Information Literacy of Doctoral Researchers ’: Ease of Finding Required Information

INFORMATION LITERACY OF DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS’:

EASE OF FINDING REQUIRED INFORMATION

Dr. Taruna JoshiLibrarian

Ramjas College, University of Delhi,Delhi 110007.

INTRODUCTION

I

nformation skills- formulate and analyze need; identify and appraise

likely sources; locate individual resources; examine, select and reject

sources; interrogate sources; record and store information; interpret,

analyze, synthesize and evaluate information collected; present and

communicate resulting work and evaluate what has been achieved.

S

cience discipline was selected for this study due to its traditional reliance

on the journal literature, a format that moved quickly onto the web.

NEEDS OF DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

D

octoral research starts with a comprehensive review of related

literature, which requires the researcher to have excellent

information skills.

“

Doctoral students have the greatest information requirements

and therefore the greatest need for information skills of all

students. It might be argued that their need is even greater, in

some ways, than that of established academics.”

METHODOLOGY

A

questionnaire was developed and administered to the

science doctoral researchers of University of Delhi (DU),

Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Jawaharlal Nehru University

(JNU) and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD).

D

ata was analyzed with SPSS version 16.

DATA ANALYSIS- DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE

6

71 doctoral researchers from different streams in sciences

pursuing research at central universities in Delhi and IITD,

answered the questionnaires.

T

his research work aimed to establish the baseline information

literacy competency of doctoral researchers, which could be used

for addressing the shortcomings in the level of information

literacy competency expected from them.

Distribution of Researchers by University/Institute

FINDING REQUIRED INFORMATION QUICKLY

P

hD students have confidence in their own

information searching skills and the use of

information discovery, but in reality their

information literacy may not be good

enough.

CONCLUSION

N

eed for information is very high amongst doctoral researchers, but they find gaps in

their search results.

T

hus there is a need for training in information skills tailor-made for the doctoral

researchers.

T

he responsibility for training students in information skills should become part of

the guidelines for research supervision produced by research bodies and

universities.

S

uch a training could ideally be imparted at different stages of doctoral research.

THANKS