The use of information retrieval tools: A study of computer science postgraduate students

Students may seek information for various reasons such as to understand a specific subject matter or to conduct a research. In this digital age, they may not have a problem to find information. However, they are having problem to find scholarly information that suits their learning needs. This is because they are having difficulties to find the scholarly information that suitable for their learning styles. The objectives of this research are (a) to investigate information retrieval tools that students use to find scholarly information; (b) to compare the tools in terms of access, search techniques, and search facilities and (c) to propose architecture of information retrieval tool for learning needs. Therefore, this research investigates several information retrieval tools such as Online Public Access Catalogues (OPAC), Internet search engine, online databases and digital libraries. Survey questionnaire was conducted on 129 postgraduate's students of Faculty of Science Computer and Information Technology, University of Malaya. They were chosen because of their level of education and their proficiency in using IT infrastructure. The quantitative data were analyzed using statistical program SPSS. The result shows that postgraduate students having difficulties in finding information that suitable to their learning style using available information retrieval tools.