This study explores the information-seeking behavior of academic education faculty from twenty large public research universities. The investigation includes an examination of how frequently education faculty seek or access information, how they stay up-to-date on current developments in the field and identify less recent journal literature, how valuable library resources and services are to their information needs, and the importance of library research to the field of education. The responses from the survey participants emphasize the importance of electronic access to scholarly journals and library databases and the continuing value of books, both print and electronic, for meeting the information and research needs of education faculty.he information-seeking habits and information needs of faculty are of interest and importance to academic librarians. Knowing the information that is desired by faculty, for what purposes, and how it is discovered, can guide an array of academic library services, policies, programmatic offerings, and collection development activities. To this end, studies of faculty in a range of disciplines have been conducted, from engineering and chemistry to social work and art. No studies, however, have been conducted primarily on education faculty. Noting this, the authors set out to learn more about the information-seeking behaviors of education faculty in an effort to begin addressing this gap in the literature.This article seeks to address some aspects of the information-seeking behavior and information needs of education faculty. The researchers explored what tools faculty use to meet their research needs, how frequently information is sought, in what ways currency in the field of education is maintained, and the importance of library resources and services in meeting the information needs of faculty. The article is the second in a series of articles designed to gather data on information-seeking behaviors of faculty in the disciplines.

Many studies of information-seeking habits of engineers focus on understanding the similarities and differences between scientists and engineers. This study explores the information-seeking behavior of academic engineering faculty from twenty public research universities. This investigation includes an examination of how frequently engineering faculty seek or access information, how they keep abreast of current developments in the field and find less recent journal articles, how often they visit the library in person, and how important library services and resources are in meeting their information needs. The responses from the survey participants emphasize the importance of electronic access to current and archived scholarly journals for meeting the research and information needs of engineering faculty.cademic librarians continuously strive to meet the information needs of their users. This requires an understanding of their users' information needs and information-seeking behaviors. This study examines the information-seeking behavior of engineering faculty at twenty academic institutions from across the United States. To better understand how engineering faculty are responding to changes in the information environment, the researchers examined how frequently engineering faculty seek or access information to complete specific tasks, how engineering faculty keep abreast of current developments, how they discover less recent journal articles in their field, how often they visit the library in person, and how important library resources and services are in meeting their information needs.Understanding the nature of the user community and the information-seeking habits and practices of the users are common themes in library literature. With improved understanding of the information-seeking behavior of engineers in academic environments, librarians can better develop information services and resources, implement policies that help engineering faculty access quality information, and improve collection development practices. Literature Review Engineers as PractitionersKing, Casto, and Jones compiled a comprehensive literature review of engineers' information needs, noting that "the 1960s yielded a plethora of STI [scientific and technical information] user studies and surveys largely funded by the federal government."1 The information-seeking crl-155

Studies of information-seeking behaviors are common in the professional literature for library and information studies. This study examines the generalizability of findings of single-institution studies to other institutions by performing an institution-to-institution comparison of the results obtained from an information-seeking behavior survey sent to engineering faculty at twenty research institutions.n an age when libraries are fighting for limited resources and justifying their existence when "everything can be found online," it is critical that librarians have an understanding of their users' needs. To gain an understanding of user needs, many libraries have undertaken assessment studies, the results of which are often published in the professional literature. However, these articles, written by practitioners, frequently present a study conducted at a single institution with little attention paid to generalizing the findings to a broader audience; readers are left to wonder how, if at all, the results apply to them. Since undertaking such studies can be costly and time consuming, it is important for the profession to learn how to present findings in a meaningful way to maximize generalizations to similar library settings so that a professional culture of sharing assessment responsibilities is developed.For the current study, identical user surveys related to the information-seeking behavior of engineering faculty were conducted at twenty research institutions. However, rather than looking at the data in aggregate to determine information behaviors of engineering faculty members, this study examines results by institution and compares the findings at other institutions included in the study to ascertain to what extent librarians can apply the findings of single-institution research to their own situations. It is not uncommon for us to think our situation and users are unique, but do these beliefs reflect reality? Review of the Literature Practitioner-Researchers in LibrariesIn many academic libraries, librarians hold tenure-track faculty positions and are required to perform duties similar to those crl-156

This chapter examines the evolution of the electronic resources librarian position within academic libraries as a result of increasing demands for electronic resources and the need for librarians devoted to planning, selecting, implementing, and evaluating electronic resources. The authors discuss the core competencies of electronic resources librarians and analyze the content of job advertisements for electronic resources librarian positions published in the College & Research Libraries News and The Chronicle of Higher Education between July 2001 and June 2006. The analysis reveals that electronic resources librarians are expected to be skillful communicators and collaborators as well as experienced with technology and versed in the issues surrounding electronic resources. Implications of these findings on the organizational structure are discussed.