Current and former MSU Libraries employees have published an article entitled Research Content as an Expression of the Scholarly Information Seeking Habits and Behavior of University Faculty in the Journal of Library Administration. A second companion article, Research Services and Spaces as Expressions of the Scholarly Information Seeking Habits

and Behavior of University Faculty, will also be published later this summer in the same journal. Both articles are based upon our study Scholarly Information Seeking Habits and Behaviors of Missouri State University (MSU) Faculty found in BearWorks. The authors are Associate Professor Andrea Miller, Distributed User Support Specialist Janelle Johnson, Faculty Emeritus Lynn Cline, Kent State University Instructor and independent Knowledge Management consultant Dr. William Edgar, Library Associate I Scott Fischer, and Professor Grace Jackson-Brown.

 

The group, with assistance from MSU anthropology faculty member Dr. William C. Meadows, conducted a survey and then an ethnographic study using direct observation and semi-structured interviews of a broad sample of MSU faculty members to explore faculty scholarly information seeking habits and behavior. Research questions examined where faculty researched, what they used, and whom they consulted for assistance. The first article discusses the methodologies of the study, as well as its findings on content used by faculty. The second article will discuss findings related to services and spaces used or desired by faculty. The original study has served as a springboard for an additional study, recently completed, focusing on the scholarly information discovery processes of faculty.

 

The authors wish to thank all the MSU faculty members who have participated in our research and express our gratitude for their time and effort.