Abstract:
This study assessed the information literacy (IL) instruction pe
rceptions and practices of
faculty at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences i
n Tanzania. An online survey
was distributed to all faculty members in five schools and one insti
tute at MUHAS (235 in
total) from 2011 to 2012, with a response rate of (34.5 percent). The study
findings show a
general support for IL development, and its importance in enabling
students to do library-
based research. To a large extent, faculty believed that the IL
competencies of students,
including their ability to find, use and evaluate information, was aver
age at the lower levels
(first and second year students), and improved at the upper levels (thir
d year undergraduates,
and all postgraduates). Although faculty usually asked their student
s to conduct library
research for their course assignments, students did not make suffici
ent use of library due to
inadequate IL skills. Although faculty did not often collaborate with l
ibrarians in teaching IL,
faculty believed that IL should be an independent, mandatory and credit ea
rning course, and
it should be taught by either a librarian only or undertaken collaborat
ively by both instructors
and librarians. Faculty also indicated having seen some impact on the
improvement in their
students’ research process after receiving library instructi
on. Based on the survey results, the
study recommends the following: Universities should embed IL prog
rammes into institutions,
and librarians should include IL in professional development courses for t
eaching IL to
faculty, use more proactive and interpersonal marketing strategy t
o promote IL, conduct
regular IL needs assessment, use a flexible pedagogical appro
ach and participative, student-
centred methods in teaching and developing IL curricula, and expand the
sources in which IL
articles are published.
