Abstract:
This research study discusses the Information Seeking Behavior of the undergraduates
during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Faculty of Management, Social Sciences, and
Humanities at Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, Sri Lanka. The study has three
primary objectives; to find out the undergraduates’ information-seeking behavior for
academic purposes, to find out the undergraduates’ information-seeking behavior for
non-academic purposes, and to find out the usage of services provided by the university
library and undergraduates’ satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research
study, a survey method was applied, and a questionnaire was used as the main research
instrument. The research philosophy is Interpretivism, and the research approach is
deductive. This research study is a quantitative and cross-sectional research study.
The random sampling method was used when collecting the sample, and the response
rate was 100%. SPSS (ver. 22), Excel 2010 with its data analysis tool pack, and manual
analysis were used to analyze data.
Most of the undergraduates used the Lecture Notes provided by the lecturers as the main
information source and used computers as IT equipment for academic purposes
during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Further, most undergraduates prefer WhatsApp, Gmail,
Zoom, and LMS are the IT application for gathering information for academic purposes.
However, most undergraduates used YouTube as the main information source and
Android Devices as the IT equipment for non-academic purposes during the Covid-19
Pandemic. Also, most undergraduates prefer the WhatsApp as the IT application for
gathering information for non-academic purposes. Considering the university library
usage during the Covid-19 pandemic, most undergraduates do not use the university
library. The undergraduates who use the university library mostly use the E-Books
provided by the university library. However, most of the undergraduates were satisfied
with the services provided by the university library during the pandemic period. Finally,
based on the research findings, the researcher suggested a few recommendations
to the university and university libraries to increase the quality of online information
dissemination.
