An empirical investigation of information skills among undergraduate students at Dhaka University

Ferdows, Jannatul; Ahmed, S.M. Zabed

doi:10.1108/lr-11-2014-0132

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Considering their age, gender, disciplines, semesters and other contexts, the need and the information-seeking behaviour of students may differ. Many results brought out the findings that undergraduate students’ information-searching skills are poor due to lack of awareness of library resources and services, insufficient training opportunities, the absence of information literacy instruction in universities, poor ability to use the information access tools and use the system, and absence of a well-planned information system that they want (Callinan, 2005; Ferdows and Ahmed, 2015; Joo and Choi, 2015; Maybee, 2006). Thus, for university libraries to remain relevant to undergraduates and to be effective information service providers, fuller understanding of the information-seeking behaviour, needs and use of students becomes a necessity.…”

Section: Background Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found that faculty members looked for information for their career development and keeping them up to date. Ferdows and Ahmed (2015) investigated the information skills (e.g. Boolean operators, truncation and others) among undergraduate students at Dhaka University and found that undergraduates’ information skills were poor.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, while there have been studies on information literacy and undergraduate students (Islam and Tsuji, 2010); information skills among the undergraduates in both public and private universities (e.g. Ferdows and Ahmed, 2015; Shoeb, 2011), information-seeking behaviour of faculty members and MPs (e.g. Hossain et al, 2017; Sarkhel and Khan, 2014), the extant literature is yet to provide empirical evidence of information need and information-seeking beahviour of undergraduate students in Bangladesh.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate students: A developing country perspective

Howlader

Islam

2019

IFLA Journal

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the information-seeking behaviour of the undergraduate students at Dhaka University, Bangladesh. Questionnaires were distributed to the students and data were collected over a period of 60 days between November and December 2017. Of the 450 questionnaires distributed, 339 were returned where the response rate was 75.33%. It was found that most undergraduates needed academic and job-related information. To meet those needs, they often went to the library to study and to prepare for competitive job exams. For doing academic work, they were heavily dependent on the class lectures and they were only slightly satisfied with the library services they get. This study brought out the findings that undergraduates’ information skills were poor and they were not aware of the library resources. The outcome of this research would help to develop information resources and services for the undergraduates in developing countries.

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Section: Background Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate students: A developing country perspective

Howlader

Islam

2019

IFLA Journal

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“…Although the findings of this present study are fairly consistent with earlier studies in terms of number of factors extracted, library anxiety in a developing country perspective may have constructs that include students’ fear of and concern about IT-based services. A recent study (Ferdows and Ahmed, 2015) found that many undergraduate students at Dhaka University had poor information skills and competencies. This paper also found that a significant proportion of students only used print resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Bostick’s Library Anxiety Scale (LAS) in a developing country perspective

Ahmed

Aziz

2017

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Purpose This paper aims to explore the use of Bostick’s (1992) Library Anxiety Scale (LAS) in a developing country perspective to find out the level of anxiety among university students and to identify the underlying factors that contribute to this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach A slightly modified 43-item LAS was used to collect data from 350 students at Dhaka University. For data analysis, negatively worded statements were reverse-scored so that all the statements are scored in the same direction. The statistical significance is measured using Mann–Whitney (M-W) and Kruskal–Wallis (K-W) tests. The M-W tests were conducted to examine the differences in students’ library anxiety scores in terms of their age and educational levels. The K-W tests were conducted to examine the differences in students’ ratings on LAS items in terms of their age and faculty enrolment. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the survey data to examine the factors contributing to students’ anxiety. Finally, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the convergent validity of the measures chosen to represent each factor construct. Findings The result of this study indicated that library anxiety exists amongst Dhaka University students, as most LAS scores fell above 3 on a 5-point Likert scale. The individual differences in terms of gender, age, educational level and frequency of library visit were not significant for most of the items. The EFA, after several iterations, yielded a five-factor solution for library anxiety constructs although only two factors were found to have met the required reliability scores. The CFA, however, failed to produce any meaningful results. This paper made several recommendations to the university library administration to alleviate the problems that appear to have triggered library anxiety. Originality value This is a pioneering study of the use of Bostick’s LAS in Bangladesh. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage researchers to develop anxiety scales which would address the need for library services in developing country context.

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“…Similar problems were reported in a private university setting by Shoeb (2011). Ferdows and Ahmed (2015) examined undergraduate students’ information skills at Dhaka University, Bangladesh. They found that about 61 per cent of undergraduate students either gave an incorrect answer or were unsure about the term “citation.” Similarly, they were unsuccessful in answering many of the information skill questions sought.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early career academics’ understanding of library language

Yesmin

Ahmed

2019

GKMC

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the understanding of library terminologies by early career faculty members in a newly established rural university setting at the south coast of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach A campus-wide survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire consisted of demographic questions and 35 multiple-choice questions on library terminologies. The multiple-choice questions asked faculty members to select the correct answer from a set of five answers. Findings The findings indicate that early career university teachers lack adequate understanding of library terms; in fact, many of them either gave incorrect answers or was unsure about the term. It was found that faculty members had relatively better understandings of commonly used library terminologies, but they had real difficulties comprehending computer and technology-related terms. Significant differences were observed for some of the terms in case of their age, designation and teaching experience. Originality/value This current study is unique in two ways: first, this is the first time an effort has been made to empirically examine the understanding of library terminologies by early career faculty members; and second, this study was conducted at a university in Bangladesh where the first language is not English.

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An empirical investigation of information skills among undergraduate students at Dhaka University

Cited by 18 publications

References 10 publications

Information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate students: A developing country perspective

Information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate students: A developing country perspective

Use of Bostick’s Library Anxiety Scale (LAS) in a developing country perspective

Early career academics’ understanding of library language

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