Information Environment of a Military University Campus: An Exploratory Study
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Authors
Reneker, Maxine
Jacobson, Ann
Wargo, Linda
Spink, Amanda
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1999
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Abstract
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a military university educating officers from the United States and
40 foreign countries. To investigate the NPS information environment a large study obtained data on the
range of information needs and behaviors of NPS personnel. The specific aim of the study was to supply
organizational units with qualitative data specific to their client base, enabling them to improve campus
systems and information services. Facilitators from the NPS Organizational Support Division conducted
eighteen (18) focus groups during Spring Quarter 1998. Transcribed focus group sessions were analyzed
using NUDIST software to identify key issues and results emerging from the data set. Categories of
participants' information needs were identified, including an analysis of key information issues across the
NPS campus. Use of Internet resources, other trusted individuals, and electronic indexes and abstracts
ranked high among information sources used by NPS personnel. A picture emerges of a campus
information environment poorly understood by the academic community. The three groups (students, staff
and faculty) articulated different concerns and look to different sources to satisfy their information needs.
Participants' information seeking problems centered on: (1) housing, registration and scheduling,
computing and the quality of information available on the campus computer network, (2) an inability to
easily disseminate information quickly to an appropriate campus audience, and (3) training in new
information access technologies, and (4) the general lack of awareness of library resources and services.
The paper discusses a method for more effectively disseminating information throughout the campus.
Implications for the development of information seeking models and a model of the NPS information
environment are discussed.
Type
Conference Paper
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Citation
ASIS '99, Proceedings of the 62nd ASIS Annual Meeting, Volume 36, Washington DC, October 31-November 4, 1999. Knowledge: Creation, Organization and Use.
Distribution Statement
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.