Information literacy among undergraduate students in Niger Delta University

Abstract

Purpose

Research is carried out in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The purpose of this paper is to determine the undergraduate students' level of awareness of information sources available in the university, to know their level of digital literacy and to determine the different search strategies used by them.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a descriptive survey method and covers the 350 undergraduate students of the four departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences: Economics, Sociology, Political Science, and Geography and Environmental Studies, from which a sample of 105 students is drawn. A questionnaire tagged “Information Literacy among Undergraduate Students of Social Sciences Questionnaire (ILUSSSQ)” is designed to collect data for the paper.

Findings

The paper reveals that male students in the faculty are more aware and use the information sources available in the university more than the female students. There is significant difference between gender and search strategies used by the undergraduate students in the social sciences. Male students are more digitally literate, they utilize the internet facilities provided in the university library, use different search engines and utilize the CD‐ROMs in the e‐library section more than the female students.

Originality/value

The paper will enable librarians to intensify their efforts to educate students on how and where to search and source for information, and how to evaluate information to meet their information needs.

Citation

Emmanuel Baro, E. and Fyneman, B. (2009), "Information literacy among undergraduate students in Niger Delta University", The Electronic Library, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 659-675. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470910979606