Gender Differences on Information Literacy of Science and Engineering Undergraduates

Published Online March 2012 in MECS DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2012.02.04

• A.    Definition of Information Literacy (IL)

The term of "information literacy" (IL)was first defined by Paul Zurkowski, the president of the Information Industry Association, who used it in his proposal to the National Commission on Library and Information Science in 1974. In the proposal, Zurkowski described information literate individuals as those who are “trained in the application of information resources to their work” and campaigned for a national program to teach the necessary skills, which would eventually yield an information literate generation a decade later.[1]

In the information society, IL has become a necessity for everyone; it forms the basis for lifelong learning [2]. Everyone needs to use IL to make choices that arise every day. Over the past decade, IL has been an area of increasing interest to science teachers.

IL has been defined in a variety of ways. The concept of IL has been promoted by library and information professionals for several decades.

The Prague Declaration 2003 stated IL encompasses knowledge of one’s information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand; it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the information society, and is part of the basic human right of life long learning.[3]

The Alexandria Proclamation on IL and Lifelong Learning defined IL as "comprising the competencies to recognize information needs and to locate, evaluate, apply and create information within cultural and social contexts. It empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals".[4]

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has been active in promoting IL. ACRL published IL competency standards and guidelines for best practice in instructional efforts [5], [6]. The IL Competency Standards for Higher Education articulated five standards which are divided into 22 performance indicators.

ALA defined IL is "a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information".[7]

IL is now considered by several regional and discipline-based accreditation associations as a key outcome for college students [6]. IL is one basic existence skill, which forms the basis of lifelong learning and the key for students to become independent lifelong learner in information society [2]. IL skills must be incorporated throughout all areas of school's curriculum, not just in library orientation classes or isolated skills presentations [8].

IL is mainly shown as follow: ability to apply to information technology tools; ability to obtain information initiatively; ability to review, collect, use, deliver and exchange information; good coordinative awareness and cooperation ability; information immunity and information ethics cultivation; ability to use the information obtained to solve problems and carry out creative thinking activities. [9]

IL plays very important role for students majoring in science and engineering, as they may touch various information resources in the process of learning professional knowledge [2].

• B.    Suvey of IL

  In the spring of2000, 3309 students of California State University were surveyed to acquire aggregate data to suggest a baseline of students' information competence skills. The survey included demographic questions, information scenarios and sets of questions scaled to areas related to information competence such as library use, research process skills, achievement, presence of