Hart, Richard Lukens Hart, Richard Lukens. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1993. 193p. Barbara B. Moran. Previous studies of information-gathering behavior among scholars and scientists have focused on faculty at major research universities or on national samples of scholars in specific subject areas. Similar to previous research it was found that reliance on books and journals varies across the disciplinary areas of the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.
Faculty rely more on formal sources of information than they do on informal sources.
A central issue of the study concerned the manner in which the faculty members' commitments to teaching, to research, and to service influenced their information- gathering behavior. Findings indicate that these three aspects of the professional role are related to the faculty members' preferences for sources of information. Commitment to teaching relates positively to use of both the College library and off-campus libraries. Commitment to service relates positively to use of the personal library and to contact with colleagues on and off the campus. There is no relationship between level of courses taught by the faculty member and use of sources of information.