Assessment of information literacy skills

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess information literacy skills of undergraduates in Nigerian universities.Design/methodology/approachA self-assessed questionnaire was developed to collect data from the final year undergraduates in 15 universities. A total of 1,350 final year Library and Information Science (LIS) students responded to the questionnaire which was used for analysis.FindingsThe study revealed that the majority of the LIS final year undergraduates mostly consult journal articles, followed by internet information and online databases during their research process. The undergraduates rated well-known author(s), current information, credible information, accurate and relevant information as very important when evaluating online information resources. It was found that the students rated their ability to organize information and integrate ideas from consulted information as high. While they were deficient in ability to correctly paraphrase ideas to avoid plagiarism and use citation and referencing styles correctly. On the whole, almost half of the final year undergraduates of LIS rated their level of information literacy skills to be moderate.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study will inform librarians and faculty in universities in developing countries like Nigeria to develop an information literacy instruction policy.Originality/valueAssessing information literacy skills will provide the foundation and knowledge to improve the development of information literacy training programmes.