Factors affecting students’ information literacy self-efficacy
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-10-2018-0154 |
| Date | 17 June 2019 |
| Published date | 17 June 2019 |
| Pages | 183-196 |
| Author | Noa Aharony,Tali Gazit |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Factors affecting students’
information literacy self-efficacy
Noa Aharony and Tali Gazit
Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore how computer self-efficacy (CSE), perceived information
overload (IO) and the digital native perspective predict students’information literacy (IL) self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach –The research was conducted in Israel and comprised 117 students from
the Information Science Department at Bar-Ilan University. Researchers used five questionnaires to gather
personal details: a demographic questionnaire, the IL self-efficacy questionnaire, the CSE questionnaire,
technology usage (TU) questionnaire and the perceived IO questionnaire.
Findings –The findings confirm that these variables significantly predict students’IL self-efficacy.
Originality/value –Instructors and librarians should be familiar with the issue of individual differences, as
well with the issue of students’age. These factors may help them choose the most appropriate way when
instructing IL skills to their students.
Keywords Computer self-efficacy, Digital native, Information literacy self-efficacy,
Perceived information overload, Quantative research, Students’information literacy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Information literacy (IL) is a vital skill central for functioning in the twenty-first Century.
The American Library Association (ALA) (1989) and the Association of College,
Research Libraries, and American Library Association 2000, Association of College and
Research Libraries (ACRL) (2016) stressed the importance of IL as a set of essential skills
for society in general and in particular for students in higher education. A close
term to IL is digital literacy. According to the American Library Association (2013, p. 3),
digital literacy: “is the ability to use information and communication technologies
to find, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital information, an ability that
requires both cognitive and technical skills.”It seems that the definition of digital
literacy overlaps the definition of IL; however, they are not identical. The current study
focuses on the term IL.
Individuals can now access information everywhere and anytime via their personal
computeror mobile devices. However, the factthat information is so easily accessible,and that
there is an enormous amount of it, has caused difficulties in finding, evaluating, and using
appropriate information (Association of College, Research Libraries, and American Library
Association, 2000; Head, 2013). Lanning and Mallek (2017) concluded that the majority of
students entering college do not have the necessary IL skills to meet the demands of the
college-level coursework they will be required to do. Moreover, other scholars (Gross and
Latham, 2012) concluded that first-year undergraduate students overestimated their ILskills,
and that the majority of students lacked IL skills.
Hence, the question that arises is whether students estimate they know how to evaluate the
information they findon the web. Do they estimate they knowhow to handle the exponentially
increasing amount of information they find on the internet? Do they estimate they know how to
distinguish between credible and non-credible information? What are the variables that
contribute to their IL self-efficacy? These questions can be associated with previous studies.
Kurbanoğlu (2003, 2009) suggested that people who exhibit a lack of confidence in their
capacities (low self-efficacy) are less inclined to develop IL capacities, while those who exhibit
high self-efficacy are more likely to develop these capacities. Further, Aharony and Gazit (2018)
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 37 No. 2, 2019
pp. 183-196
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-10-2018-0154
Received 28 October 2018
Revised 16 January 2019
Accepted 17 January 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
183
Students’
information
literacy
self-efficacy
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