Comparative study of knowledge and use of information search tools on the web (Case study: Students of Ilam University and Ilam Islamic Azad University)

Nowadays, web search skills are very important for many searchers, and with the rapid increase in the amount of information on the web, it seems necessary to learn them. The purpose of this study is a comparative study of the knowledge and use of students in Ilam and Islamic Azad universities of Ilam branch of information search tools on the web.

The research method was survey and a questionnaire was used to collect data. The statistical sample of the research is 375 students of Ilam University and Islamic Azad University of Ilam Branch who have been selected by stratified random sampling method. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and Spearman correlation test, t-test and Mann-Whitney test were used.

The results show that the average familiarity of students of the two universities with information search tools on the web is 3.60 and 3.22, respectively. The goal of the majority of the students of the two universities in searching for information on the World Wide Web was to carry out course projects. Among the information search tools on the web, search engines were the most used, and among search engines, students used Google and Yahoo the most, and among thematic guides, Yahoo was the most used. The average experience of using information search tools in Ilam University is 3.01 and in Islamic Azad University is 2.44.

The results showed that the level of knowledge of students of two universities about information search tools on the Web was low; As a result, the use of tools by these students has not been favorable.