AN ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION USE BY SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

Information sources used by various groups of people have been the subject of examination especially in the developed countries from numerous perspectives. These have ranged from an effort to determine their information needs to an attempt to establish the correlation between information and national development. This study focused on information use by scientists and engineers in the petroleum industry in Nigeria.; Seven hypotheses were generated which proposed that scientists relied more on published information sources while engineers relied more on interpersonal communication among colleagues as their main source of information; that these were used more frequently; that scientists used libraries more frequently than engineers; that there was a correlation between frequency of library use and adequacy of library in meeting their information needs, and that computer-based information retrieval services were not available to these group of users in the petroleum industry in Nigeria.; To test these ideas, three hundred and twenty-four scientists and engineers were surveyed through a questionnaire from three locations of petroleum industry concentrations in Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Warri and Eket. Data were gathered from the subjects on information sources they use in meeting their information needs in the course of their professional duties.; It was found that there was no significant difference between the scientists and engineers in the frequency of use of published information sources, but engineers used interpersonal sources more frequently than the scientists. There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of published and interpersonal sources in meeting information needs of both groups. Scientists used libraries more frequently than engineers; libraries mainly used could not meet the information needs of scientists and engineers. There was no absolute correlation between frequency of library use and perception of users in adequacy of libraries in meeting their information needs. Computers were not used for information retrieval in libraries mainly used by the respondents.