Faculty perceptions of information literacy skills: an investigation at the Florence University Campus of Social Sciences

The Florence University Social Science Library has for some time been engaged in courses for information literacy (IL), but so far, there has been a lack of collaboration with teachers. This study aims to investigate teachers’ perception of students’ IL skills.

The qualitative investigation was based on semi-structured interviews with 24 faculty members of the Florence University Social Sciences campus.

Knowledge of the IL frameworks is not widespread among the teachers of the campus, but following the discussion, most of the interviewees came to acknowledge its certain validity. The teachers tend to attribute an insufficient level of information skills to the bachelor’s degree students, a good level to master’s degree and a more positive level to the postgraduates. They express appreciation of the training activity of the library, but they, nevertheless, still tend to consider librarians, as their more traditional role would suggest, only as bibliographic research experts. No one seemed to believe librarians possess those training competencies they would need to get involved in teaching curricula. The recognition of the work that has been accomplished up to now represents foundations for an increasingly necessary partnership. There is an awareness, however, that a suitable strategy which requires determination and initiative will be difficult to implement.

This study represents one of the few contributions on the perception of IL skills by faculty members in Italian universities.