Research on use of digital libraries identify variations in information seeking behavior of users of different areas of knowledge. However, most of the studies do not use a domain approach to explain the factors that would justify these behavior differences. The present research investigated the use of Portal Capes , the largest Digital Library of Scientific Journals in Brazil, by scholars in Humanities, Linguistics, Arts and Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. A qualitative study was undertaken with interviews and the critical incident technique to understand the reasons for different informational behaviors by researchers in the three areas. Five directors and 18 researchers of Institutes of the different areas were interviewed and among, other factors, differences in the organization of the literature of each area were considered. The characteristics of the domain of knowledge, such as degree of scatter, size of domain, kind of information resource, type of knowledge in the resources and domain specific relevance criteria were investigated. Other factors verified were: aspects of search behavior, reasons for use and non-use of the Portal, barriers encountered and rewards perceived. The analysis shows differences in behavior and in the factors that affect the use of Portal Capes among researchers from different departments of the same Institute/area or in the same department. The results indicate that for the great knowledge areas generic hypotheses should not be formulated, and that the factors of use and non-use are specific to each field
Electronic journals; Digital libraries; Capes Digital Library of Scientific Journals; Information seeking behavior; Use study
