Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Abstract

This is a survey of the entry-level information literacy skills of first year students. It is a step towards understanding the prior information literacy knowledge of first year students at the University of Benin, and has broader implications for how librarians understand readiness for library research as well as for the future development of information literacy programmes at the secondary school level. Lack of understanding of prior knowledge by university libraries is in itself a barrier to engaging students in the research process in their first year, as it may result in programs that do not inspire students. Methodology adopted is the survey design, and simple randomization was used to select five faculties from the university and 200 new students were randomly selected from the five faculties to make 1000 students. Questionnaire was designed and administered at the point of student’s library registration. Result showed that students are not taught information literacy skills from secondary schools and they have little knowledge of information literacy skills. Students understanding of search strategies, especially in the use of Boolean operator was seen to be very poor.

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