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This paper aims to identify the opinions of undergraduate students on the importance of internet‐based information sources when they undertake academic tasks.

Based on a set of identified typical academic tasks for undergraduate students, three research questions were designed around the students' usage and views of information resources for completing these tasks. Web‐accessible questionnaires were used to collect data from participants in two universities in the USA and China, and the data were analyzed using quantitative methods, which included several statistic methods.

The results confirm that undergraduate students use different information resources for various academic tasks. In their tasks, online electronic resources including search engines are the most commonly used resources, particularly for complex academic tasks. Social networking sites are not used for the students' individual academic tasks, and traditional resources still play equal or more important roles in certain specific academic tasks. Students in collaborative tasks look for resources that make it easy to share documents. Participants from the two countries also exhibit interesting and important differences in their usage of information resources.

This study examines undergraduate students' usages and views of different information resources in their various academic tasks, and pays special attention to the impacts of being from their different countries. The study also considers both students' individual academic tasks and collaborative tasks. This study is an invaluable addition to the information seeking behaviour literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The internet has evolved into an indispensable platform for seeking health information, particularly among transgender individuals. With an abundance of online resources available, extensive research into the credibility and reliability of this information is essential, as concerns about the quality of online resources persist. Transgender individuals are drawn to online health information due to the anonymity it offers, providing them with a sense of freedom from social isolation and the discomfort of experimenting with their transgender identity. However, it is crucial to assess the accuracy and reliability of the transgender health information available on the internet. This article aims to evaluate the quality of online transgender health resources by utilizing ten credibility indicators, along with six indicators to assess the veracity of the content.

A total of 179 online resources were meticulously reviewed after excluding any unnecessary and irrelevant ones, to ensure a comprehensive assessment.

The findings suggest that among the chosen resources, none of them meet all the criteria for maintaining high standards of accuracy and reliability in health information. In other words, none of these sources completely adhere to the established measures for ensuring that the information they provide is trustworthy and of high quality in the context of health.

The study provides valuable insights into the online realm of transgender health information, revealing both the strengths and weaknesses of the existing resources. By pinpointing areas that need enhancement and showcasing commendable practices, this research strives to promote a more knowledgeable and supportive online environment for individuals in search of transgender health information.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2018.

The paper provides a brief description of all 422 sources, and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and anyone interested as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This study aims to develop a better understanding of how online health community (OHC) members with different health literacy (HL) levels benefit from their participation, through the analysis and comparison of their resource integration (RI) processes. It investigates through a RI lens how the vulnerability of community members – captured as their level of HL – affects the benefits they derive from participation.

Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to investigate the effects of healthcare service users’ vulnerability. Data were collected about their profiles and levels of HL. Furthermore, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted.

The study demonstrates how low levels of HL act as a barrier to the integration of available online health resources. Participation in OHCs appears less beneficial for vulnerable users. Three types of benefits were identified at the individual level, namely, psychological quality-of-life, physical quality-of-life and learning. Benefits identified at the community level were: content generation and participation in the development of the community.

This study has implications for the understanding of how service users’ activities affect their own outcomes and how the vulnerability of users could be anticipated and considered in the design of the community.

This paper aimed to determine the extent to which academic libraries and information services were extended due to the emergence of COVID-19 in the Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Founded on a pragmatism paradigm, the sequential explanatory research design was adopted to engage with participants and respondents on their experience of library services extensions to support users during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using online questionnaires and interviews. Cluster and purposive sampling were used and data for the quantitative part were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), whilst qualitative data were analyzed manually.

Findings revealed that academic libraries operating in a higher education environment provided extensive support to remote users during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done through the utilization of a variety of technology utilization, ranging from traditional e-mail support to the use of technology related to Artificial Intelligence such as the BOTsa, which is a Chatbot aimed to assist users in receiving speedy responses to library-related inquiries.

This study is unique in that it focuses on academic libraries that operate in higher education environments where support for achieving academic endeavors becomes imperative to ensure the smooth execution of teaching and learning activities within the restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adaptions and improvements to academic library services during and post-COVID-19 era were successful in ensuring that remote users could obtain similar services and access to information as was the case before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to present the results of a study which was carried out to find out whether the undergraduate students in the College of Health Sciences in Delta State University are aware of and fully utilize the medical databases and other online information resources within and outside the medical library.

A questionnaire and interview methods were used to elicit data from the students.

The results revealed that majority of the students are not aware and do not use the online information resources such as: MEDLINE, HINARI, CINAHL databases, NUC virtual library as sources of information to retrieve materials related to medical literature. This could be as a result of lack of training for information literacy skills and ineffective user education programmes in the medical libraries and medical schools to equip the medical students with necessary skills to use the medical databases and other online information resources. Problems such as lack of skills to use the online information resources, lack of time, poor user education programmes, and slowness of server were mentioned by the students as some factors militating against the effective use of online information resources.

The findings will be useful for medical librarians and faculty in highlighting the need to collaborate in integrating information literacy skills into the medical school curricula in developing countries. Paper type Research paper

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore legal information requirements of the legal community in India for a proposed online legal information system tailored to the Indian environment.

A needs assessment survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire circulated among 750 respondents from eight institutions in Delhi. A total of 397 filled-in questionnaires were personally collected by the investigator, showing a response rate of 52.9 per cent. All these questionnaires were selected for analysis and interpretation of data. Responses to 45 questions were analyzed and presented in the form of tables and figures using various statistical techniques.

The findings of the study show that majority of the respondents felt they faced a number of problems in using online legal resources such as accessibility of legal information in legal resources, lack of online help features, description of legal information sources, search screen too confusing and poor website design. In addition, respondents highlighted that access instructions on the online resources are not clear. Lack of expertise and insufficient knowledge of information and communication technology in using legal databases are also major hurdles. Majority of the respondents are somewhat satisfied in using open-access and commercial legal information resources and not aware of open-access resources in the field of law. Model online legal information system (OLIS) was designed and developed based on the findings drawn in the needs assessment survey to empower the common man with legal resources at no cost, and foster research in the field of law.

The model OLIS contains only a sample collection. It is expected that the proposed system will be implemented on a wider scale, so that lawyers, research scholars and common people can benefit.

The findings of the study will help libraries to subscribe to legal information resources and to design robust OLIS suitable in the Indian context. It is anticipated that the needs assessment survey of OLIS will help government agencies and law libraries to understand the problems of the legal fraternity in accessing legal information.

The present study designed a model OLIS for the Indian environment (www.olisindia.in) to aid the legal community in India, enabling them to save their valuable time. This system will help and foster interdisciplinary research learning and can be used as a tool for learning the basic concepts, as well as help deliberate on the emerging areas in the field of law.