Abstract—The emergence of networked information and communication has transformed the accessibility and delivery of scholarly information and fundamentally impacted on the processes of research and scholarly communication. The purpose of this study is to investigate disciplinary differences in the use of networked information for research and scholarly communication at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. This study has produced quantitative data about how and why academics within different disciplines utilize networked information that is made available either internally through the university library, or externally through networked services accessed by the Internet. The results indicate some significant differences between the attitudes and practice of academics in the science disciplines when compared to those from the social sciences and humanities. While respondents from science disciplines show overall longer and more frequent use of networked information, respondents from humanities and social sciences indicated more positive attitudes and a greater degree of satisfaction toward library networked services. Keywords—Academics, Arab World, Disciplinary Culture, Networked Information, Scholarly Communication, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. I. INTRODUCTION OR most computer users, networking technology was first made available with the advent of the Internet and the associated technology of the World Wide Web. As a result of the Internet, the public gained access to numerous types of networked information resources and services, including e- mail, mailing lists, bulletin boards, Internet chat, and different multimedia formats, both audio and visual. Academic users were quick to take advantage of these developments and others that were delivered to their desktop as the World Wide Web became established as the common delivery platform for digital information services. In particular the rapid implementation and acceptance of ‘networked information’ in the form of web-based delivery of academic content such as e-journals, library catalogues, and bibliographic databases, transformed the processes of research and scholarly communication. Networked information has fundamentally changed the manner in which academics correspond and work, and has had a far-reaching impact on many aspects of the research environment, including the accessibility of information; collaborative research, and the 1 Ali S. Al-Aufi is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Library and Information Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. (e-mail: alaufia@ squ.edu.om). Paul Genoni is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Media, Culture and Creative Atrts, Curtin University of Technology, Australia (e-mail: p.genoni@curtin.edu.au). dissemination of research outputs. Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) was opened in 1986 as the first public university in Oman. Currently, the University consists of seven colleges: Agriculture and Marine Sciences; Arts and Social Sciences; Commerce and Economics; Education and Islamic Sciences; Engineering; Medicine, and Sciences. Furthermore, a College of Law was attached to SQU based on a royal decree issued by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in April 2006, which will bring the number of colleges at SQU to eight. Education is provided free for all students at SQU, including tuition fees, text books, on campus food, and accommodation. The University provides various educational support centres to assist student learning, such as the Educational Technology Centre, Language Centre, and the Data System Centre. The Language Centre plays a major role in preparing students to commence their higher education by providing intensive English language instruction. In addition, the University provides and supports various research centres and laboratories such as those dedicated to water, the environment, oil, telecommunications, remote sensing, earth quakes, seismology and Omani studies [1]. The Internet was made available to SQU in late 1997. Since that time the use of networked information and related technologies have become commonplace at SQU, and they are now considered essential assets in enhancing the University’s teaching and research outcomes. Although the Internet and networked information are assumed to be widely used for research related purposes at SQU, there remains a need to investigate the precise extent and patterns of their use by academics for research and scholarly communication, and how this might in turn be impacting upon the research effectiveness of the University and the nation. II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM As early as 1994, Bailey [2] reported that “global computer networks, such as the Internet, have created a complex electronic communication system that has significantly changed the way scholars informally exchange information and has started to change formal scholarly publication activities” (p.7). By the late 1990s, these transforming effects of the Internet were being widely felt on the established systems of research and scholarly communication. The rapid diffusion of the Internet and networking technologies was impacting not only in developed countries. Globally, academics and researchers were finding they could acquire information, undertake collaborative research projects, and communicate their research findings, far more easily and rapidly with the aid Ali S. Al-Aufi and Paul Genoni 1 F Digital Scholarship and Disciplinary Culture: An Investigation of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Information and Communication Engineering Vol:3, No:6, 2009 969 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 3(6) 2009 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/2285 International Science Index, Information and Communication Engineering Vol:3, No:6, 2009 waset.org/Publication/2285