Abstract:
The purposes of this research are to study the use of an online filing database by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials in terms of objectives, frequency of use, learning to use methods, searching methods and display format used including problem encountered. Questionnaires are used in gathering data from 312 officials as population. Research results reveal that the majority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials use online filing database for the purpose of their daily works. Their frequency of use is everyday. Most of them learn how to use the database by inquiring the control filing officers and search by the title field from both the main menu and the search menu. The subject content searched mostly is politics and relationships. The display formats used mostly are both brief and full bibliographic formats. The problems encountered at medium level are concerning computer equipment, search techniques and display formats. The problems at the higest rank of each one are : not understanding the point field in the main menu, the incapability of limiting search menu, the lack of abstract in display format and the incapability of accessing to the central filing system from the outside consecutively.