The Internet and the information search in scientific communities: a study focused on researchers of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.

Abstract

This research attempted to verify the use of Internet in information search processes in scientific communities, aiming to detect the occurrence of information disintermediation and its consequences on scientific community process and information as well as its consequences on scientific communication process and performance on the information unit. In this research, disintermediation was considered as absence of intermediates between the information resources and researchers. A sample of 324 researchers/teaching staff of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, linked to Graduate Programs was used and sorted by: random and stratified by area of knowledge, random and simple, by Capes evaluation grades, and random and conglomerated by the graduate program. A questionnaire was used as the tool for collecting data with questions for the survey of sociodemographic and resource use information. The data were organized using the SPSS statistics package version 11.0 using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages), association statistics (?2 test), and comparative statistics (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney test), at p=0.05. The analyses of the results allowed to confirm that pathways preferred by researchers in the search for information were: private library, 46.3%, and Internet, 43.2%. Among the resources available at the UL/UFSC System the journal was the one most indicated by researchers. A preference for materials in electronic format was also indicated due to the easier accessibility. In relation to the mediators in the process of information search, colleagues/pairs were the most indicated. Electronic mail was the most used Internet resource. This also confirms the use of network where the communication between pairs, with 65.4%, was the indication with the highest frequency. Among the available online services at UL/UFSC, Capes Gateway was the most indicated (61.7%). As for the disintermediation process, since it has increased in all areas because researchers are autonomously using the electronic resources in information searching, it can be concluded that UL/UFSC has a considerable position in this process since there is a significant use of the traditional collection, as well as the online system service. The results allowed to conclude that librarian workers are not recognized as preferential mediators by this scientific community.