Assessing the effectiveness of information literacy instruction program: Pre and post evaluation case study
Learning is a continuous process and effective learning relates to students' attitudes, feelings and approach towards the subject of learning. To excel in their academic curricula students must acquire, evaluate and use the available information effectively. One of the mandates of today's higher education is to develop a community of students with information literacy (IL) skills while pursuing their education and enable them to further extend it to their future workplace. This paper examines the information literacy competency of post graduate students of pharmaceutical sciences course at Manipal University, Manipal. The present case study, conducted prior to and after an Information Literacy Instruction (ILI) program at the Health Sciences Library of Manipal University, Manipal, assesses different aspects of information competency for utilization of information resources. Data were collected through a survey prior to IL session and through feedback response at the end of the session (after the session) St uctured questionnaires were distributed to all the participants (125) before and after the instruction program. Students' awareness about the library website, availability of types of resources of the library, familiarity with the name of online database in the health sciences field, knowledge about the use of library catalogue, bibliographic databases and open access resources; confidence level related to search skills before and after the ILI and the usefulness of ILI program were assessed during the study. The results indicated that the information literacy instruction had a positive influence on effective learning of information literacy skills.