Information Use and Needs of Biology Faculty

Joe KrausUniversity of DenverJune 10, 2003SLA Conference - NYC

Why did I do this research?

Because I wanted to learn more about the information needs and seeking patterns of biological science facultyCorrelate teaching faculty with student use of information

Introduction

Background of Information Needs Assessment“Frequently, the simplest and most effective way to develop information is to identify major stakeholders and just ask them how they use information, what information resources they believe they need, or similar questions.”Biblarz, page 15

Needs, wants and demands

Needs are “situations that require solution; it does not always follow that a need is something the group or person wants.”“Wants are things that the group or person is willing to expend time, effort or money to acquire; it does not always follow that the thing wanted is good for the group or person.”“Demands are things the group or person wants and is willing to act … to acquire”Evans, page 32-33.

Prior information use research

Curtis, Weller, and Hurd, 1997Cecelia M. Brown, 1999Tenopir and King, 2000, Towards Electronic Journals, pages 163-165

What did I do?

Surveyed Biological Sciences Faculty at the University of Denver (DU) to inquire about their information use and needs.Focused on this group because I am not as familiar with life science research and their information needs.14 questions covering 2.5 pages -- modeled after the Curtis and Brown surveys

What did I want to learn?

What databases do the faculty use and how oftenHow do they find and use journal articlesHow many articles and how much time is consumed reading articles

Basic statistics

17 surveys were sent out7 were returned (41%)6 male, 1 female1 full professor, 3 associate, 1 assistant, 1 lecturer, and 1 adjunctHave been on the DU faculty an average of 10.1 years (Range 5 to 18 years)

What databases were used in the last year?

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

4

Databases used

AGRICOLA

Bio Abs

CSA Bio

Chem Abs

MEDLINE

PsychINFO

PubMED

SCI or WoS

How often were those databases used in the last year?

AGRICOLA was used 1-2 times by one personBioAbs was used 5+ times by three peopleCSA Bio was used 5+ times by one personMedline and PubMED were used 5+ times by four peopleSCI / WoS was used 1-2 times by two people, and 5+ times by one person

Where do they use those resources?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Where

DU Office/LabHomeCampus LibraryCU Health SciencesCU BoulderOther, Cornell U.

How do they obtain journal articles?

01

23

45

67

How do they obtain journal articles

Download Personal subsColleague subsReading RoomLibrary print or WebAssistantILLEmail authorArea LibDocDel

Other services to obtain articles?

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

4

Other Services

HighWireUnCoverBioMedNetInfoTrieveScirusGoogleLib databases

How do they keep abreast of current developments?

0

1

23

4

56

7

Current Developments

Scanning/browsingcurrent issuesSearch DB's

Personal Comm

Conferences

Current AwarenessService

How do they become aware of less recent articles?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Less Recent

Citations at ends ofjoural articles

Citations at ends ofbook chapters orconf. proceedingsSearching lib DB's

Personal Comm

Browsing olderjournals

How many hours during a typical week do they read articles?

Range from 2 to 5 hoursAverage of 3.1 hours/week (161 hours/year, 13.43/month)Compare with Tenopir and King Research– University Scientists, 259 hours/year in 1984, 182

hours/year in 1990-93.– Life Scientists, 8.1 to 24.1 hours/month

How many articles during a typical week do they read articles?

Range from 2 to 8 articlesAverage of 4.1 articles (215 articles/year)Compare with Tenopir and King Research– University Scientists, 172 articles/year in 1984, 188

articles/year in 1990-93

What are the most important journals read to stay current

33 journals were listedThe only duplicates were:– Nature– Science– PNAS– Journal of Cell Biology

Comments given

Need more journals onlineHow about a site subscription to ScienceDirect?Site-wide access to the Science Citation Index would be useful.

What did I learn?

MEDLINE and PubMED are still more “popular” than Biological Abstracts (BioAbs).BioAbs is used heavily by the faculty that know about it.The CSA databases are not used as much by the facultyMuch more use in faculty offices than at home

What did I learn?

The demand for BioMedNet has wanedColleagues do not share personal journal subscriptionsNot many faculty know about HighWire Press as the provider of FT journalsCompared to national studies, DU faculty read similar numbers of articles and for similar periods of time

What was confirmed

Faculty want more access to electronic journals and databases in their offices (follows from Curtis, and anecdotal evidence) Scanning current issues of journals is still performed (follows from Brown)Faculty continue to follow citation chains for older articles (Brown)Desire for Web of Science and ScienceDirect (Anecdotal)

References

Brown, C. M. (1999). "Information Seeking Behavior of Scientists in the Electronic Information Age: Astronomers, Chemists, Mathematicians, and Physicists." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50(10): 929-43. Curtis, K. L., A. C. Weller, et al. (1997). "Information-seeking behavior of health sciences faculty: the impact of new information technologies." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 85(4): 402-10. Tenopir, C. and D. W. King (2000). Towards Electronic Journals: Realities for Scientists, Librarians, and Publishers. Washington, DC. Special Libraries Association.

References

Biblarz, D., S. Bosch, and C. Sugnet. (eds.) Guide to Library User Needs Assessment for Integrated Information Resource Management and Collection Development, Lanham, Md., Scarecrow Press, 2001.Evans, G. E. and M. R. Zarnosky. Developing Library and Information Center Collections, Englewood, CO, Libraries Unlimited, 2000. (Chapter 2 is “Information Needs Assessment,” pages 31-68)

Questions 1 & 2

What databases and indexes have you used in the past year, and how often?Such as AGRICOLA, Biological Abstracts, Biological Sciences Collection in CSA, Medline (or PubMED), Science Citation Index (or the Web of Science), etc.

Questions 3, 4 & 5

Where do you use these resources?How do you obtain journal articles?Are there any other services that you use to obtain journal articles? (DocDel, Highwire, Google, etc.)

Questions 6 & 7

How do you keep abreast of current developments in your field?How do you become aware of less recent research?

Questions 8 through 12

8, 9 & 10 – Demographics – faculty rank, gender, and years at the University.11 & 12 – How many articles do you read per week, and how many hours per week.

Questions 13 & 14

13 – What are the five most important journals that you read to stay current in your field.14 – Comments on library resources/services? Are there services you need that we do not offer?