Iranian engineers' information needs and seeking habits: an agro-industry company experience

Abstract

Introduction. This descriptive research attempted to investigate the information seeking behaviour of engineers at Khuzestan Sugar-Cane and By-Product Company in Iran. Method. To collect the data, a questionnaire was distributed using Likert-type questions with six points ranging from 'never use' to 'very useful'. Of the 250 questionnaires distributed, 158 (63.2%) were used in the data analyses. The reliability coefficient was measured by the Cronbach Alpha which was 0.81 Analysis. Analysis of variance and the Tukey test were used to test the sole hypothesis of the research and to see if engineers who worked in various sites were different in their information-seeking behaviour. To answer the research questions, descriptive statistics were employed. Results. The results showed that the engineers in different work areas were significantly different in terms of information-seeking behaviour. The most important motivations for seeking information were: to develop their knowledge and expertise; to be able to use new job-related technologies and to be up-to-date in their specialty. Conclusions. Distance appears to have impact on information use and information-seeking behaviour of engineers. Thus, librarians must consider the Zipf's 'principle of least effort' in serving their clients.

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