Information literacy assessment at the University of Zagreb: An undergraduate students´ perspective

Information literacy represents the set of skills that enables individuals to identify, locate, evaluate and utilise relevant information for a certain task. This paper presents results of a survey regarding information literacy, carried out on undergraduate students of the Department of Information and Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Previous surveys had asserted the need to include information literacy or information competencies, differentiated from already present tool literacy or technological competencies, in students´ curricula on the University. The aim of this survey was to analyse the students´ information competencies as well as examine the students´ attitude towards introducing an undergraduate course, during which they would learn how to efficiently search for information in the electronic environment while preparing seminar papers and exams. Furthermore, to gain an insight into the students´ information retrieval accuracy in course-related research, the authors of this paper shall evaluate their information behaviour, i.e. investigate whether the students develop an overall research plan or search in relevant information sources, e.g. peer-reviewed databases etc. The research results can be helpful to determine the importance of information awareness at this level of education.