Searching Techniques and Methods Adopted by University Teachers in Intelligent Information Retrieval: A Case Study of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

It is imperative to apprehend the various search options provided by search engines and controlled vocabulary adapted by different e-databases to make the effective search and retrieval of the information on the Internet. This article explores adaptation of different searching techniques and methods by the university teachers for intelligent information retrieval from the different e-resources. From the statistical analysis, it has been confirmed that amongst the various search criteria's, ‘just entering of keywords in simple search box’(mean value 4.01) is the frequently used search criteria for accessing information by the university teachers and the coefficient of skewness is-1.13 which indicates that the frequency distribution is negatively skewed. While looking at designation, use of searching criteria by the university teachers, it is found that Professors (46.66%) frequently used the Information retrieval techniques higher than their subordinates. Regarding gender-wise use of searching options, it is proved from the analysis that male teachers (40.70%) frequently used the Information retrieval techniques than occasional use by female teachers. In case of faculty-wise analysis, it is observed that Sciences (46.96%) faculty frequently used the information retrieval technique greater as compared with occasional use by other remaining two faculties. In addition, it is proved from the statistical analysis that ‘Search for articles using Google’ (mean value 3.87) is the frequently used method to access e-journals on Internet and the coefficient of skewness is-0.79 which indicates that the frequency distribution is negatively skewed.