Web Searching Patterns Used by Social Sciences Faculty and Researchers

Abstract

This study is focused to find the web searching patterns used by the faculty and researchers of Social Sciences, at the universities of Punjab and Chandigarh in India.
A survey method was used to collect the primary data from the sample of 532 respondents including social sciences faculty and researchers from the total population of 1061 including 08 departments of Social Sciences in three universities. The proportionate random sampling method was used to select the sample. The data were collected through structured questionnaire method and further analysed using SPSS using descriptive statistical data analysis techniques and Chi-square test was used to test the hypothesis.
Results of the survey revealed that the majority of social sciences faculty and researchers search the web to accomplish their research related activities and for writing research papers. They use mostly a simple search technique and rarely use advanced search technique. They generally prefer a search engine to find the web resources mostly in text-format and the majority of them having the ability to search and use the web ‘to some extent’ only.
Therefore, this study concludes that there is a significant difference between the social sciences faculty and researchers related to their ability to search the web. Hence, there are still a lot of things to be done by the university libraries to ensure the optimal use of the web by the social sciences faculty and researchers.