Conversations with chemists: information seeking behavior of chemistry faculty in the electronic age.

Date
2002
Authors
Flaxbart, David
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Abstract

Six faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin were interviewed one-on-one to gather information about their information-seeking behavior, favored resources, and opinions about the transition from a print to an electronic information environment. In most cases, these chemistry faculty members have eagerly embraced the enhanced access to chemical information made possible by the steady addition of electronic journals and networked database systems. The most-cited benefits include significant time-saving and convenience as well as access to more journals than ever. As a result, use of the physical library and its printed collections by faculty is declining. Chemistry faculty interviewed expressed a strong self-reliance in their information-seeking skills, and showed sophistication in their choice of tools.

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Description
This manuscript is a final draft of the article as submitted to the Haworth journal Science and Technology Libraries in December 2002. Due to editorial error, Haworth published an earlier draft of this paper instead of the final draft. They declined to rectify this error in the online version of the journal. The reader is advised that the author considers this version to be the definitive final draft that should have been published but was not. Scholars wishing to cite this work should preferably cite this final preprint, rather than the published article.
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