Information seeking behaviour of faculty members of Karpagam University in Coimbatore, India

The purpose of this study is to identify the information channels used by the Karpagam University faculty members, information sources preferred by them, methods employed for getting the needed information and their library use pattern. A questionnaire was distributed to 160 faculty members and 132 filled questionnaires were returned, giving an overall response rate of 82.5 percent. Results show that most of the respondents seek information for preparing lectures. It is revealed that most of the faculty members used textbooks. Books were ranked as the most important source for teaching and research purposes. The internet had been almost universally adopted; they trace materials from the library via the internet. On the whole, respondents perceived Karpagam University library collections, services and facilities as adequate to meet their information needs effectively.