Scholars’ Domain of Information Space

Abstract

This article addresses Croatian scholars’ information behavior and how they use technology to acquire information in three areas of their work: teaching, research, and administrative activities. Our study aims to find which communication channels scholars utilize to find and share knowledge. Are they using communication channels targeting a broader audience, i.e., formal–explicit communication, or those targeting a narrower one, i.e., informal–implicit communication? The questionnaire used included four questions regarding scholar activities, with nine possible communication channels, scored on a seven-point Likert scale. Considering many channels for each area of activity, a reduction was made through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), to determine latent components in various channels. In finding information for teaching activities, the main communication channel is informal and implicit, while for research and administrative activities, it is formal and explicit. PCA shows a distinction between social and technical domains of science in terms of how scholars collect material for administrative tasks. A further communication channel is reduced to two factors for all questions, where the first factor has formal–explicit and the second has informal–implicit characteristics. This work is part of a larger study aimed at determining the mechanisms of information diffusion within academic institutions, utilizing the Information space model.