Assessment of information literacy skills: A survey of final year undergraduates of library and information science in Nigerian universities

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess information literacy skills of undergraduates in Nigerian universities.

Design/methodology/approach

A 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.

Findings

The 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 implications

The findings of the study will inform librarians and faculty in universities in developing countries like Nigeria to develop an information literacy instruction policy.

Originality/value

Assessing information literacy skills will provide the foundation and knowledge to improve the development of information literacy training programmes.

Citation

Okeji, C.C., Ilika, O.M. and Baro, E.E. (2020), "Assessment of information literacy skills: A survey of final year undergraduates of library and information science in Nigerian universities", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. 69 No. 6/7, pp. 521-535. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-10-2019-0130