Searching information and evaluation of Internet: - a Chinese academic user survey

Dong Xiaoying, Ph.DGuanghua School of Management, Peking University,100871dongxy@gsm.pku.edu.cn

Introduction

The project sponsored by UNESCO and China National Foundation of Social Sciences

Continuous to the survey conducted in 1998

Data collected from PKU, ISTIC and Zhe Jiang Information Centeer

Research method

706 questionnaires were collected, including online

Data processed by SPSS

Outline of research

The background of the Internet users The state-of-the-art of using Internet Information seeking behavior The users’ evaluation of Internet resources The users’ expectation of Internet services

1. The background of the Internet users

Academic group is the biggest one

government2%

busi ness9%

medi a1%

academi c79%

others9% academi c

busi nessgovernmentmedi aothers

Distribution by professions

36314

8

65

64

75

114

0 100 200 300 400

researcher

facul ty

student

of f i ci al

busi ness

medi a

others

The Gender of user group

60. 76%

39. 24%

71%

29%

0. 00%10. 00%20. 00%30. 00%40. 00%50. 00%60. 00%70. 00%80. 00%

mal e femal e

20011998

Young people is the biggest group

31- 4017%

20-3069%

51-602%

41-507%

bel ow 204%

above 601%

User’s distributions in social sciences, humanities and sciences

soci al sci ence20%

humani ti es14%sci ences

66%

100136

248

0

50

100

150

200

250

Basi csci ence

Appl i edsci ence

Engi neer i ngand

technol ogy

User distributions with science background

42. 45

30. 32

16. 5

1. 419. 31

0

10

20

30

40

50

bel ow 1000 1000- 2000 2000- 5000 above 5000 no answer

Distribution by incomes

2. The state-of-the-art of using Internet

History of using Internet

10. 30%

24. 54%

31. 31%

25. 95%

7. 19%

0. 00% 10. 00% 20. 00% 30. 00% 40. 00%

wi thi n 1

1-2 year

2-3 year

3-5 year

above 5 year

The time spending on Internet each week

wi thi n 1 hour9%

1-3 hour19%

3-5 hour19%

5-8 hour16%

above 837%

3. Information seeking behavior in using Internet

Channels of obtaining information

76. 80%

8%

8%

15%

17. 80%

21. 70%

36. 50%

32. 10%

34. 30%

29. 90%

0. 00%10. 00%20. 00%30. 00%40. 00%50. 00%60. 00%70. 00%80. 00%90. 00%

search engi ne

web l i nk

j ournal and book

database

l i brary catal og

col l eague

ref erence and ci tat i on

book store

pr i vate col l ect i on

conf erence

Services to be used

84. 80%58. 20%

51. 10%42. 50%

38. 90%35. 50%

30. 60%30. 50%

11%

0. 00% 10. 00%20. 00%30. 00%40. 00% 50. 00%60. 00%70. 00%80. 00%90. 00%

emai l

www

search engi ne

down sof tware

l i brary

e- j ournal

BBS

database

newsgroup

The languages to be accessed from Internet

69. 70%

94. 90%

2. 70% 1. 70% 0. 40% 0. 10%

0. 00%

20. 00%

40. 00%

60. 00%

80. 00%

100. 00%

Chi nese Engl i sh J apanese German French Russi an

4. The users’ evaluation of Internet resources

The gap between Chinese and English Websites

17. 33%

37. 19%

2. 56%

40. 46%

16. 54%

29. 33%

5. 78% 10. 37%8. 87%

31. 43%

0. 00%

10. 00%

20. 00%

30. 00%

40. 00%

50. 00%

very smal l smal l neutral bi g very bi g

quanti tyqual i ty

Quantity difference(1998/2002)

5. 78

17. 33

37. 19

2. 3

35. 9

2829. 33

10. 376. 8

26. 9

05

10152025303540

very smal l smal l neutral bi g very bi g

20021998

Quality difference(1998/2002)

8. 87

31. 43

40. 6

32. 8

2. 56

16. 5

2. 1 5. 3

21. 9

37. 5

05

101520

2530354045

very smal l smal l neutral bi g very bi g

20021998

The usefulness of Internet resource to your work

very i mportant26%

usel ess0%

sl i ghty useful5%

useful43%

neutral26%

The consensus from different educational backgrouns

below undergrad

uate

undergraduate

graduate

doctorate

average

Waste of time 2.76 2.63 2.66 2.66 2.65

Mingle and poor quality 3.22 3.29 3.27 3.21 3.26

Useful information 3.41 3.31 3.42 3.63 3.41

Supplement to other resources 3.66 3.74 3.75 3.85 3.76

Most important resource 3.14 3.09 3.31 3.47 3.24

Narrow the digital gap 3.64 3.57 3.72 3.86 3.68

Difficulties of accessing Internet (%)

60. 1

38. 4

37

30. 1

19. 6

18. 1

8. 8

16. 3

5. 9

6. 9

4. 9

1. 9

23. 9

27. 5

0 20 40 60 80

sl ow

pri ce

qual i ty

di f f i cul ty i n search

vi rus/ hi ker

i stabl e

l ack of i ntermedi ary

dead l i nks

l anguage barri ers

19982002

The consensus from different educational background

bel owundergraduate

undergraduate graduatedoctorate

average

Waste of ti me 2. 76 2. 63 2. 66 2. 66 2. 65Mi ngl e and poor qual i ty 3. 22 3. 29 3. 27 3. 21 3. 26Useful i nformati on 3. 41 3. 31 3. 42 3. 63 3. 41Suppl ement to other resources 3. 66 3. 74 3. 75 3. 85 3. 76Most i mportant resource 3. 14 3. 09 3. 31 3. 47 3. 24Narrow the di gi tal gap 3. 64 3. 57 3. 72 3. 86 3. 68

5. The users’ expectation of Internet services

rank Concept Number Terms and phrase1 Specialized subject

nformation244 specialized subject website, journal and article, expert consult

service, academic research report, background information,international conference

2 Latestdevelopment

163 Frontier information, advance progress, trends of newtechnology, application of new product, predict report

3 e-documents 91 Digital library, full text document, electronic article,information for examination

4Modern distanceeducation

63 Basic teaching material courseware/real time course,download teaching material from Internet, online textbook,teaching syllabus, special statistics data, experimental data,manual, English textbook

5 Scholarlyinformation

55 proceedings, thesis and dissertation database, patent, statisticsdata, classical literature,

From your teaching and research experience, which kind of Internet resources do you need most?

Rank Concept number Terms and descriptors1 Accuracy and

authority396 Authority, credibility reliable in resource, objective and

truth, concrete in content, depth and detailed description,specialized information

2 Currency and updateon time

255 Frontiers and trends, follow the track of science andtechnology development, original information

3 High speed 212 High speed in network, download, easy to connect withinternational part

4 Rich in content185 comprehensive and systematic coverage and category,

information with different historical time5 Convenience in access 143 efficient search engine, better classification and retrieval

system, wide range links, less dead links, easy to expand,easy to access, stable

From your teaching and research experience, which conditions are indispensable for a high quality network?

Rank Concept number Terms and descriptors1 Accuracy and

authority396 Authority, credibility reliable in resource, objective and

truth, concrete in content, depth and detailed description,specialized information

2 Currency and updateon time

255 Frontiers and trends, follow the track of science andtechnology development, original information

3 High speed 212 High speed in network, download, easy to connect withinternational part

4 Rich in content185 comprehensive and systematic coverage and category,

information with different historical time5 Convenience in access 143 efficient search engine, better classification and retrieval

system, wide range links, less dead links, easy to expand,easy to access, stable

6 Low cost 26 Free, low price, classified fee based service7 Unique 19 Representative to profession, rare, special creation

Conclusion(1)

The group with higher academic degree, spending more time and have higher comments on Internet

Income is not the key factor affecting the usage of Internet

The searching behavior is hybrid, Internet is a supplement to traditional information resources

Conclusion(2)

Internet is helpful to narrowing the knowledge gap

The user pay more attention to Internet content rather than its format, authority and validation is the main concern for the quality

Intermediary have big space in providing value added services

Further study

the regional divergence of using Internet among academics, particularly between developed and developing areas in China

the patterns of information seeking behavior of different target groups need to be explored

Thank you very much