Information-seeking behavior of health sciences faculty: the impact of new information technologies.

This paper reports on an ongoing investigation into health sciences faculty's information-seeking behavior, including their use of new information technologies. A survey was administered to all faculty in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was similar to one administered to the same population in 1991. The survey asked about faculty's use of electronic resources, documented any shift from the use of print to electronic formats, and measured the utilization of library training. The response rate was 48.5% for medicine faculty, 45.0% for nursing, and 62.5% for pharmacy. The study found that use of the print Index Medicus among faculty was in transition: While 30.5% continued to use the print resources, 68.0% of faculty accessed MEDLINE through electronic means. Faculty preferred accessing electronic databases from their offices to doing so from the library. Health sciences faculty used a wide variety of databases, in addition to MEDLINE, to fill their information needs. Most faculty did not take advantage of either in-house or electronic training sessions offered by librarians. The study concluded that the training preferences of faculty need to be further explored.

Information-seeking behavior: a survey of health sciences faculty use of indexes and databases.

This study investigated information-seeking behavior, including use of major bibliographic tools by medical, pharmacy, nursing, and science faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The study assessed the impact of availability of locally mounted databases, determined needs for modification of instructional programs, identified the need for promotional material, and established a baseline for subsequent studies. Results reflected a wide variation in the number and format of secondary services used by faculty. Over 70% of all faculty from the colleges of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing used Index Medicus or MEDLINE. There were statistically significant differences between colleges in their use of mediated and end-user searching of MEDLINE. Colleges exhibited significant differences in use of Current Contents, PsycLIT, ERIC, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Chemical Abstracts, and Science Citation Index. Statistically significant differences also were found among several clinical departments. The study concluded that, as new formats to bibliographic tools become available, traditional formats continue to be used; training sessions must be tailored to the audience; and the availability of local resources and their use by faculty needs to be understood.