Scholarly communication: a study of Israeli academic researchers

Abstract

Reports results of a 1994-1995 questionnaire survey of faculty members in two Israeli universities, to discover whether changes in scholarly communication have occurred in the wake of technological changes that have added new media and tools and altered the structure and composition of library collections; 477 questionnaires were returned out of 2361. Research focused on three components of the information gathering process: the researcher’s needs and approaches, channels of access to information, and information sources. Five basic approaches to information and eight information channels were defined. Concludes that, despite extensive changes in higher education, institutions and libraries that have occurred during the previous 45 years since the interest in information gathering behaviour began, patterns for obtaining information remain conservative and have resisted transformation. Professional periodicals are still the most important tools for obtaining professional information and monographs still play a major role.