Assessment of Information Literacy Skills and Competencies among the Undergraduate Students of Kuvempu University: A Study

Information literacy is the set of skills that allows users to find, evaluate and use information. This study assesses the Information Literacy Skills and Competency among undergraduate students of Kuvempu University, Shivamoga, India. A structured questionnaire was prepared based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) standards of Information Literacy Competency for higher education and the sample size was calculated as per the Taro Yamane Scientific formula. About 847 (76.30%) responses were received from the respondents, highest response was received from the Under Graduate Students of the Government Colleges ie, 411 (91.33%), majority of the respondents were female 441 (52%). Out of which 189 (46.56%) male and 213 (48.29%) female respondents belonged to the Commerce faculty, 100% of the respondents were visiting the library and made use of the library resources and services, About 189 (46.6%) male and 189 (42.9%) female respondents visited the library three to four time in a week, 371 (91.37%) male and 430 (97.50%) female respondents visited the library to borrow and return books. Majority of the respondents ranked ‘Textbooks related to the subject’ (x̄=4.09) as the most frequently used information source, 337 (83%) male and 325 (73.7%) female respondents were satisfied with the existing information sources available in their college library, 351 (86.45%) male and 403 (91.38%) female respondents need information sources ‘To prepare for examinations and 218 (53.7%) male and 221 (50.1%) female respondents believed that they had the skills and competency to identify and find a variety of sources of information in print as well as the electronic format