Abstract

Academic librarians in many countries have expanded their roles to be advocates and teachers of information literacy. The study examined information literacy practices, skills, level of involvement of librarians and inhibitors to information literacy programmes in universities in the South-east Nigeria. Sample was 76 librarians working in Federal and State University Libraries in South-east Nigerian. Questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Interview was also done to ascertain institutional practices of information literacy education. Results showed that majority of the libraries teach library use skills under the General Studies programme. Results also showed that librarians possess skills on traditional information literacy methods such as locating information physically to tackle users’ queries but are least skilled in some information technology skills such as creating web pages, use of reference managers and Boolean search techniques. There is also low use of ICT tools for teaching of information literacy. Challenges faced include lack of institutional information literacy policy and support to drive information literacy, among others. The study concludes that academic librarians in Nigeria should plan and lobby for effective implementation of information literacy standalone credit bearing course in Nigerian Universities.

Key words: Information literacy education, information literacy skills, computer skills, academic librarians, Nigeria.