A survey of information seeking behavior of the postgraduate students of Razi University in the World Wide Web environment

This research aims to study the information seeking behavior of the postgraduate students in Razi University on the web. The method used is based on the grounded theory. The data was gathered through the interview. A purposeful sampling technique is used to indicate a total sample of 30 postgraduate students of Razi University for the study. The grounded theory based on Meho and Tibbo’s model was used in this research. The results showed that the information seeking behavior model is based on the three basic stages of searching, accessing, and processing with eight sublevels i.e. starting, chaining, and revising in the first stage; selecting and updating in the second stage; filing, archiving, and organizing in the third stage. The major effective criteria within the three stages of information seeking behavior model have also been identified and reported. The important problems faced by the students in two stages of information accessing and processing were unreliability of websites, outdated sources of information, low speed transfer rate or internet access disconnection, e-journal discontinuation for subscription, unavailability of information, and unfamiliarity with the research methodology.