Information‐seeking behavior of management and commerce faculty in Sri Lankan universities

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate academics' information‐seeking behavior, information needs, and their attitudes and perceptions towards the library system in Sri Lankan universities.Design/methodology/approachThe population of the study consisted of management and commerce academics selected from three universities. The sample included 50 percent from the population and stratified random sampling technique was employed for the sample selection. Data gathering was done by means of questionnaire survey and the received raw data were analyzed accordingly.FindingsThe study found that the majority of academics were more interested in research than teaching. They had good library skills for finding information and accessing services. Most of them were unable to keep in touch with current information due to insufficiency of current resources. The attitudes of the academics towards the library staff were rather unsatisfactory. The interlibrary loan service was not effectively utilized due to academics' unawareness. Most academics were not informed when new publications had arrived, though the library requested their recommendation while acquiring new materials.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focused on only one discipline selected from multi‐disciplinary universities in Sri Lanka. This limitation affects in generalizing results within the university system in the country.Originality/valueIt was found that there had been no previous study which had studied information‐seeking behavior of business, management or commerce scholars in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study features distinctiveness within the available literature in the context of Sri Lanka.