Assessing information literacy among German psychology students

This paper aims to report on the development of an information literacy test for German psychology students.

The test consists of 22 items covering two facets of information literacy (searching for information and evaluating information) which are mapped on Standards Two and Three of the information literacy framework provided by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, 2000). A sample of N=64 German psychology students including n=22 freshmen, n=21 advanced students and n=21 PhD students completed the test. The freshmen and advanced students also performed an academic literature search task.

The test has acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha between 0.73 and 0.82). An analysis of variance showed that PhD students scored higher than advanced students, who, in turn, scored higher than freshmen. Additionally, the score on the first scale (Evaluating) showed a significant relationship with the performance on the academic literature search task.

The test can be used to determine training needs among German psychology students, or to evaluate instruction programs.

The new measure is the only standardized information literacy test for German-speaking populations for which psychometric properties have been reported.