Information literacy of undergraduates for lifelong learning

Abstract

Information literacy is a set of abilities required to identify, locate, evaluate, organize, and effectively use the' needed information to address personal, job related, or broader social issues and problems. Information literate individuals are those who have learned how to learn, and who are prepared for lifelong learning. People's relentless need for information in order to achieve educational, social, occupational and economic goals led to recognize information literacy as a core literacy of the 21st century, which underpins all other forms of literacy and makes them possible. When undergraduates passing out from universities are seen as tomorrow's worker, all undergraduates have to be information literate and such people are valuable asset to any employer. Many universities in the Western world have taken steps to incorporate information literacy programmes into Bachelors' degree curriculum. However, none of universities in Sri Lanka has taken information literacy into the Bachelors' degree curriculum to date. In the above context, this research was conducted to investigate the status of information literacy of undergraduates. Information literacy can be assessed using three distinct methodologies: self-evaluation, third party evaluation, and peer evaluation. The findings presented in this paper are on undergraduates' perceived (current) level of information literacy based on attitudinal scales. From a population of 2414 undergraduates studying in the University of Moratuwa by the time of this research, 918 responded to the survey, amounting to 38% response rate with a university-wide coverage. The findings and implications of the research for education endeavor will be discussed