online Information Seeking Process (ISP) among faculty members of Islamic Azad University (Branch of Bardsir)

The present study was conducted with the aim of understanding the online Information Seeking Process (ISP) among faculty members of Islamic Azad University Branch of Bardsir. 31 faculty member's demographic information, preliminary knowledge and field of interests in web searching were identified through a questionnaire. Based on the obtained results, 4 search scenarios in scientific, news and entertainment areas were designed and submitted to faculty members. At the end of their search process, the participants were interviewed and asked 4 questions (3 close–ended and one open–ended). Using Track4Win software package, all search actions of the participants were recorded in Microsoft Access database. Using a Log Analysis method, and adopting Marchionini's ISP model, it was revealed that the participants went through the following stages during their information seeking process: 35.1 percent examining the results, 29.9 percent formulating and executing queries, 15.7 percent selecting sources, 15.1 percent extracting information, 2.2 percent defining problem and 1.9 percent stopping/thinlcing. Additional results were obtained based on logs, including records, time, scenarios, retrieved documents, first visited websites, most frequently used websites, search strategies, errors and keywords.