Linguists as Newspaper Users: Perceptions and Experiences

To explore humanities scholars’ perceptions and uses of newspapers as an information source, a study was conducted with Croatian researchers and academics in history and linguistic departments at universities and research institutes. This paper presents only a portion of the findings: those from respondents in the field of linguistics. The aim of this paper is to explore the information behavior, needs and usage patterns of linguistics researchers using newspapers as a source of information, with a specific focus on search and access strategies. The study began with the general hypothesis that newspapers are a relevant information source for scientific research in the humanities, but their potential is not fully exploited because of limited access to newspaper collections and search options. An additional hypothesis was that newspapers are especially important in linguistics research because they reflect the evolution of and changes in a language and provide information on the relations between a language and its socio-political context in a certain place and time. The results partially confirmed these hypotheses, showing a clear divide between those who perceive newspapers as an important research source and those who do not. In addition, in the study respondents expressed the need for better technological solutions but they do not always use those already available to them. The results also show respondents’ perceptions of the value of and actual use of newspapers ; respondents’ information behavior related to newspapers (e.g. type and format of newspapers used, type of information need in newspapers, motivation for newspaper use, employed search strategies and approaches to managing information from newspapers) ; and the challenges researchers face in using newspapers. The results of the survey presented in this paper contribute to analyzing the information needs and behavior of a specific newspaper user group and provide data which can aid in the development of innovative services based on newspaper collections.