Differences in University Students’ Perceived and Actual Information Retrieval Competencies: A Task-Based Approach and Role of Academic Libraries

Counts differ because each database indexes a different set of publications. We treat OpenAlex as the canonical count; Google Scholar is not shown (no API, and crawling it violates its ToS).

Being skilled in information retrieval (IR) is essential for university students to enhance their academic achievement and research profile. This study aims to examine the gap between university students’ perceived and actual information retrieval (IR) skills and to explore the role of academic libraries in addressing this discrepancy. An explanatory mixed-methods design was adopted in this study. Quantitative data were collected from 374 university students using a structured questionnaire and task-based assessments to measure perceived and actual IR skills. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and one-way ANOVA tests were applied. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with four academic library professionals and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results revealed that students reported moderate to high perceived IR skills but demonstrated comparatively lower actual performance, indicating a significant gap. A weak and non-significant relationship between perceived and actual skills suggests that self-assessments are unreliable indicators of competence. Qualitative findings indicate that this gap is driven by over-reliance on basic search tools, limited practical exposure, and insufficient information literacy. Library professionals emphasized the need for structured training, workshops, and collaboration with faculty to enhance students’ IR competencies.