Students’ Information Seeking Behaviour at the Library of Sekolah
Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan (STIKes) William Booth Surabaya
M. Fattah Alfian
1
, Satrio Budi Prasojo
1
and Dessy Harisanty
2
1
Faculty of Vocational, Airlangga University, Dharmawangsa Dalam, Surabaya, Indonesia
2
Library Studies, Faculty of Vocational, Airlangga University, Dharmawangsa Dalam, Surabaya, Indonesia
Keywords: Information Seeking Behaviour, Information Needs, University Library, Students.
Abstract: Diverse information needs require students to seek information by themselves. The purpose of this study is
to know how library users find the source of information they need and the obstacles they encounter in
making the appropriate information discovery. This research is based on the formula stated by Ellis
revolving around eight stages of information discovery behaviour: starting, chaining, browsing,
differentiating, monitoring, extracting, verifying, ending. This study applied descriptive quantitative method
by distributing questionnaires to 100 respondents. The samples were taken using accidental sampling on
STIKes William Booth students. The results of this study show that students, in conducting a search, first
students prepare a description of the information they need, following that, chaining with keywords is done.
After those steps are done, the students then browse and take 1-5 sources of information. To determine the
quality of information they select by looking at the author's background and developments. All information
that has been selected will be re-checked again in case there are any incorrect information. The information
seeking process ends when the findings can fulfill the needs of the users. The obstacles that can be found in
the students’ information seeking behaviour is the laziness of students, foreign languages ability, limited
time to visit the library, and less strategic locations.
1 INTRODUCTION
Users who visit the library can be considered as
people who need information, however, not
everyone who would like to fulfil their needs of
information will visit the library. This is due to the
development communication device that can be used
to explore information as widely as possible.
Therefore, libraries are expected to improve its
services for the convenience of users in fulfilling
their needs of information(Hernoko et al., 2022).
Kuhlthau (1991) describes that information needs is
interpreted as the need that gradually arises from a
vague awareness of something that are lacking, and
at a later stage develops into the desire to require
sources of information that will contribute to their
ability in understanding a meaning (Kuhlthau, 1991).
The information produced by the library is
convincing in terms of value and quality
(Romadhona et al., 2022). Library is expected to pay
attention to several supporting factors and obstacles
for users who search for information. This can be
used for library evaluations and developments in
fulfilling the needs of the users.
The Library of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan
William Booth (STIKes, School of Health and
Science) has collections related to the medical
world. The library is facilitated with OPAC and also
a subscription from paid journals. The average
number of visitors is around 35 to 40 per day as seen
from the visitor's book (Sunyowati et al., 2022). As
many as 50% of students visit the library to conduct
research, the rest to borrow, return, or to extend their
return date (Subagyono, Chumaida and Romadhona,
2022). The library has 6200 collections, of which
1,000 are printed copies of journals, 500 copies in
digital journals, reading collection of 4,700 which
25% also includes reference collections. There are
120 students from three classes in a study program,
multiplied to three majors. The library also stores
gray literature in the form of theses, research reports,
and student works in printed form and compact disk
(CD). To meet the information needs of students,
Alfian, M., Prasojo, S. and Harisanty, D.
Students’ Information Seeking Behaviour at the Library of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan (STIKes) William Booth Surabaya.
DOI: 10.5220/0008667700002300
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Record and Library: Local Knowledge, Past, Present, and Future (ICRL 2018), pages 181-187
ISBN: 978-989-758-712-2
Proceedings Copyright © 2024 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda.
181

effective steps are needed to find good and relevant
sources of information.
Based on the above phenomenon, this research
aims to study the information discovery behaviour of
students in the library of STIKes William Booth
Surabaya, from the starting (first steps in making
discoveries) up to the ending process (how users end
their process after obtaining the necessary sources of
information).
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Information Discovery Behaviour
Information Seeking Behaviour is an attempt to find
information’s with several objectives because of the
need to fulfil certain goals. Regarding this act, one
can only interact with the manual information
storage (Newspaper, Library) or computer-based
(such as world wide web) (Wilson, 1999).
Information seeking behaviour is driven by several
factors. Rachmawati and Winoto (2015) state that
what influences information seeking is one's view of
the risks and rewards that will be faced if he does an
information search (Silvana and Winoto, 2015). The
process is started when a person prepares to seek any
information discovering it, until the process is
completed and the information needs are met
(Yusuf, 2010). The importance of the information
needed will also determine the information seeking
process (Romadhona, 2022).
Al Saleh (2004) states that information seeking
behaviour does not only depend to offline
information institutions, but from technology as
well. Information discovery process that provides
convenience for the users tends to become a choice
nowadays (Al-Shaleh, 2004). Subjects (humans)
pose as either the information seeker or informants.
Kaniki (1992) states that that information seeking
behaviour is very much influenced by environmental
factors such as situations in decision making,
methods on answering questions, factors obtained in
the field, and the ability to understand what is sought
(Kaniki, 1992).
One model of information seeking behaviour was
stated by Ellis, where there are eight steps in the
process: starting (information seekers preparing for
discovery), according to Belkin in Nicholas (2003)
information needs increases when one is aware of
the gap between knowledge and results in solving
problems; chaining (information seekers usually
start with notes containing what information to
browse or keywords to be entered in the search
engine); browsing (structured or unstructured
information seeking activities) (Nicholas, 2003),
Dervin in Laloo, (2002: 12) states that information
needs is required by someone to develop their
thoughts in order to overcome various gaps and
problems; differentiating (information seekers begin
filtering information sources to determine the quality
of the information, whether the sources are clear and
precise or not) (Laloo, 2002); Key informants are
needed to provide insights regarding the problems
being discussed, but also reinforcement, or
correction of results that have been obtained from
other informants (Yin, 2009); monitoring (the
information seekers monitor the development of the
information sought); extracting (the information
seekers begin to take the source of information that
they have found and is sure of the quality after the
previous stage); verifying (this process involves
checking and evaluating information sources so that
there is no misinformation in them); ending (the
final phase where the information seekers have
ended the discovery process) (Ellis, Cox and Hall,
1993).
When seeking information’s, there is always a
chance that the information seekers will face various
obstacles. Obstacles may arise due to individual,
social, and environmental factors (Wilson, 1997).
3 RESEARCH METHOD
This research applied quantitative descriptive
method, with the data collected by distributing
questionnaires to 100 respondents. The collected
data is then analysed in the results of the study. Data
retrieval technique applied accidental sampling
covering the active students of STIKes William
Booth Surabaya. All data is obtained from field
surveys will be discussed using descriptive analysis
to describe the results.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Most students come to the library with the aim of
fulfilling their information to complete assignments,
research reports, or working on their thesis. To meet
these information needs, there are several steps done
in their information seeking behaviour:
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4.1 Starting
In the initial stages of discovery, students tend to
visit the information providers. Their aim and
purposes can be seen from the factors that encourage
them to look for information. To put it simply,
starting can be regarded as the stage where students
identify the problem they are facing. Most of the
problems are lecture assignments or research. In
regard to their needs on the information, students
claim that they often experience constraints on
understanding the concepts due to their limited
information’s on the matter. The influence of basic
knowledge on individuals has also become a
research on consumers’ behaviour. For instance,
Bettmen and Park s (in Zuntriana, 2007) highly
shows knowledge people have less need for
information. Students identify information with how
they will seek the information, and what types of
information sources are sought (Zuntriana, 2007).
They prepare a description of the information first.
In addition to identifying, students can decide what
kind of information they are looking for. This will
provide students with a more specific description of
the information. Before accessing any information,
they make preparation according to their
understanding of the information that must be
sought. The purpose of this preparation is to make
the searching process easier because information is
likely provided in a broad scope. Identification is
needed to so that the scope information becomes
narrower. This tends to relate to the subject of
information. If the students have obtained
information literacy, in the search process, they will
be more competent in organizing information
sources so that their findings are precise and
qualified.
4.2 Chaining
Chaining is the process where the users start their
searching (Suhariono et al., 2022). The way they
start can be seen from how they prepare the source
of information to be sought, characterized by
students carrying notes that contain topics or the
value of information to be found. These notes can be
used to conduct a search using the search engine or
the OPAC provided by the library. In addition,
students sometimes approach librarians to ask for
help in finding the desired information source. There
are various ways of students’ information seeking
behaviour depending on their level of confusion.
What students do in seeking information is
influenced by several factors. There are two stages:
backward chaining and forward chaining (Ellis, Cox
and Hall, 1993). Backward chaining is a process of
searching backward. Backward chaining in general
is when a user seeks referrals from the references, in
the form of bibliography, indexes, abstracts, etc.
Forward chaining is the discovery process done in
forward manner, where the user is looking for
references outside the references. An example is
looking for other references in the form of a subject
or the author of the information source. Forward
chaining occurs not in chains and in roots.
Nowadays, most of the students apply forward
chaining due to the development of information
technology, allowing users to explore as much
information as possible. Most students prepare an
overview by setting keywords to input to OPAC or
search engines. Preparing keywords is the most
appropriate way to find information. By using
keywords, the results displayed will be more specific
and in accordance with what they are looking for. In
the chaining process, most students can gather 1 up
to 5 information sources. Only few students end up
collecting more than 10 sources of information
because following this step, the next process is
sorting out information sources. Gathering a lot of
information sources takes a lot of time while
students are required to complete their assignments
in limited time.
4.3 Browsing
In this process, students explore the source of
information after finding one source of information.
Browsing should be done regarding the specific
needs of the information (Romadhona, 2020).
Students are not satisfied when they find a source of
information yet there is still a sense of confusion that
encourages them to re-explore the source of
information they get. With the knowledge of the
information sought and with the subject prepared by
students, they can find many sources of information.
Exploration of information sources in this library is
strongly supported by the good internet network
facilities, in which no students claim that they
experience network problems. Problems in browsing
for information arise from the students themselves,
such as lack of knowledge on foreign languages. In
browsing information, the sources tend to be found
in many foreign language articles, especially in
international journals, the content is mostly written
Students’ Information Seeking Behaviour at the Library of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan (STIKes) William Booth Surabaya
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in English. This is one of the obstacles that are found
when conducting exploration. The level of trust in
the information source will also affect the way
students browse. Findings that are less convincing
can encourage students to find as many sources of
information as possible.
4.4 Differentiating
Differentiating is the process of selecting sources of
information that are found to t be taken and used.
Since students find many sources of information
when browsing, students need to choose which
source of information to use. This process can be
carried out in various ways to find certainty in the
source of information needed by students. There are
various ways to identify sources of information
based on the aims of students in seeking
information, this is due to the information quality
and needs that are known to the students themselves.
This process is needed to find information that is
more specific in the search results. From the
browsing process that was previously carried out,
there must be more than one information sources
that are found. Every information source that is
found tends to be in very broad scope. However, not
all of information sources will be used. Some will
sufficiently fulfil the needs of the students, while
some might not.
Most of the considerations made by the students
are made from the writer's side; starting from the
background, the previous awards and the
achievements of the author, expertise in a particular
field possessed in creating the work can be used as a
means to identify information sources.
4.5 Monitoring
The monitoring process is carried out after students
are confident about their findings. Monitoring is
needed as an update about the information sought.
This change of information can occur with only a
very short time. Therefore, it is needed to monitor
the development of information sources. In the
medical science field, it is very progress monitoring
is very crucial. This is due to the development of
diseases that infect humans. To overcome this
problem, students are required to have competent
knowledge. Medical technology also experienced
similar update and development. Students must be
able to master this development and anticipate it in
case there is any emergencies or inadequate
technical support. For this reason, good monitoring
must be done to perfect the skills they have.
Information source monitoring can be done in many
ways such as asking expert opinion or monitoring
with through communication media whether the
information is new, updated, or not.
4.6 Extracting
Extracting is the process where students finally
retrieve the information, characterized by their
action on their findings. The source of information
that they find will affect their following actions. If
the information is in the form of soft copy, the
seekers will then download it. If in hard copy, then
students will borrow it from the library. Sometimes
students just read it, take notes, or remember it.
Information retrieval is done after they have assured
that the sources of information are sufficient for their
needs. After going through several previous
processes, if they are sure of their findings, they will
use information sources for their own purposes.
Information extracting can be done through
borrowing books, downloading files, and recording
information. It is up to the users to decide which
way is considered as the most comfortable way.
Since most users find the source of
information in the form of soft file, the retrieval is
done through the download process. Many of them
prefer soft files because they are more efficient.
Physical forms tend to give the users some
difficulties such as immobility. There is an
electronic journal (e-journals) that can be
downloaded by students because the library
subscribes to the journal, even though several
students still prefer to take notes instead of
downloading or borrowing. It is suspected that there
is still a few reasons that causes students to avoid
borrowing or downloading collections, such as
laziness or forgetting to bring any personal memory
to store the files. A small percentage of students do
not record or download, they only remember what is
written in the text. The last reason is that the source
of information may not be a demand for college
assignments or research for students, but rather for
their own personal insights. This usually does not
apply to students who need references to make
research or assignments. The possibility of
forgetting information sources is very high in these
cases because human memory capacity is very
limited.
4.7 Verifying
Verifying is the process of evaluating and making
sure whether the source of information that has been
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found is suitable for the users’ needs or not. The
verification process aims to minimize errors that are
contained by the information sources. The
verification process can be done in many such as
inquiring experts if, sharing with colleagues who
have received similar information, or also reviewing
from other sources. In short, the verification process
is how users examine in detail the contents of
information. Before using the source of information
found, it would be better to first examine whether all
sources of information are taken in accordance with
what is sought or not. Because without researching,
there are possibilities of error being found in the
information sources. In doing verification,
knowledge and insight are needed. For students, the
source of information must be verified before
applying it in research or lecture assignments.
Most students (45%) examined their findings by
comparing it to other sources. Then 34% used the
method of verifying information sources by sharing
with lecturers or instructors who are experts in their
fields. Most students learn from other sources rather
than sharing it because they claimed that they are
more comfortable with their choices, this is due to
them being facilitated and do not have limited time
or deadlines, and opportunities to check the source
of information for their findings. There are also
students who have a hard time socializing, these few
students find obstacles in sharing their opinions with
experts or colleagues. Whatever method students
choose, they all lead to the same purpose; to find
legitimate and relevant sources of information. The
most important thing is that students are very serious
in seeking and using information sources for their
findings, in which they enjoyed all the processes in
finding information sources.
4.8 Ending
This final stage completes an information seeking
process. After students are confident about the
source of information that they found and retrieved
through several previous processes, they finally
found the qualified information they were looking
for. The source of information that has been selected
and is proven to be valid is ready to be used by the
students in accordance with their needs, which is to
support the goals they must achieve. This goal can
be in the form of assignments, research, or other
scientific works. To carry its purposes, the source of
information must be able to guarantee its value as
information. The information can be used for
lectures or research, for personal use, or shared with
others. The way that students treat the information
they found then to be in accordance with their
conditions. For students who have free time they can
share their information with their colleagues, if the
information they retrieved is not needed, they may
save it for other personal use.
4.9 Barriers
Many students experience obstacles when during the
information seeking process. The barriers
experienced by 37% of students came from
themselves. Individual barriers can be in form of
laziness in searching for information. Busyness
outside the university also becomes one of the
individual barriers in information seeking behaviour.
Other obstacles include physical and emotional or
psychological conditions. Those aspects intertwine
with each other, such as the moody feeling that tend
to arise from laziness in students. Those problems
are also signified who states the conflicted mental
condition of a person drives them to create a comfort
zone that causes them to solve a conflict only with
one or two solutions that they perceive as
comfortable for them. In seeking information, other
obstacles come in the form of the lack of foreign
language mastery, making it difficult to understand
information that are delivered in foreign languages.
External barriers such as the limited time in making
discoveries also become one of the most influencing
obstacles (Sugihartati and Harisanty, 2014). Students
have limited time to go to the library due to their
classes. It is also noted that there is an obstacle
caused by the environment, where 18% of the
student’s state that it because the library of STIKes
William Booth Surabaya is located on the fourth
floor. The absence of elevators turns it into
environmental obstacle for students who want to go
to the library. There is also 13% of students who
stated that the obstacle is caused by the influence of
others, such as the delay of information seeking
process due to other colleagues asking for assistance.
To overcome these barriers, the students applied
their own basic methods. There are 32% of the
students who claimed that they did not encounter
any obstacles. However, it does not mean that they
never encounter any problem at all. The few
obstacles or barriers they encounter are not
considered as crucial for them. They do not take into
account the obstacles they encounter because it does
not affect their information seeking process that
much. The result of a research conducted by Siti
Rozinah (2012) states that the process of information
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185

retrieval or information seeking behaviour by Ellis;
starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating,
monitoring, extracting, and ending are mostly done
by students who are working on their theses.
Students of the STAINU campus did not carry out
two stages of monitoring and extracting directly,
therefore it is concluded that only students working
on their theses are applying Ellis's information
seeking behaviour stages (Rozinah, 2012).
5 CONCLUSIONS
According to the results of analysis, the majority of
STIKes students came to the library to fulfil their
assignments. In starting the information seeking
process, they prepare keywords as a tool to be used
to find sources of information. After that students
enter the keywords into the OPAC search engine or
on the internet through a computer prepared by the
library. After they found it through a search engine,
they browse other information in case they are not
satisfied with the findings. All sources chosen are
then selected by the students to find the qualified
information that may fulfil their needs. They monitor
the development of information sources before
retrieving information sources. Students also
evaluate the information source of their findings so
that there is no error in the information that they will
use. Students end the discovery by using the
information they retrieved to complete assignments,
make research reports, and finishing their theses. In
finding information students experience obstacles,
such as laziness, lacking knowledge in foreign
languages, limited time to visit the library, and
locations that are difficult to access.
From the results of this study, it is recommended
for the Library of STIKes William Booth to add
more collections, socializing information for
freshmen through library visits and introductions,
and relocating libraries from 4th floor to 1st or 2nd
floor; the latter is one of the obstacles that prevents
students from going to the library, in which students
complain about the library being located on the
fourth floor while there is no elevator in the
building. It is expected that the results of this study
may be used as a suggestion to improve the quality
and development of the library of STIKes William
Booth Surabaya.
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