information seeking behaviour of the professionals …

Annals of Library Science and Documentation 44,2, 1997; 54-64 .

INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF THE PROFESSIONALS IN THE FIELD OF DISABILI-TIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MENTAL HANDICAP IN INDIA

S. HARI KRISHNA REDDYNational Institute for the

Mentally HandicappedManovikas NagarSecunderabad-500 009Andhra Pradesh

ABSTRACT

A study of information seeking behaviour of 160professionals in the field of disabilities in India,through a questionnaire survey method, revealsthat informal channels are more used for infor-mation gathering. Journals are preferred for for-mal source of information for preparing course/t~aching materials. Books are used more forploviding consultation and offering therapeutic!diagnostic services. The time spent in borrow-ing/reading literature for various purposes hasalso been studied.

INTRODUCTION

In any library or information system, the userstudy plays a vital role in planning, designingand introducing new information services/prod-ucts and to assess the quality of services andtheir utilities. The psychology of the users - theinformation seeking behaviour, assessment ofuser needs and the utility of information re-sources are the various aspects covered in userstudies.

The information users in the field of disabilitiesare highly heterogeneous in nature and includeparents, trainers, various types of professionals(such as psychologists, pediatricians, psychia-trists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists,special educators, speech pathologists, voca-tional guidance counsellors, social workers,orthotic and prosthetic engineers, etc.), research-ers, sociologists, administrators and policy mak-ers.

The education, training, management and reha-bilitation of handicapped persons, in general, andmentally handicapped individuals, in particular,

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C.R. KARISIDDAPPADeptt. of Library & Information

ScienceKarnataka UniversityDharwad

are the main tasks of the professionals workingin the field of disabilities. To integrate theseless fortunate persons in the society and to makethem productive citizens, the experts in the fieldneed to adopt new and innovative teaching/train-ing methods and techniques. To fulfil these tasks,the professionals are required to undertake re-search work to design their activlties/services soas to respond to expressed or unexpressedneeds of the handicapped persons.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A study of 450 medical scientists on the use offormal and informal channels of communicationshowed that the majority of them got the idea ofa new project through personal contacts/discus-sions with their colleagues and the remaininggot from their own personal work [1].

Two types of information seeking behaviour -exploratory behaviour, used in keeping up-to-dateor obtaining background information and obtain-ing reciprocative information illustrating new as-pects of the problem from a variety of sourceshad been reported [2]. There are not many stud-ies reported in the literature on intormation seek-ing behaviours or information requirements ofprofessionals engaged in the care and manage-ment of persons with mental handicap. How-ever, one unique study on information seekingbehaviour of new and experienced researchersin special education in the United States inves-tigated the different search techniques adoptedby newly trained researchers and more experi-enced researchers in seeking information whichrevealed an interesting pattern of the informa-tion seeking behaviours of special education re-searchers who rely mostly on their own knowl-edge and personal files. If these two resource

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categories are combined, they would becomethe most used source among four categoriesmentioned in the survey [3].

Mick [4] observed that the information producingand information seeking behaviours are closelylinked and are the reasons why most informa-tion systems are not better accepted as they failto provide linkage between the two activities.

According to Wilson [5], information seekingbehaviour results from the recognition of someneed, perceived by the user. The behaviour maytake several forms; the user may make demandsfrom formal systems such as, libraries, on-lineservices, information centres or systems whichmay perform information function. The user alsoseeks information from other people through "in-formation exchange". The word "exchange" isintended to draw attention to the element ofreciprocity, recognized by sociologists and so-cial psychologists, as a fundemental aspect ofhuman interaction.

Different categories of social scientists displaysem i-balance in their approach towards 'whatinformation they seek'. They do not tend to dif-fer in respect to 'how they seek their 'informa-tion' in their choice of channels and sources ofinformation [6].

The information seeking behaviour of social sci-entists in developing and developed countriestend to be different on account of differences inthe social systems, infrastructure for collection,storage and utilization of information.

A study on information seeking behaviour, in-cluding use of major bibliographic tools by fac-ulty members at the Illinois University at Chi-cago revealed that over 70 percent of the fac-ulty used Index Medicus or MEDLINE [7]. It wasalso found that there was a wide variation in thenumber and format of secondary services usedby the faculty. The study recommended that train-ing sessions are to be conducted for the userson how to use new formats of bibliographic tools.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

It is imperative to find out the extent of timespent by the user in searching for information

Vol 44 No 2 June 1997

INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR

and how he interacts with the information sys-tem. It is also necessary to investigate whetherthe user relies on documentary or non-documen-tary channels. In other words, these studies helpto find out how a user finds the references re-quired and where does he search for it.

The present study was undertaken during 1993and 1994 to ascertain:

i) types of communication channels used to knowlatest information in the field of interest;

ii) sources used in performing specific researchactivities;

iii) duration of the time spent in browsing/read-.ing literature while performing research ac-tivities.

METHODOLOGY

There are several survey techniques availablefor user studies such as, questionnaire method,personal interview, telephonic interview, diarymethod and observation by self. Methods likeanalysis of library records and citation analysisare also used.

For this study, questionnaire method, supple-mented by interviews in some situations, suchas, a) where the feedbacks were not receivedfrom the respondents b) where the data responsefurnished by the users are ambiguous or misin-terpreted was used. The questionnaire was sentto 300 professionals working in the field, of whichfeed back from 160 respondents were received(a response rate of about 50%). The study wascarried out during the period January, 1993 toDecember, 1994.

Sample Population

The collection of large quantity of data-from theentire gamut of professional community in differ-ent fields of disabilities is too large to be ad-equately covered in a single study. Therefore,the total sample size was restricted to 160comprisinq of 130 professionals working in thefield of mental retardation and 30 professionalsengaged in other disabilities.

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S. Hari Krishna Reddy and C.R. Karisiddappa

The sample population participated in the presentstudy comprised of only those who possess ba-sic qualifications in the area of their specializa-tion of work. The professionals without requiredqualifications were not induded in the study.

The sample population participated in the studyinduded heterogenous group of professionalssuch as, special educators, psychologists, medi-cal personnel, vocational counsellors, speech pa-

thologists, social workers, physiotherapists, oc-cupational therapists, laboratory technicians,orthotic and prosthetic engineers etc., belongingto the institutions where diagnostic, therapeutic,educational and rehabilitational services are pro-vided to the disabled persons and also the pro-fessionals, working in the educational institutionswhose major objective is to develop trainers totrain the disabled.

Table 1

Sources of latest information according to their ranks

SI. Resource Total Percentage RankNo. score

a) Discussions with colleagues 116 72.50 1b) Conf erences/meetings 88 55.00 2c) Library catalogues 85 53.12 3d) By chance 83 51.87 4e) Abstracting/indexing services 81 50.62 5f) Current contents 46 28.75 6g) Subject bibliographies 44 27.50 7h) Bibliographic search service 30 18.75 8i) CAS bulletins 23 14.37 9j) SOl services 11 06.87 10k) Any other - - 11

The data about the sources of latest informationin relation to overall sample revealed that highlyreferred information channels were all informal(inter-personal) channels (Table 1). About 52%to 72.5% of the population have the informalsources as the means for obtaining latest infor-mation in contrast to 7% to 50% of the groupwho relies on formal channels. It is very inter-esting to note that the sample group placesgreater reliance on informal channels rather thanformal sources.

Studies reported by Voigt [8] & Loosjes [9] com-pliment this pattern ..Rosenbloom and Wolek [10]

iI

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reported that engineers were most dependentthan scientists on inter-personal contacts foracquisition of useful information. The reasonsfor this can be attributed to three main factors-non-accessibility/non availability of informationsources to the population; lack of awareness ofthe sources; and lack of knowledge/guidance toconsult different sources. Further, the advantagesof non-formal communication - faster than dis-semination through formal channels, selectivityand specificity of information required, easinessand convenience in accessing the channel, mayalso be the reasons.

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Sources Used in Performing Specific Re-search Activities

One of the central questions put to the respon-dents was to find data on first three sourceswhich they consult in an order of preference forperforming six (stated) specific research activi-


ties - preparation of research article, course ma-terial, proposal for a research project, provisionof consultation service, designing of a trainingpackage and provision of diagnostic/therapeuticservices. Table 2 presents data on rank order ofsources used in preparing research article. It isevident that the general preference is 'journals',

Table 2

Rank order of sources actually used in preparing research article

SI. Resource Weighted scores of Total RankNo. choices wt. score

01 02 03

1. Books 93 83 15 191 22. Journals 168 70 18 256 13. Subject bibliographies 24 14 15 53 54. Abstracting/indexing

services 24 18 12 54 45. Current literature reviews 57 58 15 130 36. Compo aided lit. & per. use

of database 16 7 6 29 87. Meetings/conferences 0 4 9 13 98. Discussion with colleagues 3 8 24 35 79. Own personal files 24 6 11 41 6

Total 409 268 125 802

(x2 = 3.3364; df = 4; N = 160; P:>0.05; NS)

followed by 'books' and 'current literature reviews'as the order of choice. It was observed that thesources such as, 'meetings/conferences', 'com-puter aided literature searches', and 'personaluse of database' were the less frequently usedsources. Although, it is common experience thatcomputer-aided literature searches and use ofdatabase are supposed to be the basic sourcesfor performing research work as well as thepreparation of research art ides , the statisticaltest indicates that there is no significant differ-ence among the different values of the variable.(x2 = 3.3364; df = 4; N = 160; P:>0.05; NS).


Table 3 presents rank order of sources used inpreparing proposal for research project. It wasobserved the that sample population preferredthe 'journals' in this case also, followed by 'cur-rent literature reviews' and 'books'. The resultsindicate that the group seldom uses certain im-portant sources such as, 'subject bibliographies'and 'abstracting/indexing services'. The reasoncould be non-accessibility. The statistical testrevealed that there was significant differenceamong the different values of the variable. (x2 =22.9031; df = 4; N = 160; P:<0.001; VHS).

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S. Hari Krishna Reddy and C.R. Karisiddappal

Table 3

Rank order of sources actually used in preparing proposals for- a research project

SI. Resource Weighted scores Total RankNo. of choices wt. score

01 02 03

1. Books 72 52 13 137 32. Journals 72 58 14 144 13. Subject bibliographies 21 6 10 37 84. Abstracting/indexing services 24 8 8 40 75. Current literature reviews 72 46 21 139 26. Compo aided lit. & per. use


Total 351 224 109 684

(x2 = 22.9031; df = 4; N. = 160; P:<0.OQ1; VHS)

Rank order of sources used in preparing course/teaching materials by the population revaled thatthe order of choice of the gr,?up was 'books',followed by 'journals' and 'current literature re-views' (Table 4). It is observed that non-formalsources such as, 'own personal files' and 'dis-cussion with colleagues' were also resorted toas 4th and 5th choices respectively. These non-formal sources obviously serve as valuablemeans for education and training aspects andas such they were found necessary. The lessfrequently used· sources are 'abstracting/index-ing services' and 'computer aided literaturesearch service'. The statistical test indicates that

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there. is very high significant difference in thedifferent values of the variable. (x2 = 70.2348;df = 4; N = 160; P:<O.OOl; VHS).

The rank order of sources used in providingconsultation services revealed the first prefer-ence for 'books', followed by 'current literaturereviews' and 'journals' (Table 5). However, non-formal sources such as, 'discussion with col-leagues' and 'own personal files' are also pre-ferred as fourth and fifth choices. The statisticaltest indicates that there is significant differenceamong values of the variable. (x2 = 12.7597; df= 4; N = 160; P:<0.05; S).

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Table 4

Rank order of sources actually used in preparing course/teaching materials


01 02 031. Books 288 32 7 327 12. Journals 30 112 24 166 23. Subject bibliographies 6 24 6 36 64. Abstracting/indexing



Total 417 264 116 797

(x2", 70.2:)48; df '" 4; N '" 160; P:>O.OOl; VHS)

Table 5

Rank order of sources actually used in provoding consultation services


01 02 03




Total 333 224 99 656

(x2'" 12.7597; df '" 4; N '" 160; P:<0.05; S)

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Data pertaining to rank order of sources used bythe population in designing training packagerevealed that the order of choice of the groupwas 'books', followed by 'journals' and 'currentliterature reviews' (Table 6). However, recourseto non-formal sources as the next order of pref-

erence was also found to be there. The statis-tical test indicates that there is very high signifi-cant difference among different values of thevariable. (x2 = 48.2355; df = 4; N = 160;P:<0.001; VHS).

Table 6

Rank order of sources actually used in designing training package

-SI. Resource Weighted scores of Total RankNo. choices wt. score

01 02 03


services 9 6 3 18 a5. Current literature reviews 39 42 10 91 36. Compo aided lit. & per. use


Total 336 206 87 629

(x2 = 48.2355; df = 4; N = 160; P:<O.OOl; VHS

Table 7

Rank order of sources actually used in offering diagnostic/therapeutic services


01 02 03

1. Books 150 32 7 189 12. journals 24 56 14 94 33. Subject biblioqraphies 12 12 2 26 74. Abstracting/indexing

services 6 8 2 16 85. Current literature reviews 27 28 11 66 5

contd.

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Table 7 (contn.)


01 02 03

6. Compo aided lit. & per. useof database 6 2 3 11 9

7. Meetings/conferences 12 8 13 33 68. Discussion with colleagues 33 42 21 96 29. Own personal files 51 20 14 85 4

Total 321 208 87 616

(x2 = 12.5259; df = 4; N = 160; P:<0.05; S)

Table 7 provides data on rank order of sourcesused by the population in offering therapeutic/diagnostic services. It was observed that orderof preference was 'books', followed by 'discus-sions with colleagues', 'journals' and 'own per-sonal files'. This means that non-informal sources

along with traditional sources such as, booksand journals are found useful. The statistical testindicates that there is significant differenceamong the values of the variable. (x2 = 12.5259;df = 4; N = 160; P:<0.05; S).

Table 8

Composite table of ranks by sample population across six research ctivities

SI. Resource Research Project Course Consultation Training Therapeutic/No article proposal material service package Diagnostic

service

1. Books 2 3 1 1 1 12. journals 1 1 2 3 2 33. Subject bibliographies4. Abstracting/indexing

services5. Current literature reviews 3 2 3 2 36. Compo aided lit. & per. use

of database7. Meetings/conferences8. Discussion with colleagues 29. Own personal files

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Table 8 presents integrated data of rank order ofsources used by the population in aU the sixspecific situations stated in the questionnaire.The overall preference points out mainly to twotraditional sources, viz., 'books' and 'journals'while they also rely upon 'current literature re-views'.

Time Spent in Browsing/Reading Literature

According to Halbert and Ackoff [11], researchscientists spend about half of their total time insearching and reading literature.

Table 9

Time spent in browsing literature in specific situation overall sample population)

SI. Research Total No. of Mean Time in Time spent in hoursNo. activity hours spent comparison with

in a year 5 hrs. 5-10 10 hrs.a) No. of respondents and hrs. andb) No. of *Prof.Contr. less above

01. Preparingresearch article 4146 a) 25.91 110 10 40

b) 17.06

02. Presentingpapers in conference 1748 a) 10.92 108 16 36

b) 9.50

03. Textbooks/chapters 919 a) 5.74 136 5 19b) 13.50

04. Instructional/cou rsematerial 1743 a) 10.89 111 11 38

b) 12.80

05. Research projects 2393 a) 14.95 124 5 81b) 30.06

06. Budgetary/manpowerproposals 735 a) 4.59 141 6 13

b) 14.70

07. Organisation of workshops 2063 a) 12.89 110 15 35b) 11.80

08. Consultancy services 2323 a) 14.51 113 12 35b) 15.80

"Prot.contr = Professional Contribution

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Data pertaining to the time spent in browsing/reading literature in performing different researchactivities in relation to overall population is given[Table 9] which indicates that' the total popula-tion has spent 4146 hours of brow~ing/readingfor preparing research articles averaging to 25.91hours per subject and 17.06 hours per article.Similarly, they have spent 1748 hours of brows-ing/reading for preparing for conference etc.papers, the mean time being 10.92 hours persubject and 9.50 hours per item. For contribut-ing text/chapters in books, the group has spent919 hours of browsing/reading time averaging to5.74 hours per subject and 13.50 hou rs per item.Similarly for preparing course material, the popu-lation has spent 1743 hours averaging to 10.89hours per subject and 12.80 hours per item. Inthe same way, the population has spent a totalof 2393 hours for research projects, the meantime being 14.95 hours per subject and 30.06hours per item. In preparing budgetary/manpowerproposals, a total of 735 hours of browsinQlread-ing time have been spent which brings theaverage figures of 4.59 hours per subject and14.70 hours per item. Similarly, a total of 2063hours of browsing/reading are spent by the wholegroup for organizing workshops, mean figuresbeing 12.89 hours per subject and 11.80 hoursper item. In the consultancy services, the grouphas spent 2323 hours of browsing/reading, re-sulting in 14.51 hours per subject and 15.80hours per item as the average figures.

These figures reveal that the maximum meantime of 30 hours of browsing/reading is taken inaccomplishing each project, the minimum meantime of 9.50 hours is spent on the preparation ofconference, papers etc. It is but natural that see-jng through a research project warrants moreeffort compared to preparing conference papersetc. The statistical test reveals that there isvery high significant difference in the values ofthe set (x2 = 44.3238; df = 14; N = 160;P:<0.001; VHS).

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

It is seen that users' awareness of sources andaccess tools vary with age, experience, profes-sional, educational and managerial status. Thelarge majority is found to lack awareness ofsources and knowledge of search techniques.



The poor shape of library and information units,the absence of technological applications coupledwith financial and other constraints, obviouslyare the reasons for the lack of users' aware-ness. In comparison to other groups, psycholo-gists are found to present themselves as groupwith better awareness of sources and knowledgeof search techniques.

The study sought to examine the interpersonaland other kinds of informaVnon-documentarysources of information that is dependend upon.It is found that oraVwritten interpersonal com-munication, group meetings, conferences, acci-dentaVby chance means of coming to know aboutinformation do exist as in other areas. However,for effective communication, the formal systemshould necessarily consider the informal meansas well. But, it is not evident in this case be-cause the formal system itself has several con-straints. Notwithstanding the constraints orobstacles the formal system has, it is essentialto organise user education programmes regu-larly to educate/train the users about differenttypes of information tools and services. The li-brary/information system has the primary respon-sibility to reach a minimum level of requirementso as to be capable of handling the complexinformation needs and demands. It is suggestedthat all the special schools should be providedwith appropriate resources and collections of ma-terial in the field of disabilities to meet informa-tion needs of professionals working with disabledpersons.

REFERENCES

1. HERNER (S): The information-gathering hab-its of American medical scientists'. In Pro-ceedings of the International Conference onScientific Information, 1959, November 16-21, 1958. National Academy of Sciences;Washington, D.C. vol. 1, pp. 277-285.

2. BACK (K H): Behaviour of scientists: com-munication and creativity. Sociologicallnquity,32, 1; 1962; 82-87.

3. KAMIL (B L): The information seekingbehaviours of new and experienced research-ers in special education. 1974. Syracuse Uni-versity; Syracuse. pp. 1-56.

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4. MICK (C K): Towards useable user studies.JASIS. 31, 54; 1980, September; 347-356.

5. WILSON (T D): On user studies and infor-mation needs. Journal of Documentation. 37,1; 1981, March; 3.

6. SETHI (A R): Information seeking behaviourof social scientists: an Indian perspective.1990. Hindustan Pub. Co.; Delhi.

7. CURTIS (K L), WELLER (A C) and HURD(J M): Information seeking behaviour: a sur-vey of health science faculty use of indexesand databases. Bulletin of the Medical Li-brary Assoc. 81; 4; 1993, October; 383-392.

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8. VOIGT (M J): Scientists' approaches to in-formation. 1961. American Library Associa-tion; Chicago.

9. lOOSJES (Th. P.): On documentation ofscientific literature. 1973. Butterworths; Lon-don.

10. ROSENBLOOM (R S) and WOlEK (F W):Technology, information and organisation: areport to the National Science Foundation.1967. Harvard University Press; Boston.

11. HALBERT (M H) and ACKOFF (R l): Anoperations research study of the dissemina-tion of information. In International Confer-ence on Scientific Information, pp. 97-130.

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