Information Search Strategies among LIS Professionals: A Case Study of Selected Institutions in India

This study examined Information Search Strategies employed by Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals of selected institutions in India for research. Questionnaire was used as the main instrument for the gathering of data. Data collected were analyzed using simple frequency tables and mean. Search specialists can be found in libraries of all kinds, but are located especially in college and university libraries and in the information centre and other special libraries associated with business and industrial organizations, law firms and medical establishments. Some search specialists are freelance entrepreneurs, in business for themselves and actively marketing their services to special user populations. clients of online information retrieval search specialists include undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in academic libraries, and scientists, engineers, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and many others using special libraries and information centres to help satisfy their information needs. The study revealed that most of the respondents belonging to various educational qualifications prefer 'their library catalogue', except the respondents belonging to 'UG in LIS' qualification. Most of the respondents (44.4%) belonging to 'UG in LIS' qualification prefer 'open access databases' to seek needed information, followed by 'their library catalogue' (22.2%). The findings of such study would put light on the important data and insight into the current state of practices of LIS professionals and their understanding about information searching process on internet. The outcome and suggestions of the study would be beneficial for them to take appropriate measures to improve their information search strategy skills.