Defining the Need for Information Technology Instruction Among Science Faculty

ABSTRACT

While university students increasingly turn to the Internet and other electronic resources for research, a recent national survey found that these same technologies generate significant stress among the majority of university faculty. Does this finding hold true for the science faculty at Texas A&M University? If so, would an instruction program tailored to the science faculty help alleviate their stressquest; To answer these questions, a survey was conducted with the faculty in six science departments on campus. Results, though not generalizable, suggest that the faculty in these six departments require little Internet instruction. Rather, instruction for these six departments needs to raise their awareness of available resources, especially electronic article databases. The results further suggest that few faculty would participate in one-on-one or group instruction, preferring handouts and websites instead.

Key Words:

• Electronic article databases
• engineering faculty
• information technology
• Internet
• library instruction
• science faculty
• stress
• university libraries
• user needs
• user surveys
• World Wide Web