Information Literacy Competency of Undergraduate Students in University of Ruhuna: with a Special Focus on Usage of Online Public Access Catalog

Abstract

The American Library Association defines information literacy as a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information". Information literacy is a survival skill in the information Age. The development of Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) has improvecTthe visibility and access to the information sources in libraries. For effective utilization of this online database of the resources held in a library, users must have an understanding of its structure and facilities and be skilled to use them. The library OPAC at University of Ruhuna provides the users with a number of advanced search options, as well as additional functionality, such as: seeing the items checked out, and on-line renewal of library books through “Your Account” option. To use these functions users are required to be competent in defining the information need, identifying key words, designing search strategies and using common functions in different OPAC interfaces. The purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduates are experiencing information literacy competency, while using the OPAC to locate information sources in the library. The study was conducted at the main library, University of Ruhuna. A stratified random sample of undergraduates visiting the main library was taken representing the disciplines arts, science, fisheries science and management. Survey method was utilized for the study. Out of the 200 structured questionnaires distributed, 129 were returned giving a return rate of 64.5%. Data were analysed using SPSS version 16.0. Findings showed that more than half of the respondents (55.9%) had the experience of OPAC searching before reaching library shelves. Only 22.1% had the behaviour of always searching the OPAC for locating library resources. It was found that a majority of respondents (71.3 %) had experienced difficulties during overall OPAC search process. Findings further revealed that the respondents were not confident in experiencing information literacy competencies of being able to define information need for identifying key words (50.6%), being able to locate information; using simple search (40.9%), using multiple search options in advanced search (55.6%), using quick limitations (63.9%), revising search strategy for finding more relevent materials (59.5%), and being able to evaluate information sources; selecting relevent library resources from the result list (40.3%), and the skill of using additional facilities of library OPAC; managing “Your Account Functions” (67.9%). Results of the Pearson Chi-Square test (x=8.170, P=0.517) shows that there is no statistically significant association between being unconfident in OPAC search process and not using OPAC. The study concludes that improving related information literacy competency is important for making undergraduates confident in OPAC use. Furthermore, there must be several other factors affecting undergraduates’ behavior of not using OPAC. Hence, the study recommends future actions to extend information literacy education programs addressing these competency needs of undergraduates, whilst providing training facilities on the identified competency areas, using new technologies such as online videos and helpful web pages. Further research is needed to identify other factors affecting undergraduates’ behaviour of reaching the library shelves without searching the library catalogue.