Identifying electronic information needs of agricultural faculty members
2007
Jafar Yaghoubi
The main goal of this study was to identify the information needs of Agricultural Faculty Members in Iran. A descriptive method using a web-based survey was conducted to gather the data. The validity of the tool was obtained by a panel of experts, and the pilot test was conducted to test the reliability of the research tool. About 101 members of the Agriculture faculty participated in the study after three follow up letters. The data was analyzed using SPSS program. The results showed that the main use of electronic information sources were for research work. About three quarters of faculty members preferred electronic sources to printed ones. Also, the findings showed that the main information needs of faculty members were: Research papers published in journals, announcement for seminar and symposium, research journal list, announcement of research projects, statistics about agricultural and animal products, thesis abstract, book presentation, conferece proceedings, paper indexes, research projects and review papers in magazines. The result also indicated that there were significant relationship between skills of faculty members in computer and internet surfing and their use of this facility. These findings have implications for Agricultural Higher Education policy makers in developing countries to implement workshops about ICT use and informational databases in agriculture to improve their services to the industry.
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