This paper discusses the information seeking behaviour of computer science graduate
students, from University of Malaya. The study was carried out by examining the use of
different information resources during the information seeking process, and investigated
any problems encountered. It was discovered that respondents, in general, employed
convenience information seeking behaviour, which was demonstrated by the use of
internet search engines as their first choice of information resource, to seek a general
understanding of the subject matter. Moreover, most respondents that were unsatisfied
with their initial findings, tended to use other resources, such as Digital Library and Online
Databases to gain further understanding and search for more trustworthy material.
This agrees with other findings that reported searcher preference of using the Internet
(commonly Google), because of its simplicity, accessibility, convenience, speed, free
access, and it provides unlimited full-text content, compared to OPAC, Online Databases,
and Digital Library (Bell 2004; Brophy and Bawden 2005; Rowlands et al. 2008; Wu and
Chen 2010). However, the computer science students still faced problems with information
seeking, mainly related to being inundated with information retrieved and difficulties
ensuring that the information resources are trustworthy. This was expected, as Internet
Search Engines guarantee results for every search, by normally giving a high number of hits
for every search term used.
A further investigation on the use of different information resources in the information
seeking process, through cross tabulating usage with problems faced and success in finding
information, revealed that those respondents were in essence having problems using
internet search engines, OPAC, and Online databases; with fewer problems indicated when
using Digital Library. This was possibly because Digital Library normally holds a collection of
information on a particular domain that could meet the respondents’ information needs;
therefore, respondents had fewer problems in evaluating information for its relevancy and
trustworthiness.