The Information-Seeking Habits of Engineering Faculty

Debra Engel is Associate Dean of Libraries for Public Services, Sarah Robbins is Web Services Coordinator, and Christina Kulp is Sciences Librarian at University of Oklahoma Libraries; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected], respectively. © Debra Engel, Sarah Robbins, and Christina Kulp Many studies of information-seeking habits of engineers focus on understanding the similarities and differences between scientists and engineers. This study explores the information-seeking behavior of academic engineering faculty from twenty public research universities. This investigation includes an examination of how frequently engineering faculty seek or access information, how they keep abreast of current developments in the field and find less recent journal articles, how often they visit the library in person, and how important library services and resources are in meeting their information needs. The responses from the survey participants emphasize the importance of electronic access to current and archived scholarly journals for meeting the research and information needs of engineering faculty.