Relationship Between Information Literacy Skills and Use of Library Resources by Postgraduate Library and Information Science Students in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined the relationship between information literacy skills and use of library resources by postgraduate library and information science students in Anambra State, Nigeria. Three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Correlational survey design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of all forty-four Masters and Ph.D LIS students of the universities in Anambra State. The entire population was used due to the size. Two instruments, Information Literacy Skills Test (ILST) and Use of Library Resources Questionnaires (ULRQ) were used for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data for research question one, percentage scores were used for research question two while Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze data for research question three and test hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Kuder-Richardson formula (KR-20) and Cronbach alpha were employed in testing the internal consistency of the instrument and reliability coefficients of 0.88 for ILST and 0.82 for ULRQ were obtained. The findings revealed that the postgraduate students possessed moderate information literacy skills, use all the available library resources; also, there is a positive relationship between information literacy skills possessed by the students and their use of library resources. Based on the findings it was concluded that information literacy skills possessed by LIS postgraduate students help them maximize their use of library resources. It was recommended among others that students should make efforts to improve their information literacy skills through programmes such as seminars, workshops, user education and tutorials organized by library or other research institutes while curriculum planners should entrench information literacy programme in university programmes.