Information literacy skills - A comparison of two undergraduate cohorts with and without instruction

Since information literacy instruction is aimed at enhancing information literacy skills, the academic community needs to understand the outcomes of the instructional programmes to adjust instructional services to better suit undergraduate needs across disciplines. This paper provides the results of a study that compared two engineering undergraduate cohorts in Sri Lanka-one just commenced university education, who are in their first year, and the other who completed their first year and just entered the second year. The latter cohort had undergone academic instruction in their first year. The specific objectives of the study were to investigate 1) IL skills possessed by undergraduates belonging to these two cohorts, 2) whether IL skills vary between the two cohorts, and 3) whether individual and family characteristics influence IL skills. The survey of a total of 568 engineering undergraduate responses found that some differences between the two groups in information skills and information behaviour, and also found individual and family characteristics that influence information literacy. Overall, our study contributed to the existing literature in several aspects and has implications for the current practices.