A Study of the Information Seeking Behavior of Communication Graduate Students in Their Research Processes
Resource
Journal of Library and Information Studies, v.9 n.2 pp.91-122
Journal
圖書資訊學刊
Journal Volume
v.9 n.2 pp.91-122
Pages
-
Date Issued
2011-12
Date
2011-12
Author(s)
Chen, Shih-Chuan
Abstract
Thesis is the research outcome that a graduate student spends most of his or her time and energies to achieve. Therefore, the research process of student’s thesis writing is an important topic to be investigated. The main purpose of this study is to explore graduate students’ information seeking behavior during the process of thesis writing. Ten graduate students in the field of communication were interviewed, and their information horizon maps as well as bibliographical references were analyzed also. Results showed that the library, as a formal channel, is the primary source for graduate students. The documents that they used most often were theses and dissertations, monographs, and journals. In addition to the formal channels, social network also played as a very important role in students’ research process. The networks even changed their information seeking behaviors in formal channels. Students reported several problems encountered in the research process, such as lacking of the background knowledge of the interdisciplinary, being unable to find out the core and relevant documents from the search results, etc. In conclusion, graduate students’ information seeking behavior changed at different stages in the research process.
Subjects
Information Horizon
Information Seeking Behavior
Communication Studies
Graduate Students
Research Process
Publisher
Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University
Type
journal article
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