Information literacy skills and location of online, offline information resources among undergraduate students of Umaru Musa Yar’adua university, Katsina State

Abstract

This study assessed information literacy skills and location of online, offline information resources among undergraduate students of Umaru Musa Yar’adua University. Two research questions were formulated to achieve the objectives of the study. The research recognizes the sources of information; how they locate the online, offline information resources a descriptive survey research method was used for the study. The population of the study comprised all the undergraduate students of the university. The sample size were the 7840 of the undergraduate students’ university were sampled. Membership of the sample was drawn using the stratified random sampling technique. YAMANE’S formula was used to select a sample size of 200 from a population of 7840. Questionnaire was the instruments used for collecting data. The responses from the sampled undergraduate students were analyzed descriptively by using frequencies. and percentages The main findings of the study showed that the sources of information available to the undergraduate, students are Library, catalogue, Database, Internet search and Printed index and abstract the undergraduate students prefer to search for information using simpler identifying elements such as title, author, and subject for offline resources and mostly locate the online information resources through the assistant of the café attendant rather than using searching operators, The research concludes that Information Literacy is a prerequisite for undergraduate students in Umaru Musa Yar’adua University to successfully survive and compete in the 21st century and beyond. In the light of this, it was recommended that State of the Art ICT facilities should be provided as a matter of urgency in all the Faculties and Departments in the university. This will make the undergraduate students to be more responsive to the challenges of their profession in the digital age. Also, universities library should establish effective and sustainable information literacy programme for undergraduate students. This will enhance location, of information  resources in various formats. Lastly, the cutting point of JAMB and Post UME in the Nigerian Universities should give priority to females by reducing it to 160 against 180 for female to be admitted in the Universities.

Key Words: Information, Library, Skills, Online, Offline, Information, Resources,