Students\u27 information literacy skills at the School of Communication, Public Management and Tourism (Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal): evaluation and university library role

Having Information Literacy (IL) skills is essential for the student\u27s academic, professional and personal development. According to the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area, abilities and skills related to research, evaluation, management, use and dissemination of information are required. This research aims to present the results of the study carried out at the School of Communication, Public Management and Tourism - Polytechnic Institute of Bragança. The following data collection instruments were used: IL-HUMASS questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire sample obtained represents 94.4% of the student’s population enrolled in the academic year 2018/2019. Results reveal that information research is ranked by students as the most important category and information treatment as the least important. Students achieve better development in information research and worse development in treatment and in communication and diffusion of information. Regarding preferred learning sources, classroom stands out, academic library comes up as significant source in the information communication and diffusion category, and self-learning in the information evaluation category. A higher percentage of self-efficacy deficits than of IL competence motivation is identified; students are motivated to acquire and develop those competences, but they have little mastery of it. Interviewees indicate collaboration between teachers and information professionals (librarian) as fundamental. It is concluded that the learning of information literacy skills is a relevant theme for students. All in all, a proposal for the implementation of an IL training program was developed, considering that the 21st century academic libraries must play a fundamental role in the students’ educational success