Information Seeking Behavior of Engineers

Abstract

Engineers are largely specialists trained in areas such as mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineering, yet they work in a broad range of environments, such as research and development, design, testing, manufacturing, construction, management, consulting and sales. Engineers need to seek highly specialized information when working in the industry and need information to provide a product, system, process or service to their customer. The purpose of this study is to understand how engineers find the information they need to effectively perform their job. What sources do most engineers turn to first and why? Do they depend on their corporate library, do they subscribe to databases? Do they read reports, catalogs, handbooks, and trade journals? How do engineers organize their own information - do they form their own systems for papers, computer files, drawings, etc? Are there any cultural barriers that impede their search for information? By studying practicing engineers, we would like to try to understand how they solve their problems when searching for information at work.