User Preferences -- Help Please

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

     Hi, gang,
     I'm looking for some pointers or advice:
     My Masters thesis will present and evaluate the results
     of a survey of computer user documentation preferences,
     particularly the online vs. paper question. My
     employer, Computing and Information Services at
     Oklahoma State University, is sponsoring the research
     and very interested in the outcome.

     Background:
     For financial reasons, moving completely away from
     paper documentation and into online documentation,
     probably available over the Internet, would be a
     prudent move. I think that we can effectively address
     usability issues in whichever medium (or both) we
     choose. My main concern, and the focus of my thesis, is
     what sort of documentation our users would prefer.
     Although I have found many resources addressing
     usability issues, I've yet to find anything about other
     studies addressing user preferences.

     Rationale:
     I realize that what people like and what they need or
     can effectively use are two completely different
     things, but for political reasons, knowing how much
     we're going to irritate our users if we go exclusively
     online would be useful. I can certainly hypothesize
     what the users (faculty and high-level administration,
     1700 people in all) will say, but that isn't quite good
     enough.

     Problem:
     I've been working on a literature review and have found
     very little. I've looked in the obvious places--ITCC
     Proceedings, Tech Comm, IEEE Transactions, Tech Comm
     Quarterly, ACM CHI Proceedings, and a couple of
     publications dedicated to computing in higher
     education. I've also traipsed through the obvious (to
     me, at least) databases: ERIC, CompEndex, PsychLit,
     MLA, ABI Inform, Dissertation Abstracts, the ACM
     Computing Index, etc. I got the Proceedings and Tech
     Comm abstracts from clark.net and searched them. I also
     know about the HCI resources on the 'Net at BGSU, but
     haven't yet found a good way to search them.

     Results so far:
     * Useful information about conducting surveys.
     * A number of resources about usability which
     sometimes, tangentially, address user preferences.
     * Several useful resources about online documentation
     in general, and a couple comparing online and paper in
     terms of quality and usability.
     * Nothing directly applicable.

     Plea:
     If any of you know of any studies addressing user
     preferences in documentation, I'd really appreciate a
     pointer to the source. Unpublished or under-development
     projects would also be useful, as would surveys which
     might be too focused or audience-specific to be
     generally applicable.

     If anyone has any feelings about this topic to discuss
     on the list, that would be great too. I'd enjoy hearing
     other people's views on the topic.

     Thanks in advance for your help,
     Eric
     ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu