Information literacy among the postgraduate students and research scholars of social science faculty at Aligarh Muslim University, India

Abstract

Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to identify the need for information, find, locate, evaluate and use needed information effectively and efficiently. Today, information literacy has become literacy of vital importance because of proliferation of information resources in all forms. This paper explores the information literacy of postgraduate students and research scholars of social science faculty at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. The survey method was adopted for the study. 150 questionnaires were circulated among the postgraduate students and research scholars in social science faculty and 125 were received back for analysis with response rate 83.33%. The findings of the study disclosed that maximum number of the respondents visit the library to borrow/return the books. Books are the most frequently used source of information among them. Google is the favourite search engine used by most of the respondents. It is also found that majority of the respondents are not acquainted with the use of encyclopaedia and journals.