Survey of Science Researchers
We are conducting an important survey to help UNC better support academic researchers by improving their access to information. This study has been developed in cooperation with the libraries (Academic Affairs and all its branches, Health Sciences Library), Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, Center for Bioinformatics, RENCI, and the School of Information and Library Science. The department chairs in the sciences have committed their support for this survey and ask that their faculty and students complete it. Scientifically, the results will be of interest in understanding how scientists search out and use information in this electronic age, and to build models of their workflow. More importantly, for practicing scientists at UNC, the results will be used to help improve the libraries’ service to you.
The results of the survey will help us understand changes that are occurring in the way academic researchers seek out and use information. We believe that nearly ubiquitous desktop access to computers and the internet, combined with electronic access to research materials such as journal articles, has transformed how scientists work. Twenty years ago, only a few researchers accessed articles electronically from their desktop and most visited the library regularly. Today, most do not visit the library and almost all receive their journal articles at their desktop. They publish papers on their web pages. Students begin their searches with Google. Libraries are in the midst of reinventing themselves to deal with these changes. But are they making the right choices? We seek to understand the information seeking behavior and preferences of academic scientists today in order to provide better tools for their research. Participation from all the major information organizations on campus demonstrates their commitment to improving the services provided to you.
In order to be effective, we need all faculty members and graduate students in the sciences to complete this short (10 minute) survey. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey so that we can help serve your information needs better.
http://ivlab3.ils.unc.edu/isb/unc/
Thank you for your help!
Brad Hemminger, PhD
School of Information and Library Science
Principal Investigator
966-2998