Relationship of business students’ information-seeking anxiety with socio-academic variables in the digital environment
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-03-2022-0024 |
| Published date | 14 October 2022 |
| Date | 14 October 2022 |
| Pages | 213-222 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Library & information services,Lending,Document delivery,Collection building & management,Stock revision,Consortia |
| Author | Sana Khan,Muhammad Asif Naveed,Mumtaz Ali Anwar |
Relationship of business students’information-
seeking anxiety with socio-academic variables
in the digital environment
Sana Khan
Department of Library, Lahore School of Economics, Lahore, Pakistan
Muhammad Asif Naveed
Department of Information Management, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan, and
Mumtaz Ali Anwar
Institute of Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to investigate the relationship of information-seeking anxiety (ISA) with socio-academic variables of business students in
the digital environment.
Design/methodology/approach –A cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire, composed of 47 items of
Information Seeking Anxiety Scale along with certain socio-academic variables, was administered personally among business students by visiting
their classrooms at the Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan. The received 283 responses were analyzed by applyin g descriptive and inferential
statistics such as mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way analysis of variance.
Findings –The results revealed that a large majority of business students were less comfortable in information seeking and experienced anxiety
from mild to moderate levels. There were only a few respondents who faced either low or severe levels of ISA. In relationship testing, the students’
socio-academic variables such as program type, gender, school background, geographical background, information communication technolo gy skills
and English language competence did not appear to be the predictors of their ISA.
Research limitations/implications –The results of this study should carefully be used while making generalizations for all the business students in
Pakistan and abroad as this research collected data from the business students of a single university in Paki stan.
Practical implications –These results have greater implications for the future directions of information literacy as creating awareness and building
capacity for skills about the information search process will help in reducing ISA. These findings provided a pragmatic insight t hat can be used as a
guide by information professionals, especially those engaged in information services, to develop a need-based curricu lum of information literacy
which would ultimately help in the alleviation of anxiety and combating its effects on students’academic performance.
Originality/value –This study address specifically ISA of business students that would make a worthy contribution to the existing research on ISA
as, to the best of the authors’knowledge, no such study has appeared so far.
Keywords Information-seeking anxiety, Information anxiety, Library anxiety, Business students, Information literacy, Pakistan
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The feelings of anxiety are central and persistent characteristics of
the information-seeking process (Kuhlthau, 1988,1991,1993),
which may arise anytime in any uptight situation either at the
library or being online (Bapte, 2017;Naveed, 2016;Naveed,
2017). Erfanmanesh et al. (2012) labeled this phenomenon as
information-seeking anxiety (ISA). These scholars described it as
patrons’feelings of discomfort while looking for needed
information from multiple resources that goes beyond the physical
space of a library, including Web and human. The course of
information seeking may be either manual or computer-based and
may be performed anywhere either at home or at a library.
According to Naveed and Anwar (2019), ISA may include but is
not limited to library anxiety. Such anxiety feelings not only give
rise to “different cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects”
among students, but also hamper their info-seeking self-efficacy
and academic achievement (Erfanmanesh et al., 2012;Kohrman,
2003;Naveed and Ameen, 2017b;Naveed and Anwar, 2020).
The complexity of students’academic and research work
requires credible information not only in topic identification
and formulation but also in preparing literature review and
writing assignments, synopsis and thesis. If students’
information searches end up with failure, it not only causes
uncertainty among students (Kohrman, 2003;Van Kampen,
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2398-6247.htm
Information Discovery and Delivery
51/2 (2023) 213–222
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2398-6247]
[DOI 10.1108/IDD-03-2022-0024]
Received 23 March 2022
Revised 2 June 2022
13 August 2022
Accepted 21 September 2022
213
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