Information Seeking Anxiety Among Postgraduate Students: A Study of University of the Punjab, Lahore

Abstract

This mixed method study aimed to investigate information seeking anxiety among postgraduate students using a sequential explanatory research strategy and was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the data were collected using a questionnaire containing Information Seeking Anxiety Scale (ISAS) and demographic variables from postgraduate students. The second phase involved qualitative data collection using an interview guide from purposively selected students in order to better understand the proposed research problem. The targeted population consisted of postgraduate students from University of the Punjab, Lahore, for both phases of the study. In the quantitative phase, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) yielded six dimensions to the ISAS, namely, (1) Resource Anxiety, (2) ICT Anxiety, (3) Library Anxiety, (4) Search Anxiety, (5) Mechanical Anxiety, and (6) Thematic Anxiety. These six dimensions, while similar to those of Erfanmanesh, Abrizah, and Karim’s (2012) study, differed from their initial results with regard to the statements loaded on each factor. The results indicated that the ‘Thematic Anxiety’ was the most prevalent dimension among these respondents, followed by ‘Resource Anxiety’, ‘Mechanical Anxiety’, ‘ICT Anxiety’, and ‘Search Anxiety’; whereas ‘Library Anxiety’ was the least prevalent dimension. The largest segment of the sample experienced more than low anxiety in information seeking with regard to overall ISAS and all its sub-dimensions. Moreover, the participants’ age, gender, faculty, program of study, study stage, computer iii proficiency, and publishing experience appeared to be correlatives to the information seeking anxiety. While in the qualitative phase, the participants were asked to describe such critical situations that made them anxious in the information seeking process. The recurrent themes, identified by analyzing the content of students’ narratives, confirmed some of the dimensions observed in the quantitative phase. The emergent themes include: (a) Procedural Anxiety, (b) Information Overload, (c) Resource Anxiety, (d) Deficient Library Services, (e) Perceived Information Competence, (f) ICT Anxiety, (g) Language Anxiety, and (h) Thematic Anxiety. These participants also exhibited certain avoidance behaviours such as search avoidance, task avoidance, and even research avoidance, along with an inferiority complex. The results provided useful insights into the factors that caused anxiety among postgraduate students while seeking needed information. These findings would assist in developing useful directions for information literacy programs and help academic librarians in designing information literacy curricula not only for the students of the University of the Punjab but also for other similar institutions of Pakistan as well as of South Asia. Furthermore, the findings would encourage other researchers to conduct more detailed enquiries at other universities in Pakistan as well as in other developing countries. This study would make a worthwhile contribution to the literature on academic related anxiety in general, and information seeking anxiety in particular.