Research Content as an Expression of the Scholarly Information Seeking Habits and Behavior of University Faculty

Abstract

A group of faculty and staff of the Missouri State University (MSU) Libraries, assisted by an anthropologist, conducted a survey and then an ethnographic study using direct observation and semi-structured interviews of a broad sample of MSU faculty members to explore faculty scholarly information seeking habits and behavior. Research questions explored where faculty researched, what they used, and whom they consulted for assistance. This article will discuss the methodologies of the study, as well as its findings on content used by faculty, to be followed by a companion article discussing findings on services and spaces.

Keywords:

• Information seeking behavior
• library ethnography
• faculty research
• interviews
• user needs
• academic libraries

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all the MSU faculty members who have participated in our research and express our gratitude for their time and effort. We also wish to acknowledge the valuable guidance of Dr. William Meadows on conducting ethnographic research but take full responsibility for any errors. We are also grateful to Ms. Teresa Bergen for making typewritten transcriptions of the recorded interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Additional data from this study are openly available in BearWorks: A record of scholarship, research, and publication at Missouri State University at https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/reports-lib/1.

Additional information

Funding

Transcription services in this work were supported by the Missouri State University Libraries under a Summer Innovation Grant.