THE UTILITY OF ELECTRONIC MAIL FOLLOW-UPS FOR LIBRARY RESEARCH

This article compares the use of electronic mail (e-mail) and postal m ail in the follow-up stage of a library research project using a maile d questionnaire. Results from the Internet-Related Technologies: Occup ational Impacts for Government Documents Librarians survey show that e -mail as a follow-up method is as effective as postal mail in terms of both the speed and size of the survey response. Additional benefits a nd drawbacks of using e-mail during the follow-up stage are then discu ssed to illuminate the contexts in which each method may be most appro priate.