Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
Information literacy is the ability of an individual to locate, evaluate, and use information. This study expresses the conscious information needs and information literacy skills amongst final year undergraduate students of three Universities in Nigeria; being the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Federal University Lokoja (FUL), and Baze University. A survey research design alongside a questionnaire for the instrument were utilised on a sample size of 307 final year undergraduate students from select faculties within the above-mentioned universities. The findings of the study amongst other show that undergraduate students at the final year level had a conscious knowledge of their information needs, while their ability to locate information was heavily reliant on the use of the Internet. Other finding of the study revealed that the student’s skill level in regard evaluation of information and information sources was low. At a time when there is prevalent use of the internet by netizens and online publishing is at an all-time high. The study further recommends teaching critical reasoning and how to evaluate information sources by schools as a means of improving information need identification by students and literacy skills. The study concludes on the importance of students being conscious of their information need and schools emphasizing and building programs for information literacy skills acquisition.
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Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons