Assessing information seeking behavior components of agricultural graduate students in University of Zanjan

The purpose of this study was to assessing components of Information seeking behavior of agricultural graduate students and factors associated with this behavior in University of Zanjan. Agricultural graduate students of Zanjan University formed the statistical population of this descriptive correlational study (N =250). The sample was estimated using Cochran's formula (n=80) and stratified random sampling method used for selecting samples. The questionnaire used for collecting data. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by feedback of related faculty members. A pilot test was conducted to deter mine the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was estimate between 0.71-0.87). Results showed that the most incentive of students from information seeking are conducting research, updating and maintaining up to date in their field study. Conference proceedings, Indexes, reference books and the magazines include the most used source of information from viewpoint of students. Being authentic source, listed in the ISI and ISC indexes are the most important measure of resources from viewpoint of students Inclusion in ISI and ISC indexes. General search engines, free web sites, e-resources and personal efforts are most important channels of information seeking. Using factor analysis, problems of access to information summarized in six factors including Internet and computer service problems, limitations of accessing to the resources, the high costs of data bases sharing and communication problems, lower levels of research skills, computer hardware and software issues and problems of university facilities. These factors explained 36/60% of the total variance problems of access to information.