Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the levels of belief in importance of information literacy abilities (BILAs) among an undergraduates’ sample. The aim is, on the one hand, to discover if there is a representative latent structure and, on the other hand, to know the existing differences according to external variables such as academic degree, course, gender and age.

Design/methodology/approach

A self-assessment questionnaire (IL-HUMASS) was applied to a sample of 749 students in English Studies, Translation and Interpreting and Education in Spain. Three types of statistical methods have been used to study the results: descriptive, factorial and analysis of variance.

Findings

Students’ levels of BILAs are acceptable but improvable. A framework of six underlying factors has been uncovered: evaluation-ethics, searching-using, technological processing, communication, dissemination and cognitive processing of the information. Significant differences on degree, course and gender have been found.

Practical implications

This paper is intended for a broad academic sector, including faculty, librarians and students in higher education. The BILAs construct helps to improve the diagnosis of the perception of the BILAs. Its representation through a reduced number of latent factors simplifies results and possible applications. The results show that variations in degree, course and gender are significant and should be taken into account.

Originality/value

Although much has been written about information literacy abilities, we still know little about the importance students place on them. The BILAs construct is intended to improve that knowledge.

中文翻译：

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相信大学生信息素养能力的重要性。潜在因素和方差分析

目的

本文的目的是分析大学生样本中对信息素养能力（BILA）重要性的信念水平。目的是一方面发现是否存在代表性的潜在结构，另一方面根据外部变量（例如学历，课程，性别和年龄）了解存在的差异。

设计/方法/方法

自我评估问卷（IL-HUMASS）被用于西班牙749名英语学习，翻译和口译及教育学生的样本中。已使用三种类型的统计方法来研究结果：描述性，阶乘和方差分析。

发现

学生的BILA水平是可以接受的，但可以提高。已经发现了六个基本因素的框架：评价伦理，信息的搜索使用，技术处理，交流，传播和认知处理。发现在学位，课程和性别上存在显着差异。

实际影响

本文针对的是广泛的学术领域，包括教师，图书馆员和高等教育学生。BILA的构建有助于改善BILA感知的诊断。它通过减少潜在因素的数量来简化结果和可能的应用。结果表明，学位，课程和性别的差异很大，应予以考虑。

创意/价值

尽管有关信息素养能力的文章很多，但对于学生对他们的重视程度我们仍然知之甚少。BILAs构造旨在改善该知识。