Nature of the Information Seeking Behaviour of Teachers Engaged in General Degree Colleges and Teachersʼ Training Colleges: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

The nature of the information seeking behaviour of the teachers engaged in General Degree Colleges and Teachersʼ Training Colleges affiliated to West Bengal State University, India, is critically analysed in the present study. The descriptive analysis is based on well structured, close-ended questionnaires which were distributed among 450 teachers. 408 of them responded from whom 376 work in General Degree Colleges and 32 in Teachersʼ Training Colleges. The analysis of the data shows that teachers still depend mainly on printed documents, but a changing attitude is taking place in the current ICT environment as they also start to depend on electronic documents for meeting their information needs. This paper also explores the sources used by the teachers of both groups for research activities, focusing on the variability in the use of such sources of information. Additionally, this study reveals the attitudes of the teachers towards the services provided by the libraries. It is recommended that the college libraries are restructured with internet facilities and sufficient resources, in order to meet the information needs of the college teachers. In this context, the college librarians should provide basic software training to the users, to help them access the electronic sources.

Keywords

• electronic documents
• general degree colleges and teachersʼ training colleges
• information needs
• information seeking behaviour