Research Article: “Information Literacy Skills of First-Year Library and Information Science Graduate Students: An Exploratory Study”

The article highlighted below appears in the latest issue of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP).
Title
Information Literacy Skills of First-Year Library and Information Science Graduate Students: An Exploratory Study
Author
Andrea Hebert
Louisiana St. University 
Source
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP)
Vol. 13, No.3 (2018)
DOI: 10.18438/eblip29404
Abstract

Objective
This cross-sectional, descriptive study seeks to address a gap in knowledge of both information literacy (IL) self-efficacy and IL skills of students entering Louisiana State University’s Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program.
Methods
An online survey testing both IL self-efficacy and skills was administered through Qualtrics. The online survey instrument used items from existing instruments (Beile, 2007; Michalak & Rysavy, 2016) and was distributed to two cohorts of incoming students; the first cohort entered the MLIS program in fall 2017, and the second entered in spring 2018.
Results
Data varied between cohorts and between survey instruments for both IL self-efficacy and skills; however, bivariate analysis of data indicated a moderate positive correlation between overall IL self-efficacy and demonstrated IL skill scores in both fall 2017 and spring 2018 cohorts.
Conclusion
The study indicates a need for a larger, multi-institutional study using a rigorously validated instrument to gather data and make generalizable inferences about the IL self-efficacy and skills of incoming LIS graduate students.

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