A Survey on the Information Needs and Information Seeking Behaviors of High School Teachers of Andimeshk (2008-2009 Academic Year)

Purpose: This research studied the information needs as well as the information seeking behaviors of teachers in Andimeshk high schools.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The data required for this descriptive/survey research were collected through a questionnaire. The research population included 531 high school teachers of Andimeshk in the 2008-2009 academic year. Among the 531 teachers, 240 were randomly selected based on the Krejcie and Morgan table. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS statistical software.
Findings: The research findings indicated that the major goal and motivation of the teachers in searching for information was improving their general knowledge. The teachers' most important official resource for obtaining information was books. An absolute majority of the high school teachers believed that the textbooks did not satisfy their information needs. The teachers studied preferred print resources to non-print resources. The teachers' most important problem in information seeking was their time limits. The teachers believed that the internet has an effective role in meeting their information needs; however, lack of adequate time was their main reason for not using the internet. According to the teachers, the most important shortage in the school libraries was that they were not rich in terms of their resources. The highest priority of teachers for using various information resources was improving their specialized knowledge.
Conclusion: Despite the fact that the Internet is the best electronic information resource for teachers, lack of internet facilities in some schools prevents teachers from accessing this valuable resource.