Informationsverhalten und Informationsbedarf der Wissenschaft Teil 1 der Nutzungsanalyse des Systems der überregionalen Literatur- und Informationsversorgung

In Germany, the provision of literature and information for research is supported by a system of special collection fields, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Association/DFG). 23 university libraries, 47 special libraries, and 3 central libraries (for engineering, medicine, and sports) each are responsible for building and maintaining comprehensive collections in certain subject fields. The DFG initiated a project for the evaluation of the system from the point of view of the user. The goal was to assess actual use and potential user needs in order to get a better foundation for future planning. Exemplarily for the whole system, evaluation was proposed for 5 subjects: English studies, biology, applied economics, history and mechanical engineering. The project was conducted by the University and Regional Library Münster in cooperation with a commercial firm (infas - Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH).1 This paper reports the results that deal with the information behaviour of the academics in the subjects.