J M Patekari
Dr. SD Naik
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to implement the Leckie, Pettigrew & Sylvain model of information seeking behavior on Indian railways field civil engineers and to study their awareness about the requisite information (Leckie et al,1996). The six variables of awareness considered in the study are trustworthiness of information, convenient source of information, timeliness of information, accuracy & detailed information, accessibility of information with ease and cost of information. The study aims to establish these variables in systematic order, which Leckie et al considered in random order. The Indian railways engineers information seeking behavior is correlated with the generalized model developed by Leckie, Pettigrew & Sylvain .Study is conducted on one of the aspect of the model i.e. awareness of information. For this, survey method is applied to carry out the study by Questionnaire is prepared for data collection. The data on scores is presented as Mean and Standard deviation (SD). The inter-group statistical comparison of distribution of means of scores is tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The underlying normality assumption was tested before subjecting study variables to ANOVA. It is found that the Leckie et al’s model of information seeking behavior can be applied to the Indian railways engineers. Further research establishes the order of awareness of engineers as 1) Trustworthiness of information 2) Accuracy and detailed information 3) The information is giving them information timely 4) Accessibility of information with ease 5) Convenient source of information and 6) Cost of information . The paper implements the generalized model developed by Leckie et al’s to study the information seeking behavior of Indian railways engineers. The paper also establishes the order of variables of awareness of Indian railways engineers’ information. This has not been explored previously.
Keywords- Indian railway engineers, Information seeking behavior, Awareness of information, Trustworthiness, Timeliness, Accuracy & detail, Accessibility and Cost of information.