Abstract
The study was conducted to examine how and why college students select certain information sources over others for their course‐related work. It also aimed at identifying user characteristics affecting the source perception and selection, and their effects. Research questions included: (1) What are the frequently used sources? If users with different characteristics select and use different sources, what are the characteristics and their impacts?; (2) What are the criteria considered to be important for the source selection? If users with different characteristics view the importance of selection criteria differently, what are the characteristics and their impacts?; and (3) What are the perceived characteristics of sources related to the actual selection/use of sources? If the relationship between the characteristics and selection/use of sources changes depending on user characteristics, what are such user characteristics? A Web survey with semantic differential rating scales was used to collect data. Students from a public university participated in the study (n=122). Findings suggest that users' problem‐solving style (emotion‐focused vs. problem‐focused) influences the sources selection behavior (e.g., source usage; source characteristics related to the selection).