An Empirical Study on the Traits of Information Literacy Level among Senior Secondary Students in Ilorin, Nigeria.

Abstract This study examined the information literacy level among secondary school students in Ilorin. This study adopted the disproportionate stratified random sampling techniques. The total population for this study 1958 students. The data for the study was collected through structured questionnaires which were distributed randomly to 210 students. However, only 192 copies of the questionnaire were properly filled and returned for analysis and thus form the basis as sample for this study (N=192). The findings of the study revealed that more than half of the respondents can identify lack of knowledge in a subject area. The study also revealed that majority of the respondents can articulate current knowledge on a topic. Furthermore, it also revealed that a large number of the respondents cannot identify specialist search tools. Also, from the study, it was revealed that noteworthy numbers of the respondents do not use Boolean operators in their search for information. Conclusively, the study shows that information literacy skills are essential for every human being because information is vital to everyone and every walk of life. It was recommended that policy makers in education sector should try and introduce information literacy skills as a subject in the secondary school curriculum so as to ensure that the students have the necessary information literacy skills rather than developing these skills through self-education. It was also recommended that teachers that have skills in information literacy skills should be employed as the facilitators in this subject