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This paper aims to compare how undergraduates in Kuwait and Indiana Universities assess information resources for class assignments.

Social science majors at Kuwait University and Indiana University Bloomington completed the Project Information Literacy survey.

The students are comparable in how often they ask instructors or classmates for advice, but Kuwaitis are more likely to ask other people for assistance. Kuwaiti students generally are less critical in their evaluation of both library-based and web information resources but are more likely to consider librarian recommendations.

Institution-specific factors that were not specifically addressed include the following: the survey was administered online in Indiana and on paper in Kuwait, and the types of course assignments and/or students’ information literacy instruction may also vary by institution.

Librarians should continue to present information clearly and use a variety of instructional methods so that material is accessible. Librarian recommendations and modeling of evaluative behavior can assist international students. Social media may be useful in working with these students’ more collaborative approach to assessing resources.

The work updates the 2010 Project Information Literacy survey on undergraduates’ evaluation of information resources for coursework. It also extends that survey to identify how students from Kuwait are different than USA undergraduates.

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of academics regarding the use and usefulness of academic social networks (ASNs) in the scholarly communication practices of faculty members in Kuwaiti Universities.

The study was conducted through a survey. In total, 100 faculty members from the disciplines of business administration, humanities and social sciences from three universities in Kuwait filled in an online questionnaire. The statistical feature of the Web-based tool was used for data analysis.

The results show that most faculty members are aware of the importance of ASNs. They perceive that these networks are useful, as more publications have become available, it has become easier for scholars to connect with colleagues who share similar research interests.

The study is descriptive and restricted to a specific country (Kuwait). It also only covered faculty members from three academic disciplines. Furthermore, the use of a questionnaire, while appropriate for descriptive research, restricted us from conducting probing designed to gain deeper insights regarding participants’ motivations and explanations for not realizing the potential of these networks.

Future research should expand the scope of this study to cover faculty members from other disciplines (e.g. science, engineering and medicine), while also including more universities from other countries in the Arabian Gulf region. Future research should also examine how academics’ information-finding practices are changing as a result of the availability of information sources through ASNs.

No similar study has been conducted previously in Kuwait. This study provided useful information regarding the use and perceptions of ASNs in the context of faculty members of Kuwaiti universities. This information is of interest to scholars, information providers and those who design such networks.

This paper seeks to report the results of research conducted to model the information‐seeking behaviour of graduate students at Kuwait University and the factors influencing that behaviour.

The research employed a number of different approaches: a questionnaire survey to 800 graduate students studying at Kuwait University; a questionnaire survey to 180 academics at the university; semi‐structured interviews with eight academics; face‐to‐face and online interviews with 11 university library staff, four focus groups with 24 students and three focus groups with ten faculty staff.

Significant factors influencing students' information‐seeking behaviour were found to be related to library awareness, information literacy, organisational and environmental issues, source characteristics, and demographics (specifically gender and nationality).

The research focused on graduate students at a Kuwait University which is affiliated to the government sector, however, the information seeking model is more widely applicable, particularly to other developing countries.

Proposed is an information‐seeking model that extended two other relevant and influential models of information‐seeking behaviour. The extended model shows promise for its intended utility in identifying factors that influence the information behaviour of graduate students.