Students Are Expected to Read Widely at University, Yet They Often Do Not Possess the Information Skills Necessary for Finding Adequate Sources. Discuss.

Wide reading is one of the crucial requirements for students at university. However, lack of necessary information skills often hinders students' ability to find adequate sources. This question raises a lot of concern among teachers, educators, education manager and people, who value the quality of the human resource for a future society where information and explosive growth of knowledge have a great impact on all aspects of economic social and political life (Kavulya, 2003, p. 217). This essay argues that while students are expected to read widely at university, they often experience difficulties in finding sources due to inadequate information skills. The shortage of such skills can be explained by a lack of instruction. However, this is not the only reason. The lack of information skills can also be attributed to students' insufficient awareness of the role of information.

It is expected that university students should read widely, not only to cope with their assignments, but also to increase knowledge in their field of study. Through reading, students investigate and search for ideas to increase their knowledge while performing their research (Burns & Sinfield, 2003, p. 60). As students read, they engage with the theories and knowledge claims in their subject area, and gather ideas and information to deepen understanding. These will eventually be used to create the student's arguments (Burns & Sinfield, 2003, p. 61). Thus, while doing different sorts of reading and making notes of the information when reading, students turn themselves from a novice at the beginning with a subject into an initiate when they leave the subject (Burn & Sinfield, 2003, p. 58). Furthermore, according to Durkin (2004, Literature review section, para. 7), university students, especially those in Master degree, are expected to engage in critical thinking, which means that they have to seek out unsound and illogical arguments, posit their own opinion and provide good supporting evidence and logical reasoning. All of these can only be attained as a result of a process of wide and critical reading. Not surprisingly, university students are told to read, and more than that, they are expected to "read around a subject" (Burns & Sinfield, 2003, p. 58).

Students need to read books, journal articles and newspapers which cover their subject of study. The information given in the lectures, classes, seminars and tutorials is never enough. Students have to develop their knowledge beyond what they have been told by their lecturers and the tutors (Burns & Sinfield, 2003, p. 60). However, it does not mean that they have to read through everything in the suggested reading list without any clear goals in mind. Students should have a purpose for reading, which helps them choose what to read carefully (Burns & Sinfield, 2003, p. 61). In other words, they should know what they are looking for before deciding to read. However, it is not always the case that students know exactly what they need and are able to find relevant sources which suit their purpose.

The above situation can be explained by a lack of information skills among students. Information skills, or information literacy as used in some materials, are skills for "recognizing when information is needed, and having the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively this needed information" (American Library Association [ALA], as quoted in Nyamboga, 2004, p. 232-233). Information literacy in the information technology (IT) age is not only being able to read and interpret information, and use it to answer a question, but also involves IT skills, which include the ability to use an online catalogue, a search engine and knowledge of the system, the software, the information source, and the information itself (Clyde, 1997, p. 49). According to Eisenberg (2003, p. 21), technology is an essential tool for information problem solving. Another important part of information skills is library using skills as information sources cannot be separated from libraries. Students need to know how to locate different types of sources within a library framework (Rutter & Matthews, 2002, p. 32). In general, information literacy is one of the lifelong skills, which help individuals integrate into the information-based society and provide them with a competitive advantage in the wider society (Kavulya, 2003, p. 216). However, it is quite often that many university students do not possess those skills.

The lack of information skills is observed, firstly, in the fact that students do not have basic computer skills to search for information sources. Kavulya (2003, p. 221), in a study of information literacy in some university libraries in Kenya, found that Kenyan young people enter higher education with a very limited idea of the role of information and how to access it. Another finding from Wei (as cited in Callinan, 2005, p. 98) showed that students were observed to lack experience in using online systems. Insufficient perception of the role of information and inability to access and use information sources have led to poor performance of students in examinations as they then only rely on lecture notes (Kavulya, 2003, p. 216).

Secondly, students also demonstrate a lack of knowledge and experience in using and taking full advantage of libraries. It is observed that first year undergraduate students frequently face fear and a sense of being lost in the library due to "the size of the library, not knowing where things were; not knowing what to do; and