Information seeking behaviour of first-generation students at the University of Johannesburg

Abstract

This study is an investigation into the information seeking behaviour of first-year first generation (FG) students. The qualitative phenomenological approach was applied to sought understanding of factors influencing this groups’ information seeking behaviour. It endeavoured to determine the students’ information literacy abilities and benchmark these against the library’s current information literacy training course. A purposive convenience sample was drawn from FG students enrolled in the extended programme of the Mastering Academic and Professional Skills (MAPS) in the Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) who completed the library’s information literacy course. Seventeen students participated. A literature review indicated that FG students’ socioeconomic situations in their homes leave them academically unprepared for higher education, with inadequate cognitive skills to solve information problems and carry out academic tasks, which in an academic context require information literacy skills. The empirical findings confirmed this. The literature revealed interplay between the academic context and the study group’s everyday life context giving rise to the group’s information needs and triggering information seeking activities. Situations in the students’ everyday life context and academic context influenced their information seeking behaviour. Interconnectedness between contextual components and their personal experiences was evident in their information seeking behaviour, which reflected an inability to find information to support their information needs. The intervention of the library’s information literacy training course improved the respondents’ information literacy skills and enabled them to find the required information. The findings enabled the development of a conceptual model graphically illustrating FG students’ information seeking behaviour. Furthermore, the library’s information literacy training course could be reviewed and improved by exploring a more blended learning approach; making the online component of the course more user-friendly; training MAPS mentors in information literacy so that they can fully assist the FG students; educating librarians on FG students’ information seeking behaviour. This study yielded understanding of the influence of two different contexts influencing information seeking behaviour and facilitated employment of an adapted information literacy training course to equip FG students to function successfully in an academic context.