Information Seeking Behaviour of Agricultural Science Students: A Study at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students who are studying in different agricultural science disciplines at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCS HAU), Hisar, India. In the study, it was also try to determine what the information requirements of the targeted respondents are, and to determine their awareness of library services available to them currently. For data collection, survey method was adopted with the aid of structured questionnaire. The data were collected over a period of 20 days between January and February 2021. Total 200 postgraduate students, who were studying in different agricultural sciences departments were approached randomly and shared questionnaires to them in the library premises. Out of total 200, 177 valid questionnaires were collected and considered for final analysis, which representing the response rate @88.5 percent. The study found that library & its resources (44.64 percent), and Internet & social media are the two main sources of information seeking for the respondents. More than 70 percent respondents were preferred to search their required information from electronic information resources due to easy to search and use, whereas, around 39 percent of the respondents seeking information for preparing examination and 23.72 percent respondents seeking information for preparing class assignments. About 70 percent of the respondents were quite satisfied with the staff of the library, whereas, 14.12 percent respondents were rated staff behaviour and support as excellent. 50.84 percent respondents were opined that the services and facilities provided by the university library has very effective and plays a very important role in their academic and research work. The outcome of this research would help the similar type of other institutions of the country as well as of other countries to understand the changing needs and behaviour of students and researchers and to develop information resources and services in their premises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]