Information needs and seeking behaviour of Tanzanian forestry researchers in the electronic environment

Abstract

This study examined information needs and seeking behaviour of Tanzanian forestry researchers in the growing global electronic environment. A questionnaire based survey was conducted in three forestry research institutions. The findings indicated a wide range of information needs among forestry researchers in the studied institutions. Findings also revealed that researchers depend mostly on printed sources but evidence also suggests that they use electronic information resources such as CD-Rom databases and Internet services in varying levels. Researchers depend mainly on their institutional libraries, other forestry research institutional libraries as well as those of international and governmental organizations to meet their information needs. The paper recommends that there is a need to improve forestry research institutional libraries and that they should be networked in order to facilitate resource sharing.


University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal Vol.6(1) 2004: 78-89