Information Behaviour of Higher Pedagogical Education Specialists: Priorities and Deficits
Abstract
The growing use of mobile devices in educational and research activities at universities, the development of digital platforms for content access, and the increasing application of large language models (LLMs) call for new approaches to searching for and utilizing professional resources.
The study of the information-seeking behaviour of specialists in higher pedagogical education focuses on identifying existing strategies for working with information and developing recommendations to enhance their professional competence in using modern library and information tools and services. The study is based on a survey of 1,516 representatives from higher education institutions that train pedagogical staff across 50 regions of Russia, aimed at analysing their preferences in the use of domestic and foreign specialized publications, as well as digital tools and platforms for professional activities.
The analysis enabled the identification of key sources and channels of professional information used by Russian specialists in higher pedagogical education, as well as specific deficiencies in the information support for their educational and research activities. Notably, there is high demand for domestic electronic libraries (eLibrary, CyberLeninka, etc.) and underutilization of free international services (Google Scholar, SciSpace, Zotero), which are capable of addressing diverse information challenges in the context of restricted access to foreign scientometric databases (Scopus, WoS, etc.).
Addressing the identified problems requires improving teachers' digital competencies, training them in information retrieval methods and strategies, and developing proficiency in using modern library and information tools and services.
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