Information literacy programmes in higher educational institutions in UAE a study

Abstract

The academic professionals face information explosion that is taking place in newlinethe world. Information is getting accumulated rapidly by means of books, articles, newlinejournals, e-resources, etc. Searching and learning to search the information by those newlinein the field of higher education has become significant. Library professionals have newlinebeen involved in training the users of higher education to use the information newlineresources available in the libraries. The Association of College and Research newlineLibraries, a division of American Library Association stated the latest definition: newline Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective newlinediscovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and newlinevalued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating newlineethically in communities of learningquot. The researcher being a Librarian in BITS newlinePilani, Dubai Campus in United Arab Emirates, where the UAE has becoming newlinepreference of higher education from all over the world population, the study was newlinedone in UAE. The study was focused on the objectives to gather information on the newlineexisting status of integration of ILPs, contents offered, user group, responsibility, newlinebarriers faced, and overall perception of ILPs in UAE. An online questionnaire was newlinecirculated through email to library and information science professionals who were newlineworking in higher educational institutions in UAE. 140 respondents filled the newlinequestionnaire and they were used for further analysis. The data were analyzed newlinethrough the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and statistical techniques like Z newlinetest, ANOVA test and Chi-Square test were used for the analysis of data to find newlinethe results. 40 percent of the respondents offered ILP only occasionally when need newlinearaised, 96.4 percent included contents in ILP such as use of Library Resources newlineprint, e-databases, e-journals, internet search skills, etc., 87.1 percent of user group newlinefor ILP were students, 80 percent strongly agreed that LIS professionals were newlinerespons