INFORMATION LITERACY OF DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS’: EASE OF FINDING REQUIRED INFORMATION Dr. Taruna Joshi Librarian Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi

INTRODUCTION  Information 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.  Science 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  Doctoral 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).  Data was analyzed with SPSS version 16.

DATA ANALYSIS- DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE  671 doctoral researchers from different streams in sciences pursuing research at central universities in Delhi and IITD, answered the questionnaires.  This 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  PhD 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  Need for information is very high amongst doctoral researchers, but they find gaps in their search results.  Thus there is a need for training in information skills tailor-made for the doctoral researchers.  The responsibility for training students in information skills should become part of the guidelines for research supervision produced by research bodies and universities.  Such a training could ideally be imparted at different stages of doctoral research.

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