Undergraduates' Information Seeking Behavior during the Covid-19 Pandemic with special reference to the Faculty of Management Social Sciences and Humanities undergraduates in Kotelawala Defense University

Abstract

This research study discusses the Information Seeking Behavior of the undergraduates during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Faculty of Management, Social Sciences, and Humanities at Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, Sri Lanka. The study has three primary objectives; to find out the undergraduates’ information-seeking behavior for academic purposes, to find out the undergraduates’ information-seeking behavior for non-academic purposes, and to find out the usage of services provided by the university library and undergraduates’ satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research study, a survey method was applied, and a questionnaire was used as the main research instrument. The research philosophy is Interpretivism, and the research approach is deductive. This research study is a quantitative and cross-sectional research study. The random sampling method was used when collecting the sample, and the response rate was 100%. SPSS (ver. 22), Excel 2010 with its data analysis tool pack, and manual analysis were used to analyze data. Most of the undergraduates used the Lecture Notes provided by the lecturers as the main information source and used computers as IT equipment for academic purposes during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Further, most undergraduates prefer WhatsApp, Gmail, Zoom, and LMS are the IT application for gathering information for academic purposes. However, most undergraduates used YouTube as the main information source and Android Devices as the IT equipment for non-academic purposes during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Also, most undergraduates prefer the WhatsApp as the IT application for gathering information for non-academic purposes. Considering the university library usage during the Covid-19 pandemic, most undergraduates do not use the university library. The undergraduates who use the university library mostly use the E-Books provided by the university library. However, most of the undergraduates were satisfied with the services provided by the university library during the pandemic period. Finally, based on the research findings, the researcher suggested a few recommendations to the university and university libraries to increase the quality of online information dissemination.