Assessing the information literacy skills among undergraduate students at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana

Abstract

Information literacy skills have become a topical issue in the academic lives of university students. It is a skill needed to be able to identify an information need, knowing the sources of information, effectively searching for information and ethically using information in this era of the information age. Various studies have observed that university students lack the basic skills needed to make them effectively search for academic information and how to apply them. This situation, if not checked, would negatively affect the academic lives of students. This paper, therefore, sought to examine the level of information literacy skills among incoming first-year undergraduate students of the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa so as to suggest ways of improving upon them. The level of information literacy skill, possession of basic information and communication technology (ICT) skills, awareness of various search strategies were examined by analyzing responses obtained from the administration of the questionnaire. It was found out that the majority of the students possessed basic ICT skills, however, their knowledge of various search strategies was low. Again, there was no course designed to introduce them to the acquisition of information retrieval skills. Various ways of improving information literacy skills among students have also been suggested