in Nigeria. Practical implications The need for library personnel to acquire relevant information and communication technology skills and develop a positive attitude that will enable them to render effective digital library services in the university libraries. Apart from this, university libraries should also strive to train users on how to access digital services in the libraries. Originality/value This study is novel, in the sense that it is the first of its kind to examine the professional competence and attitude of library personnel towards digital services in university libraries in Nigeria. The paper reported the necessary skills that library staffs need to demonstrate to effectively use various digital resources in the libraries to meet the information needs of their users.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the information-seeking behaviour of the Egyptian elderly, including their information needs. A sample of 63 elderly people living in care homes was taken. It was divided into five focus groups. Of the 63 elderly people, 40 were men (63.5%) and 23 women (36.5%). Almost half (47.6%) ranged in aged from 61 to 70. About a quarter (23%) of them held a high school diploma. The highest percentage (28.6%) was labelled as average-income people. The highest percentage (60.3%) was also found to be widows or widowers. The types of information used most by the Egyptian elderly related to physical, medical/health, social, rational and recreational needs. Their information sources varied between formal and informal sources. Nearly two-thirds (63.5%) of them showed that limited knowledge, lack of interest, poor information awareness, aging, loneliness and health problems were the most significant obstacles they faced when seeking information.

Purpose This paper aims to describe how public librarians can better address complex information needs. First, librarians should classify the degree of complexity of the need by using Warner’s classification model; then they can use Popper’s three world theory to anticipate and respond to complex information needs by following specific steps. Design/methodology/approach After examining the information science literature, appropriate models were selected to support public librarians. Our information science scholarship, coupled with our practical experience, informed our search and selection. Findings This paper details specific steps that public librarians can take to anticipate and respond to individual information needs. Doing so is imperative as the information needs of the public continue to become increasingly complex. Originality/value This paper improves information practice because it offers specific steps to aid public librarians to anticipate and respond to complex information needs. It draws upon an existing model and theoretical framework. This paper also highlights selected examples of how public librarians across the USA have anticipated information needs, and developed partnerships with organizations external to the public library to address complex information needs.

Having content in an archive is of limited value if it cannot be read and used. As a case study of extricating information from obsolete media, making it readable once again through deep learning techniques, we examine the Cauzin Softstrip: one of the first two-dimensional bar codes, released in 1985 by Cauzin Systems, which could be used for encoding all manner of digital data. Softstrips occupy a curious middle ground, as they were both physical and digital. The bar codes were printed on paper, and in that sense are no different in an archival way than any printed material. Softstrips can be found in old computer magazines, computer books, and booklets of software Cauzin produced. However, managing the digital nature of these physical artifacts falls within the scope of digital curation. To make the information on them readable and useful, the digital information needs to be extracted, which originally would have occurred using a physical Cauzin Softstrip reader. Obtaining a working Softstrip reader is already extremely difficult and will most likely be impossible in the coming years. In order to extract the encoded data, we created a digital Softstrip reader, making Softstrip data accessible without needing a physical reader. Our decoding strategy is able to decode over 91% of the 1229 Softstrips in our Softstrip corpus; this rises to 99% if we only consider Softstrip images produced under controlled conditions. Furthermore, we later acquired another set of 117 Softstrips and we were able to decode nearly 95% of them with no adjustments to the decoder. These excellent results underscore the fact that technology like deep learning is readily accessible to non-experts; we obtained these results using a convolutional neural network, even though neither of the authors are expert in the area.

This research investigated health and safety information behaviour of miners working at Makarwal Coal Mines, district Mianwali, Punjab, Pakistan. A survey method using a questionnaire was deployed for data collection from 136 coal workers. Descriptive statistics were applied for data analysis using SPSS. The results indicated that the miners’ information needs were cantered mainly on protection equipment, mining diseases, healthcare services, geological hazards, accidents associated with mining and modern mining techniques. These miners relied overwhelmingly on interpersonal relationships with fellow miners and friends for safety information followed by television and radio. A good number of the survey participants also utilized internet and social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. as information source. There was little evidence of the use of audio/visual materials, seminar/workshops, associations, government agencies, and printed materials for information acquisition. Computer illiteracy, poor financial conditions, lack of time, language barriers, lack of awareness and knowledge about safety information and non-availability of relevant materials were perceived as the major constraints in acquiring safety information. The results will not only be useful for planning a need-based information infrastructure for miners but also for policymakers, NGOs and human rights organizations working for rural development and uplifting occupational health. This research contributed in the existing research on miners’ information behaviour as only a few studies appeared.

Health information literacy plays a critical role in self-management practices among patients living with chronic health conditions. However, there are limited studies on information needs among breast cancer patients in Ghana. This paper therefore investigated the information needs of women living with breast cancer in Ghana and how educational status influenced their information needs. The study was conducted in two health facilities in Accra, Ghana (37 Military Hospital and Sweden Ghana Medical Centre). A total of 75 breast cancer patients were conveniently selected from the two health facilities for the study. The instrument used to elicit relevant data for this study was a questionnaire using the survey design. Data was analysed descriptively. The findings of the study revealed that the information needs of the breast cancer patients investigated were centred mainly around treatment and management information and less around preventive information. The patients also ranked diagnostic information as their highest need, followed by physical care information, treatment information, psychosocial information and disease-specific information in that order. Patients with higher education reported higher information need on all the five domains compared to those with lower education. The study therefore recommended that management of health facilities make health information literacy an integral component of their treatment and management of breast cancer.

In recent years, leading website search engines have abandoned vital search features supporting complex information needs, evolving instead for the marketplace and for users seeking speedy answers to easy questions. The consequences are troubling, for researchers and for information science educators, with concerns ranging from the very relevance of search results and the unknowing of what is missing, to the novice searcher’s waning ability to frame potent queries and to learn ways to refine results. We report on a grounded theory study of search experiences of information professionals and graduate students (n = 20) that contributes a holistic understanding of web searching, using its findings both to frame what is lacking in the design evolution of search engines for complex information needs and to outline a way forward. One goal of the study was to evaluate an established model of web searching, called Net Lenses, a theoretical framework shown to be highly relevant during the study’s grounded theory secondary literature review. The original Net Lenses research used phenomenography to identify variation in the web search experiences of university students (n = 41), evidencing four categories according to the characteristics of searcher awareness, approach to learning, response to obstacles and search outcomes. This study validated the model and led to an expanded version, Net Lenses 2.0, with five categories of search experience, reflecting the complex information needs of more advanced searchers. This resultant Net Lenses 2.0 model is discussed with its implications for search engine design, for advanced searchers and also for learning-to-search modes, much needed by searchers seeking to develop their abilities. The study’s implications coalesce in a call to action for more inclusive search interface design, and an agenda is put forth for how information researchers, educators and literacy advocates can move forward in their intersecting domains.

Περιέχει τη περίληψη. The purpose of this article is to investigate the information-seeking behavior of hospitalized patients in a peripheral hospital in Greece, based on Wilson’s theoretical model. After a thorough literature review, we report on the results of a cross-sectoral sur\vey that was conducted based on Wilson’s macro-model of information-seeking behavior. The survey exploits the feedback we obtained from 150 hospitalized patients in the General Hospital of Corfu island in Greece. For the feedback collection, we relied on a structured questionnaire that was distributed to patients and correlates information-seeking behavior of hospitalized patients’ clinical data and eHealth Literacy. According to our findings, the most commonly recorded factors that pertain to information needs of hospitalized patients relate to treatment information, procedural information as well as information about the patients’ rights and support. The main information sources to which patients turn for receiving information are digital scientific sources, health professionals, other patients, insurance funds, family members and friends and the media. Concerning the most frequent obstacles associated with the information-seeking process, these account primarily to individual, interpersonal and environmental factors. Finally, the research came to a conclusion with the adaptation of Wilson’s theoretical model to hospitalized patients by confirming the original-initial model. The findings of our survey reveal the necessity to equip hospital units with adequate staff and to develop programs that offer updated information services to the hospitalized population. Moreover, our survey suggests that the availability of advanced health-related information services can empower the general population toward establishing e-Health literacy skills as well as toward increasing their level of satisfaction from the quality of the health services offered. In this direction, a clinical librarian program would empower hospitals worldwide to make their patients literate about health-related information.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the information needs and sources of electorates in Nigeria and identify challenges electorates faced when obtaining electoral information and news.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts the description survey design and hypothesized the information needs and sources on demographic variables such as age, sex and academic qualification. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. A quantitative approach used based on a questionnaire completed by 236 respondents and a snow ball nonprobability sampling technique was used in this study. The research adapted Wilson 1999 theory of information seeking behavior.FindingsThe findings identified five information needs that are of interest to the electorates: registration of voter, level of security, right as a voter, manifestoes and candidate profile. It was discovered that WhatsApp, Facebook and friends were sources electorates used most in obtaining election-related news and information. The research went further to streamline the number of times such election-related news and information items were sought in a day and week; it was discovered that the manual system still dominated with the print newspaper rather than Twitter, WhatsApp, friends and colleagues and Facebook. The young person used social media most as source of information compared to aged respondents in Nigeria. Thekre is increasing in women participating in political and electoral information. Formal education does not have significant impact on the usage of election information and news. Language barrier, erratic power supply, expensive network service and no knowledge of where to source for information proved to be challenges electorates faced when seeking election-related news and information.Research limitations/implicationsThis research will help to keep abreast of the information electorate needs and how they get such information. This research is limited to small group of electorates.Practical implicationsThis paper includes more information about the electorates and political parties information needs.Social implicationsThe finding was drawn from limited respondents that were ready to participate in the research by responding to various questions in the questionnaire. Therefore, there is need for further study to consider a wider population scope on information-related research of electorate in Nigeria.Originality/valueThis research was carried out by Ayinde Lateef; Keriafe D.E. and Fatima Ghayen.

PurposeThe ultimate aim of this study is to investigate how health information needs’ satisfaction actually makes a difference to the patients' management of a chronic clinical condition. The literature falls short of providing evidence on the interaction between patients' health information seeking behaviour and the successful management of a clinical condition. On the other hand, patient education and good information seeking practices are deemed necessary for hypertension management daily decisions.Design/methodology/approachA specially designed questionnaire study was developed: The survey design was informed by the information seeking behaviour model of Wilson for studying hypertension patients' information needs, information resources and obstacles patients face while seeking hypertension-related information. Moreover, clinical information was collected in order to make associations and inference on the impact of information seeking on patients' clinical outcomes.FindingsThe study included 111 patients submitted to the outpatient hypertension clinic of a university hospital in Athens for a 24-h ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM). The analysis showed that those reporting higher satisfaction level of their information needs achieved lower values in ABPM (ABPMp = 0.049). Stepwise the logistic regression analysis revealed three independent factors to predict the possibility of being optimally treated (ABPMp = 0.0001) patients with high satisfaction level of their disease (OR: 13.450, 95% CI: 1.364–132.627, p = 0.026) and interpersonal relationships were used as the main source of information (OR: 1.762, 95% CI: 1.024–3.031, p = 0.41).Originality/valueHypertensive patients with high satisfaction level of information achieve better disease control. Among different sources of information, interpersonal relationships emerge as the most appropriate factor for patients' disease control.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the state of mobile library services available for students’ information needs at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. In addition, this study will determine the extent to which mobile services has helped the Mona libraries to have greater reach to students. Design/methodology/approach Surveys and content analysis were used to collect data. A comparative content analysis was used to highlight the strides made in mobile library services in universities across the world vis-à-vis the current reality in the Caribbean, specifically Jamaica. Findings The findings identified that there is a proliferation of mobile and internet users among university and college students and they are heavily using their devices for the furtherance of their educational attainment. Additionally, the findings indicated that libraries in the academic realm can benefit greatly from allowing their content to be accessible through these mobile devices, as it would also help with greater usage. Furthermore, this service is guaranteed greater support the distance programmes offered by these universities. Research limitations/implications This study will focus on assessing the state of mobile library services offered at the University of the West Indies, Mona Jamaica. This study will also determine the extent to which mobile services can help libraries to have greater reach to students and provide best practices for academic libraries implementing mobile service offerings to clients. This study will not attest to the financial feasibility of academic institutions to start such a programme. Practical implications The research excavated that the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, along with other academic libraries in the Caribbean are all not fully offering mobile library services to all their users. In addition, with the rise of technology and the proliferation of cell phones and other mobile devices, students (distance and onsite) expect a service that allows them greater access to the offerings of the university and their libraries. Originality/value This is the premier investigation of its kind into how the University of the West Indies Mona Campus has responded to the mobile library environment. The value of this research is in helping academic and university libraries in the Jamaica to identify the importance of leveraging the benefits of the dynamic technological era, allowing greater and wider reach through mobile library services proliferation and access to services. In addition, this study showed that academic libraries need to enhance services in a bid to provide greater support the teaching component of the university or college they serve.

PurposeBased on the examination of the roles of message framing and evidence type, this study made an analysis of the promotion methods of intention and information need towards HPV vaccination.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a 2 (gain-framed messages vs loss-framed messages) × 2 (statistical evidence vs narrative evidence) quasi-experimental design built upon theories of message framing and evidence type. This experiment recruited college students who were not vaccinated against HPV as participants. The analysis of variance (ANOVA), the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and the independent sample T-test were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results (N = 300) indicate that (1) Loss-framed messages will lead to a more favorable intention towards HPV vaccination than gain-framed messages. (2) Statistical evidence will lead to a more explicit information need than narrative evidence. (3) Message framing and evidence type will interact and (a) for statistical evidence, loss-framed messages will lead to a more favorable intention towards HPV vaccination than gain-framed messages and (b) for narrative evidence, gain-framed messages will lead to a more favorable intention towards HPV vaccination than loss-framed messages. (4) Message framing and evidence type will interact and (a) for loss-framed messages, statistical evidence will stimulate more explicit information need of HPV vaccination than narrative evidence and (b) for gain-framed messages, narrative evidence will stimulate more explicit information need of HPV vaccination than statistical evidence.Originality/valueThis paper can help to further understand the important roles of message framing and evidence type in health behavior promotion. The study contributes to the literature on how health information can be well organized to serve the public health communication and further enhance the health information service.

Oral health information provides knowledge about oral diseases and develops awareness among the public to implement preventive measures for oral related diseases. Oral health information (OHI) also needs support in terms of public health policy, education, the provision of professional monitoring and therapeutic interventions as and when necessary. In this context, a survey was conducted with the help of questionnaire to know the oral health information seeking behaviour of Pondicherry University students and those results are presented here. The study also assessed the various channels through which these students receive oral health information, identified their oral health information needs, awareness on oral health and preferred modes of delivering oral health information. The purpose of this study is to understand the importance of oral health to students and also to find out the role of Libraries and Information Centres (LICs) in providing the oral health information in Pondicherry. LICs should act as promoting agencies to deliver health care information to all the needy students. Dissemination of oral healthcare information can be made available in written, spoken or electronic form. The information could be available in the form of books, pamphlets, audio-visual or web-based forms and should be easily accessible to students and the general public.

PurposeThis paper aims to identify consumers' health information consultation patterns by analyzing information sources to better understand consumers' health information needs and behavior in the context of multisource health information.Design/methodology/approachHaodaifu Online, an online health consultation (OHC) website in China, was used as a research data source, and 20,000 consultation cases were collected from the website with Python. After screening and cleaning, 1,601 consultation cases were included in this study. A content analysis-based mixed-methods research approach was applied to analyze these cases.FindingsThe results indicate that with the participation of OHC, there are 15 patterns of consumer health information consultation. Besides OHC, health information sources reported by consumers included medical institutions family/friends and the Internet. Consumers consult on a wide range of health issues including surgical conditions obstetrical and gynecological conditions and other 20 subjects. Consumers have multiple information needs when using OHC: getting prescriptions, diagnosing diseases, making appointments, understanding illnesses, confirming diagnoses and reviewing costs. Through further analysis it was found that consumers’ health information consultation patterns were also significantly different in health issues and health information needs.Originality/valueThis study broadens one’s understanding of consumer health information behavior, which contributes to the field of health information behavior, and also provides insight for OHC stakeholders to improve their services.

With the rapid growth of the Internet, search engines play vital roles in meeting the users’ information needs. However, formulating information needs to simple queries for canonical users is a problem yet. Therefore, query auto-completion, which is one of the most important characteristics of the search engines, is leveraged to provide a ranked list of queries matching the user’s entered prefix. Although query auto-completion utilises useful information provided by search engine logs, time-, semantic- and context-aware features are still important resources of extra knowledge. Specifically, in this study, a hybrid query auto-completion system called TIPS ( Time-aware Personalised Semantic-based query auto-completion) is introduced to combine the well-known systems performing based on popularity and neural language model. Furthermore, this system is supplemented by time-aware features that blend both context and semantic information in a collaborative manner. Experimental studies on the standard AOL dataset are conducted to compare our proposed system with state-of-the-art methods, that is, FactorCell, ConcatCell and Unadapted. The results illustrate the significant superiorities of TIPS in terms of mean reciprocal rank (MRR), especially for short-length prefixes.

Background Active engagement in seeking maternal health information among women of reproductive age is vital in promoting positive health‐seeking behaviour and improving maternal health outcomes. Objective This study aimed to explore maternal health information‐seeking behaviour of women of reproductive age in a rural Tanzania. Methods Using a qualitative research approach, the study held eight focus group discussions to collect data from a group of purposively selected women respondents. Data were analysed through thematic analysis. Results Women need a range of maternal health information for their informed health decision making. However, while they indicated the need to seek that information from professional health providers, they received most of it from non‐professional and informal sources, including community health workers, traditional birth attendants and their family members. The use of these sources is attributed to, among other factors, unavailability of health facilities and limited access to professional health care. Conclusion Access to relevant and reliable maternal health information is essential in creating awareness and empowering women to make informed decisions about their reproductive health. Women’s use of informal sources to meet their various information needs increases the chances of receiving unreliable information that may result in coming up with poor decisions making.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the information needs and seeking behaviors of African refugees in the Midwest United States. The research also investigates the sources participants consulted and their satisfaction with their information seeking and the information found.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative research study recruited 18 African refugees to participate in one or more data collection modes used in the study (questionnaire, interview, focus group). The data were analyzed using qualitative open, axial and selective coding approaches to identify themes.FindingsThe analysis of the data collected provides evidence that refugees had specific information needs centered on housing, health care, employment and education. They were not necessarily satisfied with the information they were able to find. Participants reported initially relying heavily on their caseworkers as sources of information when they first arrived in the United States until they were able to establish larger networks of contacts, which then expanded their information behaviors.Research limitations/implicationsThe number of participants and regional focus of the study do not allow for generalization of the findings to all African refugees in the United States. Still, the findings shed light on how to better serve the information needs of African refugees to help them adjust to life in their new environment.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study provide guidance for agencies that assist African refugees in adjusting to life in the United States.Originality/valueThis study represents one of the few investigations of the information needs and seeking behaviors of African refugees in the United States.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the information needs and information-seeking behaviours of the new generation of engineering designers. A survey study is used to approach what their information needs are, how these needs change during an engineering design project and how their information-seeking behaviours have been influenced by the newly developed information technologies (ITs). Through an in-depth analysis of the survey results, the key functions have been identified for the next-generation management systems.Design/methodology/approachThe paper first proposed four hypotheses on the information needs and information-seeking behaviours of young engineers. Then, a survey study was undertaken to understand their information usage in terms of the information needs and information-seeking behaviours during a complete engineering design process. Through analysing the survey results, several findings were obtained and on this basis, further comparisons were made to discuss and evaluate the hypotheses.FindingsThe paper has revealed that the engineering designers' information needs will evolve throughout the engineering design project; thus, they should be assisted at several different levels. Although they intend to search information and knowledge on know-what and know-how, what they really require is the know-why knowledge in order to help them complete design tasks. Also, the paper has shown how the newly developed ITs and web-based applications have influenced the engineers' information-seeking practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe research subjects chosen in this study are engineering students in universities who, although not as experienced as engineers in companies, do go through a complete design process with the tasks similar to industrial scenarios. In addition, the focus of this study is to understand the information-seeking behaviours of a new generation of design engineers, so that the development of next-generation information and knowledge management systems can be well informed. In this sense, the results obtained do reveal some new knowledge about the information-seeking behaviours during a general design process.Practical implicationsThis paper first identifies the information needs and information-seeking behaviours of the new generation of engineering designers. On this basis, the varied ways to meet these needs and behaviours are discussed and elaborated. This intends to provide the key characteristics for the development of the next-generation knowledge management system for engineering design projects.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a novel means of exploring the future engineers' information needs and information-seeking behaviours in a collaborative working environment. It also characterises the key features and functions for the next generation of knowledge management systems for engineering design.

This qualitative research explored the information needs and seeking experiences of family members of terminal cancer patients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve individuals. Th...

Physicists in academic institutions utilize a variety of resources and strategies to seek, find, and use scholarly information and news. Using a sample of physicists, researchers surveyed 182 students and faculty at seven Canadian university institutions to explore self-perceived success rates, resources consulted, databases used, and use of social media and citation management systems. To complement the survey, 11 follow up interviews/focus groups were completed with participants to further uncover information-seeking behaviors, choices, strategies, and feelings around keeping up to date with information needs. According to survey results, a minority of physicists (15.4%) acknowledged that they were successfully keeping up to date. However, a significant number of physicists (28.6%) indicated that they were unsuccessful and could do better in remaining current with information needs. Co-investigators, using qualitative analyses, identified four emergent themes: (1) There are “too many papers – and not enough time” to effectively search, evaluate and read scholarly papers of interest; (2) Staying up to date is important especially in competitive research areas; (3) Graduate students seek information differently than faculty and experienced researchers; and (4) The arXiv database is important to many physicists. Additional minor themes included physics-related publishing is constantly evolving; physicists use a variety of information-seeking behaviors; and, information-seeking methods can differ between physics subdisciplines. This study aims to shed light on opportunities for academic librarians to identify and meet physicists’ evolving information behaviors, attitudes, choices, and needs.

This research aims to investigate the information needs and information seeking behaviour of the rural dwellers in Sarawak focusing on identifying their information needs; examining their use of information sources; assessing their perception of quality and accessibility of the information sources; and determining the barriers to information seeking. An interviewer-administered questionnaire survey is adopted for data collection, from the rural dwellers, covering broadly the northern, central, and southern regions of Sarawak. This study covers a broader range of information needs (12 types) and use of information sources (20 sources) of the rural dwellers in Sarawak. Using a quota sampling technique based on geographical region, data are collected from 130 respondents in each region, a total of 390 respondents. This paper reports the research findings using descriptive statistical analysis. The rural dwellers have the highest needs in the area of religion, health and medical, as well as entertainment, leisure, and sports. They have the lowest needs for information about social welfare, politics, and general/state election. The popularity of digital sources such as the Internet, social media, and mobile applications have become the main source of information seeking of the rural dwellers, with the traditional sources such as television, radio, and newspapers are still being widely used. When the perception of information source quality and accessibility is high, the frequency of using the source for information seeking is also high. Poor infrastructure and limited financial ability are cited as the main barriers to information seeking among the rural dwellers.

International students are valuable resources in higher education but they often face challenges due to lack of social engagement and unfamiliarity with the new social context. The use of social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook has the potential to support international students, but limited studies have examined the actual information seeking behaviour of this group of students. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the use of Facebook groups as an example of an SNS by international students for information seeking purposes. Data were downloaded from the Facebook group of international students that belong to a public university in Malaysia, and the social network analysis technique was used to analyse the data. The result of the network graph metrics showed that 25% international students exhibit a high frequency of interaction, whereas 75% of students present low interaction. Meanwhile, the result of the vertex text attribute method identified three types of information exchange, as follows: 1) information need; 2) information source; and 3) general information during the interaction of international students. The information needs of international students differ before and after arriving in Malaysia. Thus, Facebook groups provide a platform for international students to seek information, gain knowledge, remain updated with university news, make decisions and solve problems. This study offers important implications to research and practice related to the use of social network sites to support international students.

The science and technology sector plays an important role in the growth and diversification of the Nigerian economy. This article examines the information-seeking behaviour of science and technology researchers in Nigeria in order for the right approach to be taken with respect to information provision. A survey methodology was used for the study and 114 multidisciplinary science and technology researchers at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi served as the respondents. The findings of the study revealed that science and technology researchers frequently sourced information from journals and knowledgeable persons; the Internet was the most frequent information source. The science and technology researchers used information for carrying out research and solving personal needs, among other things. The challenges identified in using information sources included outdated books and lack of adoption of electronic services. The study recommended that efforts should be directed at improving researchers’ access to information and the establishment of an institutional electronic database should be encouraged.

This study investigated information behaviour of citrus farmers residing in rural areas of Sargodha, Pakistan. The data were collected from 120 adult male farmers through face to face interviews using preformulated questionnaire and analyzed by applying descriptive statistics. The citrus farmers required information on land preparation, soil fertility management, better citrus varieties, citrus trees protection, harvesting techniques, pest and diseases control, fertilizer applications, plantation techniques, finance, Government policies and programs, better pricing, labor information in the locality, agrochemicals, how to stop fruit drop, weather, irrigation management, pesticides application, health and safety information, buyers, collections and traders, and herbicide. These farmers relied overwhelmingly on their prior experience and interpersonal relationships such as fellow farmers/friends, progressive farmers, for agricultural information. More than two-third of these farmers did not seem to have any contact, either written or oral, with government agricultural officials. The farmers’ farm size, education, and income appeared to predict their information needs and sources. Lack of timely access, inaccessibility, unawareness, bad timing of television programs, poor economic conditions, infrequent visits of extension staff, low level of education and language barriers were the primary obstacles in information acquisition. The results will be helpful for extension agents and librarians of the public libraries in the area while making adjustments for efficient and effective information delivery. This study would make a contribution in the existing research on farmers’ crop-specific information behaviour.