A study on the use of internet by Indian academics for their research activities

Abstract

One of the revolutions in recent times of the computer history has been that of networking. A world wide network of network today is what has manifested as the itself the internet. Internet may thus be envisaged as "a large network of network that may work as a world wide channel of communication, a large storage of information, an information super highway and much more." The internet has been able to bring great changes in our daily lives. It has influenced the individuals in their professional and domestic activities. For academics the internet is more beneficial for their research activities. The objective of the research is to find the usage of the internet by Indian academics for their research activities. A quantitative and a qualitative survey was done to gather data in the areas of (1) purpose of use (2) methods of locating information and (3) search techniques used in retrieving the information by the Indian academics. A questionnaire was administrated to participants of the 6 ts' orientation course at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. The sample represented all disciplines such as social sciences, sciences, humanities, commerce and management. The participants of the course represented every part of India. Data analysis revealed that a large number of Indian academics use the internet for their research and communication purposes. Again they used the internet because of accuracy and currency of information. They have been generally interested in e mail, sending papers/ articles to scholarly publications, using search engines to find information and staying current with new developments. The survey concludes that more awareness about internet resources and training in use of the same needs to be provided by library professionals.