Relationship between Information Literacy Skills Acquisition and Research Self-efficacy of Library and Information Science Postgraduate students in Southeast Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between information literacy skills acquisition and research self-efficacy of Library and Information Science (LIS) postgraduate students in Southeast Nigerian Universities. A correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 326 postgraduate students which included all 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 PhD and Masters Degree students from the Departments of LIS in Southeast Nigerian universities that offer the postgraduate programme in LIS. The entire population was studied. Two validated instruments which included cognitive ability test for Information Literacy Skills (ILST) and Research Self-Efficacy Scale (RSES) adopted from Büyüköztürk, Atalay, Sozgunc, and Kebapç? were used for data collection. The internal consistency of ILST and RSES were established using Kudder-Richardson and Cronbach's alpha coefficient which yielded 0.85 for ILST and 0.86 for RSES. Data collected were analysed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (r). The study found out that there is a negative relationship between information literacy skills and research self-efficacy scores of LIS postgraduate students. Also, no significant relationship exists between information literacy skills and research self-efficacy scores of LIS postgraduate students. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the assessment of students’ information literacy skills by the LIS Department, LIS educators, and LIS professionals should be employed frequently. This will help determine their strength and weakness and with that, the students will be able to know their stand which will encourage them to acquire these skills where it is lacking as well as instill confidence in their ability to conduct research.