Assessing information-seeking patterns and needs of nutrition, food science, and dietetics faculty

This research examines how faculty in academic nutrition, food science, and dietetics locate and access relevant information sources; what information service needs they perceive; which scholarly journals they consult regularly for current awareness; and which journals they use for research and teaching. An e-mail survey was conducted at a large urban public university offering graduate and undergraduate programs in the fields of nutrition, food science, and dietetics. Scholarly journals remain the most common and effective information source for academic nutrition and food science faculty. The PubMed database from the U.S. National Library of Medicine was identified as the main platform for accessing MEDLINE, the most frequently used database for scientific literature searching. The findings inform and support subject librarians in their collection-building decisions, enabling them to improve the services they currently offer to academic communities in these fields.

Research Highlights
► Nutrition, food science, and dietetics faculty use a variety of print and online resource types.
► Scholarly journals are the most common and effective information source.
► There is overlap between journals used for current awareness and research/teaching.
► PubMed is the main platform for accessing MEDLINE.