THE INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS ON STUDENTS’ USER EDUCATION IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of information literacy skills on user education among the library users in the University of Benin. Seven purposes and seven research questions were formulated for the study. More so, the Lev Vygotsky(1934) theory of sociocultural learning for the dependent variable (information literacy skills); while the theory of patronage behavior by Shetty (1983) for the independent variable (users’ patonage) were used to guide this study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study while population of 150 was purposively selected from the population library staff members. A well-structured and validated questionnaire entitled: “the influence of information literacy skis on students’ user education (IILSSUEQ)” was used for data collection and data collected for this study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The finding of this study shows that all the information literacy skills (information identification, scoping, planning, gathering, evaluation, management, and presentation) were not associated with user education in academic libraries in Benin City. In other words, the information literacy skills are fully deployed to enhance user education in the academic library in the University of Benin. In conclusion, it is recommended that academic librarians, academic library management, managements of higher institution, software and hardware vendors, and other stakeholders in information literacy practices should engage and encourage the adequate use of information literacy skills in carrying out user education in academic libraries.

Key words: Information literacy skills, user education, students