Personal Digital Information Management practices among University Academic Community: A Case Study

Abstract

Personal Digital Information Management (PDIM) is exceedingly important in this information era. Digital information plays a significant role in the present academic context, since university academia extensively uses digital material. Though the university academia promptly worked with digital information, limited studies were carried out in the Sri Lankan context. Hence, the literature is lacking in this regard. Objective of this study was statistical analysis of PDIM keeping and organizing practices of Uva Wellassa University academics. The study explored the PDIM practices in relation to organizing and maintaining information of university academics at Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka using a questionnaire as a research tool. According to the finding, the tested cohort was awarded the importance of managing personal digital information and nearly half always tried to do so. Most preferred to store web content on their computers and laptops were the most common location for storing personal digital information. They averagely used three digital devices where laptop and Smartphone were the most commonly used digital devices. The cohort preferred to organize information in folder wise in their computers according to the content. Almost one-third of the community believed in cloud based storage services. Almost half of the respondents chose the format of the document that is best known to them, while a handful were interested in voice formats. Zoom was the most familiar social media platform and the main purpose was to share information. The study suggests and recommends conducting more qualitative research on the meta-level personal digital information management practices using more different cohorts from the different universities to generalize the findings