University faculty and networked information: Results of a survey

Abstract

Little is known about the habits or attitudes of university faculty towards the use of networked information. In order to gain some understanding of this matter, a questionnaire was mailed in the fall of 1995 to all faculty in 6 different departments at 8 universities across the country. Questions dealt with accessibility to networks, submission and/or subscription to electronic journals, use of networks for other purposes (such as access to data sets or searching library catalogs), and effects of networked information on collaboration. In general, the faculty tend to be conservative in their use and attitudes, since their institutions tend to be conservative. This is particularly evident regarding submission of work to electronic journals, which tend to be perceived as not contributing to instrumental goals, such as promotion and tenure. On the other hand, there are indications that networked information does have an impact on some faculty members' patterns of collaboration. Specifically, there seems to be some geographic and disciplinary broadening. There are some apparent variances in responses by such demographic variables as gender, rank, and departmental affiliation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.