Undergraduate Information-seeking Behaviour Framework in an Electronic Environment

Abstract

Information-seeking behaviour differs among students due to the differences in their information needs and gaps. Previous studies concluded that lack of knowledge about information-seeking behaviour is one of the factors that contribute to students’ failure in searching for useful information. Therefore, research on undergraduate informationseeking behaviour is important to facilitate in searching for and retrieving the required information effectively. The purpose of this paper was to develop an undergraduate information-seeking behaviour framework in seeking academic information. Data was collected using questionnaires administered to 346 undergraduate students randomly selected from Universiti Utara Malaysia. The collected data was analysed by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Based on the findings, the undergraduate information-seeking behaviour framework in an electronic environment was developed. This framework can be adopted by lecturers to facilitate better information-search strategies during information-seeking activities in finding the relevant information effectively.