Government Document Survey Results

Identifying Factors that Influence the Professional Use of the World Wide Web for Government Information

Joe Salem Jr.

I am a graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University and as part of the requirements for graduation, I conducted a study to examine the factors that influence the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) for government information. As a significant part of the study I surveyed librarians and information specialists regarding their use of Web-based government information. The results of the survey are discussed in Identifying Factors that Influence the Professional Use of the World Wide Web for Government Information. A discussion of the conclusions follows as well.

Conclusions

With the proliferation of information resources on the WWW, the general public is becoming increasingly more information dependent. Although the number of Americans with internet connection continues to grow, the vast majority remain unconnected. Even experienced users need help retrieving specialized information. This is especially true with regard to the system of government information. With its system of experienced government information professionals, the FDLP is a perfect aid to users searching the WWW for government information. Again, as government information increasingly moves to the WWW the depository librarian will need to make effective use of the WWW. It is therefore necessary to gauge the way depository librarians use the WWW, and the factors that influence that use.

As a result of this study, certain factors were identified that influence the use of the WWW. Professional environment seemed to have a bigger impact than educational background. The size of the government documents collection as identified by the percentage of GPO materials selected by the library did impact the use of the WWW by librarians. In general, it is used as a supplementary resource after consulting other resources. As collection size increases, librarians tended to use the WWW, but depend on it less. Surprisingly, WWW training and time spent in the field had little impact on how and when the WWW is used, however, the majority of those respondents receiving no training preferred traditional resources over WWW resources. Even with any differences among professional environment and experience or educational background, the depository librarians in this study rate their success high and seem to be incorporating the WWW well into their repertoire of government information resources.

The full text of Identifying Factors that Influence the Professional Use of the World Wide Web for Government Information is now available as a .pdf file which requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The results of this study were presented and discussed at the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) of Ohio Spring 2000 Meeting. The slide presentation from that meeting is now available as well.

Please direct any question, suggestions, or comments to jsalem@lms.kent.edu.
This page last updated 5/17/2000.