Perceptions and Applications of Information Literacy by First Year Applied Science Students

Abstract

This paper examines where students prefer to find information, and then matches survey results with students' assignments. Surveys showed that half the surveyed students used library databases (e.g. ProQuest) as their first preference to locate scientific information; however, of these students, one third did not have any journal articles cited in their assignment. Furthermore, of those students with no journal articles cited in their reference list, 65% claimed to feel comfortable using library databases, against a figure of 100% who felt comfortable using Google Scholar. This indicates a mismatch between students' expressed preferences and their actual ability to locate, evaluate, and include refereed journal articles in their assignments.