Information literacy at work

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to investigate the information behaviour of Kuwaiti engineers with a focus on information sources and finding information from these sources, management of information found and re-finding of information from personal collections. Design/methodology/approach – Survey method of research was used to conduct the study. Data were collected using online questionnaire and interviews with a selected number of participants. Findings – Results indicated that engineers collected and received information from a variety of sources. They saved selected information for future use in folders and structured them by using work-related categories. Use of information management tools was not common. A majority of participants expressed the need for training courses in information literacy. They felt that lack of institutional support to facilitate access to information was considered a major difficulty in information seeking. Originality/value – No similar study could be found in the literature, as earlier studies either investigated personal information management practices or information seeking behaviour. This study looked at information literacy in a wider context.