ISSN: 2410-4477 Analytical Study of Information Need and Seeking Behaviour of Agricultural Researchers

Kwara State Nigeria Abstract: Information is an essential and integral part of all human endeavours. Research endeavour is primarily built on seeking information with which researchers arrive at findings and their conclusions. The output of any research is an outcome of the quality and quantity of information that researchers could obtain. In spite of the Nigerian government funding of agricultural research, the output from the effort has not been significant. Therefore the study investigated the information seeking behaviour of agricultural researchers in Nigeria. The objectives of the study are to (i) identify information providers used by agricultural researchers in seeking information (ii) investigate how often researchers access information sources (iii) ascertain the researchers opinions on purposes of visiting the library (iv) investigate most preferred source for up-to-date information by agricultural researchers and (v) determine the most preferred collection for accessing information.Questionnaire was used to collect information from a carefully selected 450 researchers from agricultural research institution that are under (ARCN). The finding of the study revealed that information providers used mainly by agricultural researchers are internet, colleague’s collections and the library while printed journals are frequently accessed information source. Majority visit the library just to access reference materials while the most preferred sources for up-to-date information is attending conferences, lectures and seminars. Therefore the study concluded that when seeking information, majority of agricultural researchers in Nigeria prefers internet to library collection which in most cases are obsolete, although the two are still the major information providers in many of


Introduction
Information could be described as facts provided or learned about something or someone. It can also be described or seen as valuable because it can affect behaviour, a decision or an outcome. According to Rouse (2000) information is a stimulus that has meaning in some context for its receiver. When information is stored in a computer, it is generally referred to as data. After processing (such as formatting and printing), output data can again be perceived as information. Anwar (2007), defined information as recorded experience that is used in decision making. Mabawonku (2005), highlighted some ways in which students sought for information, which include: through their colleagues, the internet, library, family members, recognized institutions, agencies and private organization. Kakai et.al. (2004), also described information source as an individual's way and manner of gathering and sourcing for information for personal use, knowledge updating and development. Andrzej (2007), sees information as an abstract entity. He opined that information has no separate existence on its own, because no difference can exist when there are real states of affairs between which the difference holds and which constitute its code. The same information can be encoded in various ways e.g. a piece of music can be encoded on a magnetic tape, on a piece of paper, on a compact disc etc. Different codes encode the same information if the involved collections are isomorphic.
Information, according to Annan (2003), is the key to just about everything. He stated that good and abundant information helps the society to understand a situation, manage expectation between individuals, plan and prioritize. He also added that information helps to investigate, understand potential consequences, and as well help to have better interactions with people. He further noted that information is a way for human capacity to be expanded, built up, nourished and liberated by giving people access to tools and technologies, with the education and training to use them effectively. Information serves as a unique opportunity to connect and assist those living in poor and most isolated regions of the world. Annan (2003) noted that informatization of society is a major hurdle that most nations especially the developing countries are encountering. He further stated that information society or information age is a phenomenon that began after 1950, which brings challenges as we seek to integrate and expand the universe of print and multi-media sources.
Meanwhile human activities on information and the process of finding such information led to another concept termed information seeking behaviour. This concept according to Wilson (1999) emerged as a consequence of a need perceived by information users making demands upon formal or informal information sources or services. The concept Wilson (1999) opined evolved to relate the activities a person may engaged in when identifying their own needs for information, searching for such information in anyway, and using or transferring of that information.

Literature Review
Information seeking was defined by Bates (2010) as the process or activity of attempting to obtain information in both human and technological contexts. Information seeking is related to but different from information retrieval (IR). Traditionally, IR tools have been designed for IR professionals to enable them effectively and efficiently retrieve information from a source. It is assumed that information exists in the source and that a well-formed query will help to retrieve it. It has been argued that laypersons' information seeking in the internet is very different from information retrieval as performed within the IR discourses.
Information seeking may be understood as a more human oriented and open-ended process than information retrieval. In information seeking, one does not know whether there exists an answer to one's query, so the process of seeking may provide the learning required to satisfy one's information needs. Meanwhile, according to Singh and Satijah (2007) information seeking behaviour (ISB) is a process that requires adaptive and reflective control over inference and reference actions of the information seeker. ISB, he further stated, resulted from the recognition of some needs perceived by the user who as a consequences make demand upon a former system such as library and information centre, or some other person in order to satisfy the perceived information need. Kakai et.al. (2004) defined information-seeking behaviour as an individual's ways and manner of gathering and sourcing for information for personal use, knowledge updating and development. However, Majid and Kassim (2000) had earlier described information seeking behaviour as a broad term, which involves a set of actions that an individual takes to express information needs, seeking information, evaluate and select information and finally uses this information to satisfy his/her information needs.
A review of literature on information seeking behaviour shows that information seeking has generally been accepted as dynamic and non-linear, Kuhlthau (2005). People experience the information search process as interplay of thoughts, feelings and actions. Given the background to the term "information behaviour" Bates (2010), recalled that studies on it were first called "users studies" and later "information seeking and gathering" or "study of information needs and uses". Gradually the term "information seeking research" was used to include all kinds of research on people's interaction with information. He stated further that in recent years the term "information behaviour" came to be widely used to replace information seeking. The term "information seeking behaviour" is now commonly being used to know how people interact with information.
According to Case (2007), information seeking has been found to be linked to a variety of interpersonal communication behaviours beyond question asking. Meanwhile Robinson (2010) study revealed that when seeking information at work, people rely on both other people and information repositories like documents and databases and spend similar amounts of time consulting each .However, this distribution of time among the constituent information seeking stages differ depending on the source. When consulting other people, people spend less time locating the information source and information within that source, similar time understanding the information, and more time problem solving and decision making, than when consulting information repositories. Furthermore, he found that people spend substantially more time receiving information passively i.e. (information that they have not requested) than actively (information they have requested) and this pattern is also reflected when they provide others with information.
Spencer (2006), identify there are four modes of seeking information which include firstly, "knownitem" where the user knows what they want, knows what words to use to describe it, and may have a fairly good understanding of where to start. In addition, the user maybe happy with the first answer they find (though not always) and the task may not change significantly during the process of finding the answer. The second one is the "exploratory task", people have some idea of what they need to know. However, they may or may not know how to articulate it and if they can, may not yet know the right words to use, they may not know where to start to look. They will usually recognize when they have found the right answer, but may not know whether they have found enough information.
The third mode is "don't know" attitude where people often don't know exactly what they need to know. They may think they need one thing but need another, or they may be looking at a website without a specific goal in mind. The last one is that of "refinding" where users are looking for things they have already seen. They may remember exactly where it is, remember what site it was on or have little idea about where it was.
According to Kuhlthau (2005) information workers consider information seeking as a necessary, but preliminary activity, to the more significant endeavour of using information for constructing new knowledge to accomplish the tasks and goal that encompass their work. Information seeking is one task in a series of activities performed to fulfil a greater need. He further stated that information takes many forms. It might be news, announcement, gossips, opinion, advisories or raw data. The information at hand might be good or bad or even intentionally misleading, but one have to deal with, one way or the other but always seek information in addition to what is provided so that one can: • verify claim • stimulate new ideas • make use of different perspective • provide more options to choose from, and lastly • have a re-bust discussion with yourself and others. (Kuhlthau:2005) Information seeking behaviour, according to Bates (2010), is the currently preferred term used to describe the many ways in which human beings interact with information, in particular, the ways in which people seek and utilize information. Interest in this area, according to him, developed out of several streams, because librarians wanted to understand library users better and government agencies wanted to understand how scientists and engineers use technical information. In order to promote more rapid update of new research results, social scientists generally were interested in the use of information in a variety of senses. He concluded that in more recent years, social studies of information technology and social informatics have contributed to this area as well. Yousefi and Yousefi (2007), observed that the number of information resources has increased considerably; and the emergence of new information environment, sources and channels, especially the World Wide Web (www) regardless of the advantages, has brought new challenges and problems. They stressed that retrieval of information in response to users' real needs have become even more complex; on the other hand, assessing the validity and reliability of retrieved information is a considerable problem.
Spicker (2007)  In Nigeria research institutions as observed by Ankpa (2000) research is lagging behind in their productivities for sustainable agricultural development which is as a result of their research activities. It is noted that there are no scientific investigation that can take place without the knowledge acquired in the past through information. The way people seek information on their research activities is very important. Could it be that the agricultural researchers are not getting enough information or that their information seeking behaviour are Faulty? Since it has been established that man needs information for day to day activities, it is therefore imperative to study information seeking behaviour. These will help the information provider to access and strategies for better service.

Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of the study therefore is to identify the information seeking behaviour of agricultural researchers in Nigeria; while the specific objectives are: 1. identify information providers used by researchers in seeking information 2. investigate how often researchers access information sources 3. ascertain the researchers opinions on purposes of visiting the library 4. investigate most preferred source for up-to-date information by agricultural researchers 5. determine the most preferred collection for accessing information

Findings
The population of this study consisted of agricultural researchers in all agricultural research institutions that are under the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). These institutions are fifteen in number located all over the six geo-political zones of Nigeria and are being supervised by the ARCN but have different mandates. Each of these institutions has a mandate to carry out different researches peculiar to their zone, in a bid to improving agricultural standards in the country.
All researchers in the fifteen (15) agricultural research institutions in Nigeria serve as the population for this study.  Similarly on the respondents opinion on direct supervisor or head of section as an information provider 260 ( 68.0%) respondents frequently used it, 110(28.8%) used it occasionally while 12 (3.1%) never used it. Another information provider identified is colleagues which has the majority number of 308 (75.5%) respondents that frequently used it, 94 (23.0%) occasionally and only 6 (1.5%) never used it.  of respondents that frequently accesses it followed by printed journal, books and electronic data base all available in the library. This attests to the fact that both the internet and the library are good sources of information provider for agricultural researchers in Nigeria. This is expected since it has been revealed that the highest information provider used by researchers is the internet and then library, definitely respondents' opinion on how often they accessed these information sources will not differ.       Therefore it could be concluded that when seeking information majority of the agricultural researchers in Nigeria prefer the Internet to library; though library and internet are still the two major information providers in many of the research institutions. Apart from internet sourcing, printed journal happens to be the most often accessed information sources in seeking information. When there is need for agricultural researchers to visit the library, it is to access reference materials and to read newspapers and not to borrow books because most of the books are not current. The Agricultural researchers in Nigeria preferred conversation with colleagues and attending conferences, lectures and seminar for up to date information. They also preferred downloaded internet collection and their personal collection to library collections. Similarly they use their own personal effort and computerized information search than getting assistance from Librarian or other library personnel when seeking information.

Recommendation
Stemming from the findings and conclusion of the study, the following recommendations were made: 1. Access to internet in all agricultural research institutes even after the normal closing hours should be provided since it has been noted that the most preferred source of accessing information is the internet. Efforts should be geared toward upgrading the internet facilities for a broader bandwidth as well as for easy retrieval of information to all researchers. Therefore, agricultural research information centres in Nigeria should provide 24/7 internet facilities for researchers in a bid to enhancing performance and perfect information delivery services. 2. Organization of Seminars and workshops on the use of library and internet searching techniques from time to time for the researchers is very important.

Agricultural research institutions in Nigeria
should find a way of collaborating with one another in other to provide adequate information for their users, since there is no institution that is self-sufficient and they all have a common goal; and their research are inter related in one way or the other. 4. Since it has been noted that for up-to-date information, agricultural researchers in Nigeria prefer attending conferences and seminars for information, research libraries should find a way of collating information from conferences and seminars together for references in the institutions. This can be done by sponsoring the information personnel i.e. Librarian in the institutions to their conferences as well for information gathering. 5. Librarians and other information staff should wake up to their responsibilities in helping agricultural researchers to source for information. This can be done through selected information dissemination (SDI), thereby making themselves relevant in their profession and justify purpose of their existence in the institutions. This will also give room for authorities involved to have positive defence for library budget.