INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF POST GRADUATE STUDENTS AT YOGI VEMANA UNIVERSITY, KADAPA, A.P.: A STUDY

Information Seeking Behavior (ISB) varies across user groups. Academic libraries, in order to satisfy such expectations, must first assess the information requirements of library users at various levels. Julien (1996), defined ISB as “that which is concerned with determining a user's information needs, searching behaviour, and subsequent use of information”. According to Wilson (2000), ISB is defined as “The purposive seeking for information as a consequence of a need to satisfy a goal. In the course of seeking, the individual may interact with manual information systems such as a newspaper or a library or with computer-based systems such as the World Wide Web (WWW)”. In searching and retrieving the information, postgraduate students are helpless to challenges such as existing information gaps in the pursuit of their academic and scholarly works (Kalantari, 2017). This article describes ISB and user satisfaction of postgraduate students at Yogi Vemana University in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh. Data collection from postgraduate students was conducted using a self-developed online questionnaire. The data was collected from 15th July to 15th August 2021. Out of 410 students, 319 (77.80%) of them responded. The data was analysed keeping in view the research objectives. According to this survey's results, 113 (35%) students visit the library on alternate days, whereas 97 (30%) of respondents visit once a week. 124 (38.4%) respondents spent less than one hour in the library. 131 (40.5%) of the respondents said they visit the library to prepare for the competitive exams. 205 (63.5%) of the respondents preferred print and electronic (both) formats.