1©2002 Outsell, Inc. The Voice of the User: Where Students and Faculty Go for Information Leigh Watson Healy Vice President & Chief Analyst October 2, 2002 Copyright Leigh Watson Healy, This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2©2002 Outsell, Inc. Users Vertical Portals, Web-based Archives & Search Engines Print Publishers, Electronic Publishers & Content Creators Established Aggregators Document Delivery Syndicators & Infomediaries Information Centers Market Intelligence Training & Learning Web Site Mgrs. Academic & Public Libraries Indexers, Abstractors, Secondary Publishers The Current State of the Industry Employee Portals Extranets Open Web Sites Intranets Corporate Portals Learning Portals

3©2002 Outsell, Inc. Our View: Making Sense of Nonsense Data, information, and analysis of: –3,000 vendors –400+ product evaluations –Corporate and education markets –Global 2000 buyers –Performance benchmarks - four deployment functions –23,000 end users On-going intelligence and trend tracking Advice and experiential knowledge

4©2002 Outsell, Inc. User Research Needed To help libraries and universities plan information services and technologies focused on explicit needs of faculty and students. How do faculty and students use information to support research, teaching, and learning functions? Where do users prefer to find and use information? How do they perceive and use libraries as part of their overall information environment? What are users’ problems and barriers and unmet needs? Project commissioned by the Digital Library Federation, funded by Mellon Foundation, and managed by Outsell.

5©2002 Outsell, Inc. Methodology Over 3,200 in-depth telephone interviews nationwide. Users across disciplines and academic career levels –Faculty Members –Graduate Students –Undergraduate Students Academic institutions –Doctoral and research universities –Liberal arts colleges Interviews conducted November 2001 – January 2002.

6©2002 Outsell, Inc. Key Findings Patterns of use vary significantly both by discipline and by users’ application of information. –Ex: scientists show very different patterns of using online indexes, technical reports, and photographs for research as compared to teaching. Use of print books and journals predominates, for now. To find information, everyone goes online first. –Next, faculty turn to print before asking for personal assistance. –Students prefer to ask for help before going to print resources. Students’ and faculty research and coursework needs are met by online information more than half the time.

7©2002 Outsell, Inc. Key Findings (continued) Nearly all users have a high degree of trust in library-deployed information resources. The Internet receives high marks as resource for daily information use, but most users don’t trust it without additional verification. Top information problems: having enough time, knowing what’s available, and having access to all information from one place.

8©2002 Outsell, Inc. Academic Work Environment Percentage of Time Spent at Each Location 2%

9©2002 Outsell, Inc. Information Types Used For Research, Teaching, and Learning

10©2002 Outsell, Inc. Information Use Habits & Preferences Where Researchers and Students Go For Information Where Users Find Information For Research % For Coursework % Go Online8876 Go to Print Sources4125 Ask Someone to Assist2431

11©2002 Outsell, Inc. Information Use Habits & Preferences Where Researchers Go Online to Find Print or Hardcopy Books and Journals Bases: Books, 328; Journals, 379

12©2002 Outsell, Inc. Information Use Habits & Preferences Where Researchers Go Online to Find E-Journals Base: 246

13©2002 Outsell, Inc. Information Use Habits & Preferences Use of Electronic Resources for Research

14©2002 Outsell, Inc. Perceptions of Current Information Environment Views of Library and Internet Services Online Information Needs For Research For TeachingFor Coursework Base (1,519) % (1,166) % (2,214) % What percent of online information that you use is available from the library? What percent of online information that you use is available from the Internet?

15©2002 Outsell, Inc. Perceptions of Current Information Environment Research Information Needs Met Online

Perceptions of Current Information Environment Views of Library and Internet Services ©2002 Outsell, Inc.

17©2002 Outsell, Inc. Perceptions of Current Information Environment Views of Library and Internet Services

18©2002 Outsell, Inc. The State of the Academic Information User Institution type and the functional role of the user drive striking differences information habits and use preferences. Students and faculty prefer to work online and remotely, from offices and homes. Self-sufficiency is the academic information work paradigm. Users trust the library, but the Internet wins for daily information use. Print is still preferred format for using content, but users want to find it online.

19©2002 Outsell, Inc. In Outsell’s Opinion What Academic Information Users Want Highly relevant information access at point of need. Self-serve online environment with high-touch support. Access to the library for printed books, manuscripts, primary sources, and other elusive materials. Humanists need access to physical collections and are under served in the online environment. Engineers and scientists want anytime anywhere access to online information and are finding more needs met on the Internet.

20©2002 Outsell, Inc. OUTSELL, INC. ABOUT OUTSELL Outsell is the only research and advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the Information Content Industry. As an independent advisor, we emphasize close relationships with our clients and deliver high-quality, fact-based research, analysis, and advice about every aspect of content strategy, deployment, and use to a wide range of vendors, buyers, and users of information. Founded in 1994, Outsell helps world-class content vendors, Global 2000 companies, and leading education institutions increase their understanding of users and end-markets, assess content quality and effectiveness, benchmark operations, hire and retain executives, and develop more successful internal and commercial content products and services. Visit us at our headquarters at 330 Primrose Road, Suite 510, Burlingame, CA Phone (650) , fax (650) Or see our Web site at