Speaker
Description
The university is the birthplace of life-changing ideas aimed at benefiting society. Prominent university community members are postgraduates with a heavy workload of coursework in their disciplines. However, they require digital literacy skills to ensure they can access information and educational resources online effectively, supporting lifelong learning, coursework, and research. Existing literature indicates that the majority of users in university libraries do not fully utilise electronic resources due to the inadequacy of digital literacy skills. The objective of the study was to investigate the level of digital literacy skills of postgraduate students and the application of ICTs in facilitating adequate usage of electronic resources for lifelong learning and research. A mixed-method approach was adopted, taking on board survey design applied within a case study in line with concurrent parallel design. Quantitative data was collected from postgraduates, and qualitative data from library staff. The sample consisted of 118 postgraduate students randomly sampled from 150 postgraduates. The 30% rule, according to Neuman, was used. Five library staff were purposively sampled. Qualitative data were analysed using content analysis, while quantitative data were analysed using frequency distribution and cross-tabulation methods. Tables, charts, graphs and thematic discussions were used to present the data. The key findings of the study revealed that postgraduates possess different levels of digital literacy skills; the majority of postgraduates and library staff digital literacy skills were inadequate; the majority of the postgraduate students stated that ICT facilities were inadequate. The study concludes that the digital literacy skills of postgraduates and ICT facilities at Margaret Thatcher Library are inadequate, limiting the usage of electronic resources. The study recommends that librarians offer regular digital literacy training to improve the level of digital literacy skills of postgraduates and increase and improve ICT facilities at Moi University Library.
