An Investigation of Efective Factors on Personal Information Management of Postgraduate Student at...

38International Journal of Scientific Management and Development

International Journal of Scientific Management and Development ISSN:2345-3974Vol.3 (1), 38-47 December (2013)

Review Paper

An Investigation of Effective Factors on Personal Information Management of Postgraduate Student atAlzahra University

Mahdiye Amouzande1, Mansuor Tajdaran2 ,Amir Ghaebi3,

1MA in Library and Information Science, librarian at public library (Iranpl)2Ph D. in Library and Information Science, professor at Alzahra University3Ph D. in Library and Information Science, professor at Alzahra University

Available online at: www.IJSMD.ComReceived 25th Nov 2013, revised 1th Dec 2013, accepted 10th Dec 2013

Abstract:Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study the effective factors on personal information management and know the strength andweakness in personal information management of postgraduate students at Alzahra University.Methodology: The methodology of the research, in the part of the literature review and theoretical literature, is library study and in thepart of the analysis, is survey study (descriptive and analytic). The data were gathered through a researcher made questionnaire thatcontained 4 parts and 73 questions. The research population includes all of the postgraduate students (at M.A/M.Sc and Ph.D degrees)at Alzahra University whom are studying at this university during the educational year of 2011-2012. Based on the random sampling,309 postgraduate students at M.A/M.Sc degree and 70 postgraduate students at Ph.D degree participated at this research.Finding: It should be noted that personal information management of the postgraduate students has been studied under the factors of“attitude, knowledge and skill.” The research results represent that among the effective factors on personal information management,the attitude average is 3.95, knowledge’s average is 3.29, and the skills set have the average of 3.17. Furthermore, the average of thethree mentioned factors’ averages is about 3.47.Conclusion: The amount (3.47) indicates that the situation of personal information management of postgraduate students at AlzahraUniversity is at the up to the average level. Therefore, one of the research hypotheses indicating: “the personal informationmanagement of Alzahra University postgraduate students is at a favorable situation”; is confirmed. On the other hand, the situation ofpersonal information management by Ph.D students is the same as M.A/M.Sc students and this amount is around 3.47. Thus it can besaid that there is no significant relation between personal information management by Ph.D students and M.A/M.Sc students. So, theother research hypotheses, indicating: “there is significant relation between personal information management by Ph.D students andM.A/M.Sc students at Alzahra University” is rejected.Keywords: Personal Information Management, Postgraduate Students, Alzahra University, Iran.

1.0. Introduction

The fast development of computer technology during the recentdecades indicates that, besides the printed information, peoplehave many electronic information items which need to bemanaged properly. In fact, with increasing the capabilities of thecomputer systems in storage, processing and retrieving of thevery high volume of information, people have been more willingto use personal computers. Daily, people encounter a broadrange of the printed and electronic objects that are cumulativeand their retrieval and usage is practically very difficult. On onehand, increasing volume of the produced information in theworld and on the other hand, different types of non-uniform andunrelated information; have created much confusion forinformation users and this dilemma is getting more important,more complex, and more challenging day to day. In the

information world, people often cannot access the necessaryinformation at the appropriate time to meet their informationneeds. The necessary information is never found or found at aninappropriate time and no more useful for us. Information isusually stored in an inappropriate place and therefore, iscompletely forgotten before to be used [1]. The above issuesshow that people usually do not apply exact management andcontrol on their information resources content and this lack ofknowledge will lead to the failure in retrieving and using ofinformation. It’s almost four decades that information sciencemanagers are attempting to help information users throughinformation management science and using new computertechnologies

1.1.0. Information Management

Correspondent author: Mahdiye Amouzande1Manuscript No: IJSMD-KINA-2013-021

Information management is a broad concept whichexperts in different areas consider different meanings and

interpretation for it. In fact, in respect to the existentialphilosophy, we can consider information management similar toany other kind of management in its general meaning. Choo(2002) believes that information management is a broad andvaried area which ranges from the data management to theelectronic dissemination protection and library systemsmanagement. Information management is a broad area whichdirectly relates to information technology management; records,resources and archives management; information processesmanagements; and information standards and policiesmanagement [2]. Detlor (2010) believes that the issue of theinformation management can be surveyed through threeviewpoints and perspectives including: organizationalperspective, library and information perspective and personalperspective [3].

1.1.1. Organizational Perspective

Meagher (2003) knows information as one of the mostvital assets of any organization and institute [4]. He believes, inorder to achieve to the strategic success, it’s necessary to put theinformation management at the top of the priorities of theorganizations and institutes. In organizational respect,information management is not much different from conceptssuch as management of credits, human forces, trading, researchand organizational development. But the only difference betweeninformation management and the mentioned cases is that itbegins with the training of the strategic thinking manner andcontinues with the development of the strategic projects and theirassessment. Information technology management is one of themost important components in organizational informationmanagement and relates closely to some terms such asinformation systems management, information technologymanagement, data management, commercial intelligence,competitive intelligence, content management, and recordsmanagement.

1.1.2. Library and Information Perspective

As the information is the main base of the library andinformation centers activities and services, informationmanagement is very important at the libraries and informationcenters environments and is considered as one of the maincomponents of service offering to information community. In theintroduction of the information management framework from thelibrary and information centers perspective, Detlor (2010)

defines information collection management as a necessary andinevitable affair. He stipulates that by managing informationcollections, we can help user to access the desired information.He also refers that a broad range of the current activities at thelibraries needs to be managed properly, for example we can referto collection making development, policy codification, issuesrelated to budgeting, information collection analysis, the analysisof users’ real needs, development of programs for cooperationwith other information centers and other similar cases.

1.1.3. Personal Information Management (PIM)

Lansdale (1988) defines personal informationmanagement as a series of methods and procedures which peopledaily do for maintenance, classification and retrieval ofinformation [5]. Barreau (1995) has defined personal informationmanagement more broadly and knows it as a developed systemwhich one applies at workplace. This system includes methodsand rules for information acquisition and mechanisms forinformation classification and storage. This system also includesspecial rules and procedures for information systemsmaintenance, information retrieval and production of all outputtypes [6]. Whittaker & et. all (2000) knows personal informationmanagement as a fundamental aspect of daily activities based oncomputer which are repeated by millions of users at differenttimes [7]. Another useful definition has been offered by Jones,Brunce & Dumais (2001) which emphasizes that “personalinformation management includes a personal information areaincluding multiple information environments” [8]. Jones believes“personal information management” is a term that refers to theprocesses and study of activities which a person applies forcreation, acquisition, storage, classification, retrieval and usageof available information in his personal collections to find hisdesired information to meet his needs and particular goals at thedesired time. Personal information refers to information thatpersons maintain in personal collections for personal or businessuse. From Detlor’s (2010) viewpoint, personal informationmanagement administrates and processes information that isbased on information life cycle and from this respect, personalinformation management relates closely to the organizationalperspective, but the main condition of management in personalinformation management is the consideration of the person andpersonal interests and not organizational theories.

Jones (2007) refers in his work that “personalinformation is the information that is special for the person,about the person, produced by the person, sent by the person,experienced by the person and related to the person.” Then headds that the personal information also can refer to informationrelated to one person but under the control of other persons.Personal information even includes information which a person

experiences at his daily behaviors, even when it’s not under hiscontrol [9].

2. Research Issue

Postgraduate students, as one important part of theeducated stratum, play a determining role in moving of theinformation life cycles. They encounter daily with high volumeof information resources and new information resources areconstantly added to their personal collections and students needto access to the desired information at the desired time. Studentsrefer to their information repeatedly to do their homework,research and scientific work and other personal affairs. Newresources are increasingly added to their information collections.Increasing the volume of information saved at the personalsystems, prevents recognition of appropriate information at theappropriate time and makes it difficult to retrieve and useinformation. Therefore, they have to manage their personalcollections comprehensively. So they are potentially involved inpersonal information management issue continuously. In thisresearch, the researcher is to study and assess the operation ofpersonal information management by postgraduate students atAlzahra University. In this research, the level of students’acquaintance with personal information management issue, andalso their perspective, knowledge and skills levels are assessed.So, by studying the personal information management behaviorof postgraduate students, the existing problems in this area aredetermined and it’s hoped that inspired by appropriate behaviorsand by the correction of inappropriate behaviors, more properand more complete guidelines are suggested for personalinformation management.

3. Research Purposes

The research purposes are included in three generalcategories:

The research goal: “to provide an appropriate basis in order tosuggest a practical guideline for personal informationmanagement, appropriate to the postgraduate students’ needs.”

The general purpose of the research: “to study the effectivefactors on personal information management of postgraduatestudents (P.hD and M.A./M.Sc degrees).”

The slight purpose of the research: “to identify weaknesses andstrengths of personal information management by post graduatestudents at Alzahra University.”

4. The research literature review

Qian (2009) designed a personal informationmanagement system in his M.A. Thesis as “A PersonalInformation Management System”. His purpose is to design apersonal information management system which can supportdifferent types of structured, non-structured and semi-structuredinformation and be able to retrieve different types of informationby a unit searching structure. For this purpose, he studiespersonal information management operation at three physical,logical and interface levels and finally, based on extractedinformation, a personal information management system isdesigned and implemented. At the next stage, he assesses andstudies the designed personal information management systemby use of personal information available at a personal computerin order to assess the rate of the new system efficiency. Theresults show the relative success of the designed system inmeeting the user’s needs and retrieval of the requestedinformation [10].

Crystal in his P.hD thesis (2008) “Design research forpersonal information management systems to supportundergraduate students”, designs a personal informationmanagement system appropriate to postgraduate students’ needs.For this purpose, he studied students’ needs and operations inpersonal information management issue during one educationalsemester which lasted 4 months. This research is divided to threesteps. At the first step, he carefully studied personal informationmanagement behavior of 15 students through observation andinterview. At the next step, he studied 6 other students’behaviors in order to design new tracks for personal informationmanagement. At the end, based on the results, he designed asystem as “My Life Bits” and then studied 4 other students’behaviors by help of My Life Bits. The results of the mentionedstudy represented that students always are involved in personalinformation management issue and encounter many problemsand challenges in this area and it’s necessary to help them solvetheir problems through designing systems appropriate o theirneeds and information characteristics [11].

Capra in his research (2006) “An Investigation ofFinding and Refinding Information on the Web”, studiespersonal information management methods of a particular groupof people through a questionnaire including two parts with openquestions. In this research, 47 persons (27 B.A/B.S students, 14postgraduate students and 6 members of scientific board at northKarolina University) were asked to describe their manner ofpersonal information management, information transmissionthrough electronic tools and personal information retrieval. Theresearch purpose is to enhance the understanding of personalinformation management behavior of people in order to designpersonal information management methods or tools appropriate

to academic stratum. The first section of the questionnaireconsiders “how can people find their personal information ontheir personal computers and correct them after long years?” thesecond section of the questionnaire includes questions whichstudy information storage methods and also determine the mostwidely used tools of information transmission. The researchresults represent that email, output memory cards and alsotransmission and storage of information through webenvironment are the most widely used of personal informationenvironments. Among other significant results of the research,one can refer to this point “a large number of the storage toolsare used very little and few storage tools are used very much.”[12]

Boardman in his P.hD thesis (2004) as “Improving ToolSupport for Personal Information Management”; is to deepenunderstanding of personal information management behavior andis trying to design a personal information management systemthrough the same methodology. In this research, the researcherstudies personal information management tools at three areas:emails, stored internet addresses and stored files on the personalcomputer. He designs a system as Workspace Mirror based ondata derived from persons’ behaviors and at the end he studiesthe system. At the next step, he observes personal informationmanagement behavior of people during a particular period oftime. The results represented that classification strategies ofpeople in personal information management are changing overtime and it’s necessary to make some changes at the previousstructures of personal information management models. At theend, some guides and new methodologies are represented forpersonal information management [13].

Gyllstrom in his P.hD thesis (2009) as “Enrichingpersonal information management with document interactionhistories”, studied and designed a system which could help for abetter personal information management. He suggested a systemas “Passage System” in order to help users in personalinformation management. Through his research, at first herecorded users’ interactions with their workplaces and then basedon these interactions, designed user friendly algorithms whichfinally led to Passage System creation. His purpose was to makethe retrieval more personal, more natural and moreunderstandable for users. The final poll of users, about thesystem’s operation, indicated users’ satisfaction about it [14].

Olandedr in his P.hD thesis (1992) as “PersonalInformation Management in Computer Science Research”identified the personal characteristics of scientific informationmanagement at research operation of computer sciences’ experts.He studied behaviors of 9 computer sciences’ experts at aSwedish university based on qualitative research methodologies.

Information behaviors of participants are entered into a 2.2matrix based on a typology and then are studied and measured.The explicit and implicit information needs are mixed at thematrix and the external and internal searching are doneaccording to 4 criteria (“implicit need and internal searching”,“implicit need and external searching”, “explicit need andinternal searching”, and “explicit need and external searching”).The research represented that the most of the people use internalsearching for retrieval of their information and to meet theirneeds, they prefer consultation in person to codified and printedresources. The results also showed that persons limit theirretrieval results only to the most related retrieved information[15].

Henderson in his P.hD thesis (2002) as “How peoplemanage their documents: AN Empirical Investigation intoPersonal Document Management Practices among KnowledgeWorkers”, studied personal information management behaviorsof people. He was to represent an appropriate strategy fordevelopment of personal information management tools. Hegathered the data through case study, interview, and observationof personal information system in person. In this research,behaviors, strategies, structures and personal informationmanagement processes of 10 students were studied. In additionto the descriptive analyses, he designed a mechanicalobservation system by use of which could collect data morethoroughly. Finally, he could study behaviors, concerns, needs,strategies and personal information management systemcarefully and identify weaknesses and strengths of people andrepresent an appropriate guideline [16].

5.0. Research Questions

5.1. What’s the situation of post graduate students’ (P.hD andM.A/M.Sc degrees) PIM at Alzahra University?

5.1.1. What’s the level of postgraduate students’ attitude (P.hDand M.A/M.Sc degrees) at Alzahra University toward personalinformation management?

5.1.2. What’s the level of postgraduate students’ (P.hD andM.A/M.Sc degrees) knowledge at Alzahra University aboutpersonal information management?

5.1.3. What’s the level of postgraduate students’ (P.hD andM.A/M.Sc degrees) skills set at Alzahra University aboutpersonal information management?

5.2. What’s the situation of P.hD students’ personal informationmanagement behavior in comparison with M.A/M.Sc students atAlzahra University?

6.0. Research hypotheses

Two hypotheses are represented in this research:

6.1. There is a significant difference between personalinformation management of P.hD students and M.A/M.Scstudents at Alzahra University.

6.2. Personal information management of postgraduate studentsat Alzahra University has a favorable situation.

7. Operational Definitions

Personal information management: it refers to a seriesof processes and activities which a person applies in order tocreate, acquire, store, organize, retrieve and use the availableinformation in his personal collections and retrieve his requiredinformation at the appropriate time and meet his special needsand goals.

Personal Information: here, personal information doesnot mean private information but also it means information thatpeople store in their personal information collections in order touse them at the present and future for meeting their informationneeds. At this research, personal information management hasbeen studied only at the area of electronic personal informationcollections and it includes just those information items which aremaintained at computer and computer based storing systems(such as soft wares and hard wares).

Effective Factors: among the most important andessential components of personal information management, wecan refer to factors such as “people’s attitude toward personalinformation management”, “people’s knowledge about personalinformation management” and “people’s skills at personalinformation management.”

PostGraduate Students: at this research, postgraduatestudents refer to those students that are studying at M.A/M.S orP.hD degrees at Alzahra University and during this research arepassing some courses or thesis course.

8. Research Method

The present research is a descriptive-analytic surveystudy. At this research, at first the desired theoretical frameworks

at personal information management area were determined byuse of library study and then three factors of “attitude,knowledge and personal information management skills” andother involved components were derived and studied accordingto the theoretical study.

Data gathering tool at this research was a researchermade questionnaire. At this way that all of the under studiedcomponents at personal information management area weredesigned and edited as a researcher made questionnaire withconsidering three under studied factors (attitudes, knowledge andskills). This questionnaire includes 4 sections and 79 questions.The first section includes 3 questions related to individualcharacteristics of research population. The second sectionincludes 57 close questions related to the assessment of thefactor of “skills”. The third section includes 13 close questionsrelated to the assessment of the factor of “knowledge”. Andfinally, the fourth section includes 10 close questions related tothe assessment of the factor of “attitude” at personal informationmanagement behavior of postgraduate students.

To measure the questionnaire validity, 11 members ofthe scientific boards of the universities in Iran, experts atinformation management area, were asked to study representedquestions at the questionnaire from the point of structure andcontent. Generally, all of the members of scientific boardsconfirmed the general structure of the questionnaire and thenecessary points about some questions were reported to theresearcher. After performing necessary editions, the finalquestionnaire was prepared and data gathering was started.

To measure questionnaire reliability, statisticaltechnique (Kronbakh Alfa method) was applied. Reliabilityquantity was estimated at 81% which shows that the questions ofthis questionnaire have the desired reliability.

Under studied variables at this research are divided intotwo categories of dependent and independent variables. Each of“the effective factors on personal information management” isconsidered as independent variable including factors of “skill”,“attitude” and “knowledge” of students toward personalinformation management. On the other

hand, “personal information management ofpostgraduate students at Alzahra University” is as dependentvariable of the research which is affected by three mentionedfactors.

The research population includes all of the postgraduatestudents at Alzahra University who are studying at the

educational year of 1390-91 which is equal to 2156 persons,2046 persons of which are studying at M.A/M.Sc degree and 110students at P.hD degree. According to random sampling andMorgan table, with the measurement error scale of 5%, 324persons among 2046 M.A/M.Sc students and 82 students among

110 P.hD students at Alzahra University were selected for datagathering and participated at the research.

To analyze the represented questions, the values ofLikert range were calculated. After gathering and derivation ofdata inserted at the questionnaire, research data were analyzed.The analysis was done through S.P.P.S. software (version 16)and descriptive and analytic statistical techniques (averagecalculation and T test).

9. Testing Research Hypotheses

9.1. There is a significant difference between personalinformation management of P.hD students and M.A/M.Scstudents at Alzahra University.

The results at the table 1 represent that according to theprobability value at .05 level and with the certainty at the .95level, the first hypothesis of the research is insignificant.Because the probability value of the above test is equal to .997which is more than .05. So H0 of the T test, stating no significantrelation between personal information management of P.hD andM.A/M.Sc students, is accepted. So, we can claim that there isno significant difference between personal informationmanagement of M.A/M.Sc and P.hD students and the firsthypothesis of the research is rejected.

Table 1. examination of significant difference between personal information management of M.A/M.Sc and P.hD students

Explanation T test (testing dependent samples)

Averagedifference

Standard errordifference

T value Sig. (2-tailed)

Freedomdegree

At .95 level ofcertainty distance

Comparison ofM.A/M.Sc andP.hD students’

-.0266 .11010 -.004 .997 144 highlimit

low limit

.217 -.218

9.2. Personal information management of postgraduate studentsat Alzahra University has a favorable situation.

Information inserted at table 2 represent that personalinformation management of P.hD students has the average equalto 3.48 and personal information management of M.A/M.Scstudents has the average

equal to 3.46 and finally the average of these two averages isequal to 3.47. These statistical results show that personalinformation management level of postgraduate students is higherthan average

level. So we can refer that the second research hypothesis,stating “Personal information management of postgraduatestudents at Alzahra University has a favorable situation”, isconfirmed.

Table 2. Examination of personal information management of postgraduate students at Alzahra University

Standard error averageStandard deviationAverageFactors frequencyPIMSituation

.081.693.4873P.hD

.074.633.4673M.A/M.Sc

.078.663.4773Average10.0. Answering research questions

10.1. What is the level of postgraduate students’ personalinformation management at Alzahra University?

With citation to the mentioned results at table 2 andaccording to the average of averages of sum of the personalinformation management components, equal to 3.47, we can

refer that personal information management level ofpostgraduate students at Alzahra University is more thanaverage. So, we can also claim that personal informationmanagement of postgraduate students at Alzahra University hasa favorable situation.

10.1.1. What is the level of postgraduate students’ attitude atAlzahra University toward personal information management?

Results at table 3 show that the average of averages ofsum of the attitude components is equal to 3.95. So we can claimthat students’ attitude is higher than average and is at a favorablelevel. These statistical results represent that postgraduatestudents are aware about personal information management

importance and the necessity of its function at personalinformation collections and have a positive attitude towardpersonal information management issue.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics related to the assessment of postgraduate students’ attitude at Alzahra University toward personal informationmanagement

Standard deviationAverageFactorsfrequency

Attitudesituation

.833.9410P.hD

.883.9773M.A/M.S

.853.95Average

10.1.2. What’s the level of postgraduate students’ knowledge atAlzahra University about personal information management?

The knowledge factor was examined at 4 sections at thisresearch.

10.1.2.1. The general knowledge of postgraduate students aboutpersonal information management issue.

The first section of the questions was related to theassessment of the general knowledge level of students aboutpersonal information management issue. The average ofaverages obtained from the sum of the components is equal to3.29. So, this numeric value states that postgraduate students’knowledge at Alzahra University about personal informationmanagement issue is at the average up to high level.

Table 4. Descriptive statistics related to the assessment of the knowledge situation of postgraduate students at Alzahra Universityabout personal information management

Knowledgesituation

.983.346P.hD1.013.246M.A/M.Sc.993.296Average

10.1.2.2. Postgraduate students’ familiarity level to personalinformation management tools.

At the second section, tool knowledge of postgraduatestudents was asked. At this section, some tools for personalinformation management were suggested to students and theywere asked to tell which tools they have heard so far or which

tools they are familiar to relatively. Descriptive statistics relatedto this section show that generally just 33.5% of postgraduatestudents are familiar to the set of personal informationmanagement tools. The results show that despite students statedthat they have general knowledge about personal informationmanagement, they are not at a favorable level at tool knowledgearea

Table 5. Descriptive statistics related to postgraduate students’ familiarity to personal information management at Alzahra University

Number of toolsFamiliaritypercent

Average offamiliarityfrequency

Number ofSamples

Situation offamiliarity toPIM tools

1731.42270P.hD1735.6110309M.A/M.S1733.5Average

10.1.2.3. The rate of postgraduate students usage of personalinformation management tools.

At the third section, the rate of postgraduate students usage ofpersonal information management tools was asked. Descriptive

statistics related to this section state that generally just 20.2% ofpostgraduate students use personal information managementtools. In other words, 60.3% of students who are familiar topersonal information management tools use these tools.

Descriptive statistics of this section refer that the situation ofpersonal information management tools usage is not at afavorable level and it’s necessary to identify its reasons andappropriate solutions should be suggested

Table 6. Descriptive statistics related to the situation of postgraduate students usage of PIM tools at Alzahra University

Usage percentUsagefrequencyaverage

Number ofsamples

The situation ofPIM tools usage

201470P.hD20.463309M.A/M.S20.2Average

10.1.2.4. Determining the role of the effective factors on thepromotion on postgraduate students’ personal knowledge.

At the fourth section, the role of the effective factors on thepromotion of personal knowledge has been

examined and assessed. The research results show that thehuman force with the average of 3.98 is the most effective factorand the factor of academic courses with the average of 2.57 isthe least effective factor on the promotion of personal knowledge

Table 7. The role of the effective factors on the improvement of postgraduate students personal knowledge at Alzahra University.

M.A/M.Sc students P.hD students M.A/M.Sc and P.hDstudents

Effective factorson personalknowledgeenhancement

Standarddeviation

Answersaverage

Priority Standarddeviation

Answersaverage

Priorities Theaverage ofaverages

Priorities

Human force .87 3.96 1 .81 4 1 3.98 1Internet and web 1.04 3.69 3 1.05 3.77 2 3.73 2Academic courses 1.27 2.79 4 1.43 2.35 5 2.57 5Academicworkshops

1.27 2.75 5 1.32 2.73 4 2.74 4

Self-training(trial and error)

1.15 3.56 2 1.01 3.73 3 3.65 3

10.1.3. What’s the level of the skills set of postgraduate studentsat Alzahra University about personal information management?

The average of acquired averages, acquired from postgraduatestudents’ answers to the septet skills set, is equal to 3.17. The

mentioned number states that in general, postgraduate students’skills level is higher than average

Table 8. Descriptive statistics related to the assessment of postgraduate students’ skills situation at PIM at Alzahra University

P.hD standard deviationThe average of P.hDaverages

M.A/M.S standarddeviation

The average of M.A/M.SaveragesSkills

.893.47.923.67Searching

.963.441.33.32Storage1.062.851.072.72Classification.912.611.042.83Maintenance1.063.251.093.09Assessment and rating1.092.771.23.06Information flaw

management.923.821.033.45Conceptualization.983.171.093.16Average

Table 9. Descriptive statistics related to the average of averages of postgraduate students’ skills at Alzahra University

Skill situation

.983.1757P.hD1.093.1657M.A/M.Sc1.043.1757Average

10.2. What’s the situation of P.hD students’ personal informationmanagement behavior in comparison with M.A/M.S students atAlzahra University?

With citation to the results of the first hypothesis testand also numbers inserted at table 1, it’s confirmed that there isno significant difference between personal informationmanagement of M.A/M.Sc and P.hD students. So the resultsshow that despite the difference between degrees of these twosample groups, their personal information management situationis at the same level and there is no especial excellence for one ofthem.

11. Discussion and Conclusion

After gathering the required data for research,mentioning of descriptive statistics, testing hypotheses and alsoanswering the research questions; the research stages are notfinished, but also representing of some particular points -whichthe researcher has got during the research- and discussion andconclusion about these points can solve some of the observedproblems.

The first expressible point is about the identicalsituation of P.hD students’ PIM in comparison with M.A/M.Scstudents. According to this fact that P.hD students are involvedwith storage and retrieval processes of information on theirpersonal systems broader and longer than M.A/M.Sc students, itwas expected that their PIM was at a better level than M.A/M.Sstudents, but the research results not only do not confirm thispoint, but also refers that their PIM is at the same level asM.A/M.Sc students.

Another notable point is the average of each of theeffective factors. The acquired statistics show that the attitudewith the average of averages equal to 3.95 has the most effect onpostgraduate students’ PIM situation. General knowledge aboutPIM with the average of 3.29 is at the second level and skillsfactor with the average of 3.17 is the third effective factor.

Another notable point in this research is the lowdescriptive statistics and the low frequency of PIM tools usageby postgraduate students. The high frequency of non-use of someof PIM skills makes the way smooth to study PIM issue moreexactly. This question should be answered that why postgraduate

students as de facto users of personal computer systemsdo not use computer systems components. After identifying theavailable reasons, we can proceed for removal of obstacles andimproving the skills level and make appropriate decisions.Considering the answers to the open research questions, notes ofthe respondents written at the questionnaire and also researcher’sexamination, the following reasons have been deduced for non-use of some of components:

lack of enough knowledge and awareness about thementioned component;

lack of enough time for gaining of the required information;

lack of attention to the importance and necessity of PIMissue by the person;

lack of appropriate publicizing by related authorities fortraining and transmission of enough knowledge;

fear to encounter and use of the related technologies;

fear to be challenged by the related technologies;

fear to be drown in information technology world;

lack of self-confidence for encountering with todaytechnology that this lack is derived from the lack ofenough knowledge at this area.

Another point deduced from this research is todetermine the most important factor’s role on the improvementof the general knowledge about PIM issue. The low average ofthe academic courses in the improvement of postgraduatestudents’ knowledge about PIM, states that academic courses donot pay attention to this main need of students at academiccommunities and students are dissatisfied with weakness of theacademic courses. So it’s necessary that PIM be considered asone part of the educational program of each academic major inorder to students gain required information and considerapplying PIM skills as their daily works and habits.

The above mentioned issues refer that despite theadvent of information and communicative technologies atsocieties, the knowledge for its applying and usage has not been

still represented to information users and these two componentsare not moving and developing simultaneously.

According to the conclusions we suggested some things:

Each research certainly is associated with some specialresults and conclusions which their identification has not beenfound for the researcher at the beginning of the study. So,representing of them as research suggestions will lead tocompletion of the present research and development of the futureresearch and can open a new window toward the under studiedsubject. Now the present research is finishing and it’s necessaryto mention the following suggestions:

Publicize comprehensive and brief leaflets in order tointroduce and justify PIM issue;

Hold scientific workshops at special scientific levels inorder to create a general awareness about PIM issue;

Make a need assessment of PIM tools proportionate tothe majors and degrees of students;

Hold scientific workshops with the subject ofintroducing PIM tools and completely proportionate to themajors and degrees of students;

PIM should be as one part of the educational programof each major and this program should be started seriously at theearly years of the educational period at the university, becausethe answers of postgraduate students represent that postgraduatestudents have not enough time to learn these issues while theysuffer from lack of enough awareness.

Reference:

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