Fauz Dar Khan
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Ph.D. Thesis INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF TEACHING FACULTY AND MASTER (PREVIOUS/FINAL YEAR) STUDENTS USING CENTRAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR THESIS SUBMITTED TOWARDS THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SINDH, FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE AND ARCHIVE STUDIES FAUZ DAR KHAN Department of Library & Information Science and Archive Studies, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan 2018 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work present in this thesis entitled “INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR (ISB) OF TEACHING FACULTY (TF) AND MASTER (PREVIOUS/FINAL YEAR) STUDENTS (MPFYS) USING CENTRAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR” is the result of my own research and has not been submitted to any other institution for any other degree. ________________________________ Fauz Dar Khan, PhD Scholar, Department of Library & Information Science and Archive Studies, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan II CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the work present in this thesis entitled “INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR (ISB) OF TEACHING FACULTY (TF) AND MASTER (PREVIOUS/FINAL YEAR) STUDENTS (MPFYS) USING CENTRAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR” has been carried out by Mr. Fauz Dar Khan under my supervision. The work is genuine, original and suitable for submission to the University of Sindh for the award of degree of PhD in Library & Information Science and Archive Studies. SUPERVISOR ________________________________ Dr. Rafia Ahmed Sheikh Professor Department of Library & Information Science and Archive Studies, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan III DEDICATION To my FAMILY WHO WENT THROUGH A LOT DURING THE COURSE OF THIS STUDY IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS All Praise to the Almighty Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate, because without His Blessings this study would not have been completed. Scores of people were involved to help this study. It is not possible to mention all of them by name. However, a few deserve to be mentioned here. First of all, I feel immense pleasure to have an honour to acknowledge my teacher-cum-supervisor Prof Dr. Rafia Ahmed Sheikh, HEC Supervisor for her extensive support and guidance in conducting this study. She not only guided me throughout this study but also helped me to learn the basic skills of conducting research. Secondly, I would like to express my acknowledgment to the University of Peshawar for providing me with an opportunity that enabled me to pursue my higher education even hundreds of kilometres (kms) away from my parent university. My deep gratitude to my respected teachers, colleagues, friends and well- wishers who assisted me academically, emotionally and administratively as well. Lack of their support would have caused failure of this research project. They were: Professor Dr. Nisar Ahmad Subhpoto, Chairman; Professors Manzoor Ahmad Hajano, Muhammad Arif Bhatti, Shireen Gul Somro and Dr. Akhtar Rind from the Department of Library and Information Science & Archive Studies, Dr. Sheraz Ilyas Sheikh, Department of Psychology and Dr. Sharif Abbasi, Department of Public Administration, University of Sindh, Jamshoro. My thanks to Professors Hamid Rahman, Syed Liaqat Ali (my honorable teachers & colleagues), Sajjad Ahmad, Asad Khan and Muhammad Ismail (colleagues) for their co-operation at the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Peshawar. I would like to express my cordial thanks to all those who guided and helped me in the collection of data. The librarian and other professional staff of the Peshawar University Campus deserve to be acknowledged for their sincere cooperation, getting questionnaires filled-in from their respective faculty members and students and provided to the researcher. I am thankful to all the faculty members and students from all the six faculties of the University of Peshawar including library staff of Central Library, University of Peshawar who cooperated or responded in one way or another in this study, because without their help, it was not possible for me to accomplish this scholastic investigation. I also appreciate the moral support of Dr. Saeed Ullah Jan who encouraged me throughout my PhD programme. The gratitude would be incomplete if not extended to the programmers, statisticians, editors-cum- proof readers, computer operators (specially Hidayat Ullah, computer operator) whose guidance and help in preparation and operation of excel sheets and SPSS made the research work successful. Last, but certainly not the least, I thank Mr. Mehtab Ahmad, MLISc Student and Mr. Nimat Ullah, my elder son and Mr. Sanaullah, my nephew who contributed by recovering the damaged and lost data of my PhD thesis. Finally, very special thanks to my family members for their patience, moral and financial support. Fauz Dar Khan February 2018 V ABSTRACT The underlying research study explores effectiveness of the resources for the users in the Central Library, UoP under topic ‘‘Information Seeking Behaviour (ISB) of Teaching Faculty (TF) and Master (Previous/Final Year Students) (MPFYS) Using Central Library, University of Peshawar.’’ The main objectives of this inquiry were to investigate information resources used by the TF & MPFYS of the UoP in the Central Library and to analyze the extent to which the existing information resources met their needs. It was presumed that the TF & MPFYS were dependent on and faced some problems in using resources in the Central Library. The current investigation is based on a population of 5474 from all the six faculties under stratified random sampling of 890 TF & MPFYS. A sequential and quantitative method approach was adopted to collect the research data through questionnaire as in the earlier similar studies most frequently used methodologies were questionnaires and interviews based surveys. An extensive amount of literature available on information needs and information seeking behaviour of the users was reviewed. The past readings also showed that the determined investigation would influence on the information style of the TF & MPFYS. However, literature relevant to the staff and students using Central Library of the University of Peshawar was not available. Information needs and its seeking behaviour had effects in one way or the other on the learning process that the TF & MPFYS used. All the participants of the study were overall dependent on resources of the Central Library of University of Peshawar. These resources were important, satisfactory and preferable to some extent for the respondents. The printed materials and e-resources available in mother or in non-mother languages in the Central Library appealed to a maximum number of users to accomplish their desired pursuits. The respondents were highly satisfied with the subject books, e-resources, reference books and newspapers. They visited the library as frequently as they felt the need of information. They stayed 2-3 hours per week in the library for using the resources in a peaceful environment. Although the findings indicated that the respondents faced several problems, causing anxiety while using resources in the Central Library, yet they could find 50% of their desired information. The respondents had ‘good’ skills to seek help of the library staff in search of information resources in the Central Library, UoP. They could not be satisfied fully with the staff’s help. It was suggested that the Central Library, University of Peshawar should have designed information system, like orientation programme measures, enrolling high qualified and experienced staff to balance development of collection, manage system for human resources development, addition of computers in the laboratory, provision of secondary services and to arrange alternate power supply. This study may well be repeated after every ten years. No such study like the present one in the University of Peshawar has been conducted so far. This study will, therefore, be of great importance for this university, may for any university in the country. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATRION ..................................................................................................... II CERTIFICATE ......................................................................................................... III DEDICATION........................................................................................................... IV ACKNOWLEGMENTS ............................................................................................. V ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………VI TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................VII LIST OF TABLES…… ....................................................................................... ..XIV LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………….………………………..XVII ABBREVIATIONS….........................................................................................XVIII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………1 1.1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….…….1 1.2 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS……………………………………………..2 1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM……………………………………….....4 1.4 BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INFORMATION......................6 SEEKING BEHAVIOUR 1.5 PAKISTANI SCENARIO…………… …………………….…………..........7 1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY…….. ………………………………………..........8 1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY………………………………….…........8 1.8 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY ………………………………………........10 1.9 AIMS, OBJECTIVES, HYPOTHESES H(S) AND RESEARCH ………….10 QUESTIONS RQ(S) OF THE RESEARCH 1.9.1 AIMS…………………………………………………………………...10 1.9.2