Understanding the information seeking habits
of researchers: A global perspective
Jenny Emanuel
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Introduction
Through a two year collaboration with the University of Illinois and
Dow Chemical Company, librarians and members of Dow’s Technical
Information Services (TIS) group are examining the information seeking
habits of Dow researchers. Dow TIS is interested in the results in order
to meet the needs of its users through training as well as work to
improve tools offered by Dow to search their internal information
resources as well as influence external subscription tools. The
University of Illinois is interested in studying information seeking
habits among a group of researchers not affiliated with a university as
well as work to improve information literacy among future researchers
at corporations such as Dow.
Researchers from North America tend to have the most electronic
search experience, followed by European researchers. Asian
researchers tend to have the least amount of experience.
The project team initially assessed, and became familiar with, the
research tools available to users at Dow before creating a project plan.
The methods involve an extensive survey offered to Dow Research &
Development employees worldwide and follow up, hands on
observational sessions with individuals regarding their interactions with
Dow resources in order to get broad information on how Dow
employees conduct research. This research focuses on the
international employees who completed the survey. Follow up sessions
will occur throughout fall 2012.
Dow, a major multinational chemical company has approximately
40,000 employees located worldwide and conducts research in areas
including advanced materials, chemicals, hydrocarbons, energy,
plastics, and agricultural sciences. Dow has research sites in many
countries, with major sites including the United States, the
Netherlands, Brazil, China, and India. Although Dow primarily
conducts business in English, many employees use English as a second
language and are not always comfortable using it to search for
Methods
information.
A survey created using Survey Monkey was disseminated with two email
announcements to the Research & Development group at Dow during
May, 2012, running for two weeks. The survey had six sections,
including:
• Information seeking at Dow
• Training
• Demographics
• Education
• Language
• Technology Experience & Use
A follow up observational study will be conducted in Fall 2012 utilizing
Adobe Connect and Morae. It will focus on how individuals search for
information, including methods and resources used, obstacles, and
attitudes towards specific tools.
General Data
There were 996 survey respondents worldwide. Females comprised
one third of respondents and 2/3 were male. English is the native
language for 2/3. Of the 756 who specified their geographical area,
most came from North America, but other regions were represented:
Location
Percent
Count
North America
76.46%
578
Asia Pacific
11.71%
89
Europe
9.39%
71
Latin America
2.25%
17
Middle East & Africa
0.13%
1
33.25% indicated their native language was not English. Other
languages spoken include Chinese (81), Spanish (22), German (19),
Dutch (15), French (12), Hindi (9), Portuguese (9), and Italian (7).
Geographical Differences
Education
Researchers from the Asia Pacific region, Europe, and North America
are most likely to have a Doctorate. Latin American researchers
generally have a Bachelor's degree.
Asia Pacific (55.6%) and European (37.5%) had formal research training
while in school, though Asia Pacific (77.8%), Latin America (100.0%),
and North American (85.2%) researchers learned on their own. Asia
Pacific and European researchers also believed that their education
prepared them well for the research and information seeking aspects
of their job, while Latin and North American respondents felt their
education prepared them a little.
Asking for Assistance
Researchers in Europe and North America are more likely to be
independent searchers, while Latin American researchers want more
assistance with searching. Asia Pacific researchers were more likely to
ask for assistance, especially when there might be consequences for
missing information. Middle Eastern and African researchers are more
likely to ask for help and have someone do searches for them.
Working Remotely
European and Latin American researchers are the least likely to work
remotely.
Asia
Pacific
Europe
Middle
Latin
North
East and
America
America
Africa
Yes
73.60%
50.70%
56.30%
100.00% 67.40%
No
26.40%
49.30%
43.80%
0.00%
32.60%
Training
Researchers in the Asia Pacific region were the most likely to have
participated in training. European, Latin American, and North
American users are most likely to be self-taught or have learned from a
colleague. Latin American users also use online materials and
documentation.
Latin American researchers rated training most positively. Users in the
Asia Pacific region preferred in-person classes, while European users
preferred virtual courses and webinars. North American researchers
liked all types of training.
Researchers from the Asia Pacific region and Europe prefer training to
be onsite with a lecturer. Latin American researchers prefer computer
guided tutorials, while North American users desire an archived
webinar to access on demand.
Features within Resources
The majority of participants do not use features of provided resources,
including linking to social media, tagging, creating alerts, emailing and
linking to citation management software. When they do, they are not
frequently used.
Technology
Overall, researchers feel comfortable about technology in general.
They are most comfortable using video conferencing software. They
tend to use mobile devices, especially those running iOS. They do use
social networking for professional use, with the dominant tools being
Facebook and LinkedIn. However, they are not very familiar with other
information seeking technologies, such as EndNote (which is provided),
tagging, RSS, and blogging platforms. Researchers in the Asia Pacific
region tended to be more familiar with RSS and tagging than other
regions. Individuals generally teach themselves about new technology.
Contact
If you would like more information, a copy of the survey tool, or are
interested in collaborating on international user experience projects,
please contact Jenny Emanuel at emanuelj@illinois.edu. More
information about this project is available
at http://www.jennyemanuel.com/wp/2012ifla/
Special thanks to:
Margaret Hentz, The Dow
Chemical Company
Charlotte Roh, University of
Illinois
RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012
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