Did we captivate them? Perceptions of second-year students about the library's information literacy online tutorials

Abstract

At Stellenbosch University the Department of Information Science is responsible for the mandatory Information Skills 172 and 174 programmes for first-year students in four faculties. In 2009 the faculty librarians were asked to create screencast online tutorials on certain library skills, and in 2010 a focus-group discussion was conducted to determine what students' perceptions were of the influence of these tutorials on their ability to find information for assignments. The findings indicate that the tutorials were not as successful as the library had hoped, and that the library should work at not only improving the tutorials, but also bringing them to the attention of the students.