The survey has been carried out by the Institute of Educational Studies at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and by the University Library (KTU) to answer the tasks of the PERINE (Pedagogical and Educational Research Information Network Europe) project. The survey intended to inquire the use of the Internet by Lithuanian educational researchers – how well and how often scholars, university teachers and doctoral students in education use this tool in their research and work. The survey is supposed to be repeated by the end of the PERINE project duration to get the view of the dynamics in this sphere.

For this purpose, ten institutions of higher education where educational research is carried out have been contacted and their representatives have been selected to serve as distributors of the questionnaires. In total, there were 199 questionnaires sent out and 128 educational researchers responded. It is noteworthy that the majority of the respondents are members of the Lithuanian Educational Research Association (LERA) which actively supported the implementation of the survey and the PERINE project itself.

A major part of the surveyed, namely, 58 persons, or 45 percent of the total, belong to the age group of 35 to 50, and only 20 percent (25 individuals) are older than 50 years of age. The results have come as a slight surprise to the expectations of the Lithuanian partners of PERINE. A predominating opinion, based on the available data (according to the research of the year 1999), was that individuals over 40-45 completely dominate the group of researchers in education. However, the results of the current survey have proved that 35 percent of the respondents are actually under 35 (there have been 45 of them). As a matter of fact, this change in the composition of researchers in education in Lithuania has probably resulted from the fact that recently more and more young people join doctoral studies in education and carry out research.

Gender-wise, the majority of the respondents to the survey have been women – 75 percent (96), and only 25 percent (32) have been men. Unfortunately, this striking inequality does not reflect the data available on gender distribution among Lithuanian researchers which is far less sharp. Therefore, it would be reasonable to suppose that additional study is necessary to explain this part of survey results.

Speaking about their professions, 41 percent of the surveyed (and 52 in numbers) attribute themselves to the intermediate and 33 percent (42) – to junior professional status, while 27 percent (34 scholars) belong to the senior staff. Most of the respondents have, as their primary workplace, an institution of higher education (97 percent – 124 individuals).

63 percent of the researchers (81 persons) carry out educational research, 78 percent (100) have noted educational and pedagogical activities, and 63 percent (80) have emphasized scientific publications among their activities.

Internet Competence

More than a half of the respondents (52 percent) use the Internet on a daily basis; the age of the majority of the respondents allows supporting this fact. 34 percent use the Internet seldom, and 13 percent - rarely. Some of the respondents consider themselves Internet experts - 12 percent, capable users are33 percent, just users - 44 percent, and 12 percent consider themselves novices in this field.

In general, it is evident that Lithuanian researchers in education do underemphasize the importance of the Net in publishing the results of their research. They do not see it as an acceptable means for quick receiving of the information and for its effective dissemination. Among the explanations for such a situation, the fact that large numbers of researchers do possess inadequate competence in computer literacy and little skills in browsing the Internet stands first.

To be more specific, in the opinion of the biggest part of individuals which constitute 80 percent, the Internet has changed their work; 20 percent think that the Internet has not had any impact on their professional activities and is not likely to have any in the future.

Most, more than 80 percent, of the respondents claim that the ways of search and search engines make their work more effective. 74 percent are sure that the information on the Internet is useful and not overabundant. Almost everyone agrees that the Internet is a very convenient way for the dissemination of research information. More than a half (58 percent) of the surveyed claim that it is relatively easy to find information on the web, but at the same time they see the quality of the Internet information as a big problem. This view has been shared by 83 percent of the surveyed; in their opinion, a set of guidelines would be a big help in their work. This once again indicates the lack of competence in using the computer and the Internet.

Among the uses of the Internet, finding material for research and professional activities is important. The materials searched can be further sub-divided into the following areas:

• scientific research information is easy to find for 79 percent, for 101 respondents;
• news – for 70 percent (89);
• information on the conferences organized – 63 percent (80);
• information about scholars – 56 percent (72);
• information about institutions – 65 percent (83);
• information about various courses – 57 percent (73).

A more effective use of the Internet could be facilitated, in the opinion of 87 percent of the scholars, by better organization and systematizing, and in the opinion of 84 percent – by better access to the Internet. A specialized information portal would be beneficial in the search on the Internet for 84 percent of the users.

It is important to note that scholars devote considerably less attention to their personal development with the help of information search on the Internet. Only less than a half of the respondents consider the possibility to find out about courses or study offers, or to get the assistance of the professionals important.

As starting points for finding information, most respondents use different means: recommendations of the colleagues are important for 71 percent of the individuals, 68 percent use search engines, 65 percent – their own marked links, and 66 percent – Internet links marked by others. Less than a half of the surveyed use professional portals, subject gateways, sources on the radio and TV, or e-mail lists.

These numbers bring us to the point of consideration that researchers possess only the basics of information search on the Internet. Broader skills in Internet browsing would allow carrying the search on a specific narrow topic. This clearly indicates the need for professionals in educational research to develop information search skills. To facilitate this, creating high-quality well organized information gateways would be beneficial.

A huge majority of the researchers use Internet library catalogues (86 percent), magazines (89 percent ), newspapers (83 percent ), government websites (77 percent). Whereas specialized databases and subject portals are being used by relatively small numbers of the surveyed, for instance:

• Education-line – by 30%;
• ERIC – 29 %;
• Teacher Training Agency – 28 %;
• Education-line conference programme – 27%;
• EURIDICE – 20 %;
• BEI – 17%;
• National Grid for Learning – 13 %;
• European Training Village – 5 %;
• Regard – 5 %.

Such survey results clearly show that researchers do underemphasize the importance of subject gateways in the process of information search. Instead, they give priorities to national information gateways and specialized links and web-pages.

The survey results have demonstrated that the researchers put a high value on the significance of the Internet in their professional life. They appreciate the possibility of fast access to the relevant and necessarry information in their workplace. At the same time, however, there predominates an opinion that the Internet information quality is not high. Researchers are convinced that only paid databases they can subscribe to can offer high-quality information, but they know that the price of such information is high.

Lithuanian researchers in education give a low estimate for the Internet as a means of publishing their research results. As an explanation, it could be noted that a higher value of print information than that of electronic information still predominates in Lithuania. The worth of the information accessed on the Internet is a recent phenomenon for our scholars.