International Journal of Digital Library Services (IJODLS)
April - June, 2012, Volume-2, Issue-2, ISSN:2250-1142
INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF THE PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS IN JAMMU & KASHMIR: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Dr. Mudasir Ashraf
ABSTRACT
A survey was conducted to explore the information seeking behaviour of physicians and surgeons of J&K working at primary, secondary and tertiary health care institutions by administrating a questionnaire and employing stratified random sampling. The findings reveal that the main reasons of professionals for seeking information are keeping up-to-date with current developments in the respective medical field and diagnosis/ treatment recommendations. The results also depict that the professionals prefer textbooks the most followed by reference books and journals and make less use of online databases. Several factors influence the use of information sources by physicians and surgeons like availability, timeliness, ease of searching, currency, relevance etc. Survey results also highlights areas in which improvements are needed, such as availability of Internet facilities at work place, establishment of libraries in every medical institution, conduct of frequent seminars, conferences, user awareness programmes etc. This study may encourage and foster further research for effectiveness and better performance of medical libraries in the State.
