Librarians’ Perceptions of the Role of Information Literacy for Sustenance of a Democratic Nation

Abstract

This research adopted a survey design which sought information from respondents on the Information literacy, for sustenance of a democratic nation. The population comprised fortyseven (47) practicing library staff of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Library, Anambra State. The nominal role of the staff of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Library was used to derive the population of the study. There was no sampling because the whole population was studied since it is small and manageable. A self-developed questionnaire entitled “Information Literacy for sustenance of democracy Questionnaire, ILSDQ” was used for data collection. ILSDQ was validated by experts from Library and Information Science Department in the Faculty of Education of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient was used to obtain a reliability coefficient of 0.84. Data were collected and analysed using mean scores. The findings revealed that, the librarians agreed that information literacy actually sustains a democratic nation. Illiteracy, low computer skills, lack of professionals trained in information literacy, lack of reading culture, among others, are some identified challenges to information literacy. Based on the findings, recommendations include among others that information literacy should be included in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions curriculum, with teachers, lecturers and librarians teaching it.