Workplace information literacy: a case of investigation officers from Punjab Police, Pakistan

Introduction

In the context of the workplace, information literacy refers to workers’ ability for recognition of their information needs, to identify, locate, access, understand, evaluate, and use information ethically and legally to develop informed views or make balanced decisions for problem-solving and evidence-based practice (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000; American Library Association, 1989; Charted Insititute of Library and Information Professionals, 2018). In the 21st century, information literacy is needed for various professional domains to have a competitive advantage and for effective decision-making in the workplace (Gardner, 2000; Goad, 2002; Karim and Hussein, 2008; Klusek and Bornstein, 2006; Naveed, 2022). There is a growing interest of scholars in the research on workplace information literacy since the last decade. Several studies appeared to have been conducted on using varied professional groups, namely, health professionals (e.g., Cobus, 2008; Mugambi, 2017; Purnell et al., 2020; Rehman and Ramzy, 2004; Willson and Angell, 2017), engineers (e.g., Chaudhry and Al-Mahmud, 2015), scientists (e.g., Anwar, 1981; Naveed, 2022; Naveed and Rafique, 2018), journalists (e.g., Haider, 2019), teachers (e.g., Anwar, 1979; Ali et al., 2022; Bruce, 1997; Boon et al., 2007), lawyers (Shah, 2021), auditors (e.g., Cheuk, 1998), managers (e.g., Kirk, 2004), firefighters and ambulance officers (e.g, Lloyd, 2007), Librarians (Ali and Mustafa, 2017; Khan, 2020; Tyagi, 2017), etc. There were only a few studies available that have addressed the information literacy capability of police officers (e.g., Al-Daihani and Rehman, 2007; Kilic, 2010). There is still much needed to be understood about workplace information literacy to inform policy and practice as information literacy needs to differ even in the workplace due to the varied nature of contexts, and professions, hierarchy, and tasks (Abdi and Bruce, 2015; Hepworth and Smith, 2008; Jinadu and Kaur, 2014; Naveed, 2022; Naveed and Rafique, 2018).

The police can be considered as a time-critical and knowledge-intensive organization where police officers need to respond within seconds and have to make timely decisions (Al-Daihani and Rehman, 2007). These decisions should be informed and grounded in a sound knowledge base due to task complexities and other specific needs (Kilic, 2010). Therefore, the police forces of different countries have increasingly invested in information communication technologies in the last few decades and criminal record management has changed drastically from paper-based to digital-based. As a result, the police officers needed to be efficient in utilizing varied information systems for both strategic and operational business requiring certain levels of information literacy skills (Al-Daihani and Rehman, 2007; Kilic, 2010). However, it is unclear that to what extent different police departments consider such skills important in the recruitment process, performance evaluations, and instruction programmes. In this context, more inquires addressing workplace information literacy in general and focusing on police officers, in particular, are needed to inform policy and practice.

Literature Review

A tremendous and phenomenal increase in the amount of literature on information literacy has been witnessed since the last few decades (Bruce, 2000; Lloyd, 2003, 2004; Marcum, 2002; Rader, 2002; Tuominen et al., 2005). A vast majority of these investigations have addressed information literacy in the academic context (Candy, 1998; Rader, 2002). A comparatively little research has been produced on information literacy in the contexts of the workplace and everyday life (Bruce, 2000; Candy, 1998; Kirton and Barham, 2005; Lloyd, 2010; Lloyd and Williamson, 2008; Naveed, 2022; Naveed and Rafique, 2018; Oman, 2001; Wang et al., 2011; Weiner, 2011). Although the number of inquires on workplace information literacy has been increased using a variety of professionals, there is still much needed to be explored about it to inform policy and practice.

Of the available research on workplace information literacy, Travis (2011) explored the use of information literacy skills by the alumni of California State University in the workplace context and reported the usefulness of such skills in completing their activities in the workplace. Cheuk (2008) argued the role of information literacy in the workplace in delivering business value and corporate needs. O’Sullivan (2002) determined the awareness of a corporate sector about information literacy as a new economy skill set and solution to information overload. Whereas Klusek and Bornstein (2006) identified the specific workplace information literacy skills valued by the business carriers. The study of Crawford and Irving (2009) recognized social interactions as the prime source of information in the context of the workplace rather than traditional sources of information. An investigation by Sasikala and Kumari (2013) spotlighted an increased role of information in industrial organizations and reported the current state of information literacy initiatives in the Indian workplaces. Effective internet use, exploring information multiple sources, how to evaluate web resources, technical writing skills, information discovery and management, online databases, and information retrieval were the key areas in which information literacy instructions were being imparted.

Information literacy skills were essential for each step of environmental scanning and making strategic decisions (Zhang et al., 2010, 2014). A review of research on information literacy and the workplace by Weiner (2011) indicated a dearth of information literacy literature for the workforce and categorized the available studies into three key areas, namely, importance of information literacy for the workforce, the way information literacy differs in the workplace, and academia, and barriers to workplace information literacy. This study established the need for more studies on different aspects of workplace information literacy to inform policy and practice. In this context, Jinadu and Kaur (2014) proposed a model for workplace information literacy consisting of four stages, namely, share knowledge, analyze the task, execute the task, and evaluate. Whereas, the study of Abdi and Bruce (2015) articulated a general context workplace IL and distinguished it from different professions. For instance, referring to a phenomenographic study of IL in web professionals, it was discovered that web professionals mainly interact at a professional level rather than a physical workspace level for information literacy. Another study by Abdi (2017) considered IL as an essential feature of work practices and discussed the ways virtuality enhanced the IL experience. The focus of virtuality is primarily on the nature of the work context rather than the workplace. Therefore, information literacy could be experienced beyond workplace borders and at a professional level. This articulation of the general context of the workplace introduced a more segmented conception of information literacy in the workplace.

The employers of the 21st century valued information literacy and meta-literacy skills and perceived that the digital badges are a possible way to showcase graduates’ capabilities (Raish and Rimland, 2016). The study of Gilbert (2017) conducted a content analysis of the requirements for information literacy skills in job advertisements for entry-level advertising professionals. It was found that the capability of professionals in the utilization of information resources and tools, evaluation of information, application of information, collaboration with the team, and technological competence were mentioned in at least 41% of the job advertisement. Mugambi (2017) discovered that the Kenyan nurses had poor information literacy skills for information evaluation, utilization of online medical databases, and understanding right for intellectual.

There were only a few studies that examined the information literacy of the police force. Of these few studies, an investigation by Al-Daihani and Rehman (2007) assessed the information literacy capabilities of 211 police officers in Kuwait using a questionnaire. The results indicated that the Kuwaiti police officers, in general, had poor information literacy capabilities, particularly in searching skills. The departmental affiliation of these police officers appeared to predict their capabilities for information literacy. Kilic (2010) also investigated information literacy self-efficacy of police officers of the National Police Force in Turkey. The findings revealed that these police officers had high self-efficacy for information literacy as they were comfortable in defining information needs, initiating search strategy, locating and accessing information sources, interpreting and synthesizing, and evaluating information. However, these police officers were less comfortable in communicating information. The education, departmental affiliation, ranks of these officers positively predicted their self-efficacy information literacy.

An extensive search for Pakistani literature on workplace information literacy revealed a limited number of studies. Of these limited studies, Anwar (1979, 1981) surveyed college teachers and scientists of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to determine the extent to which they had been able to use the subject literature of their respective fields. The study of Naveed and Rafique (2018) also discovered the extent to which scientists had been able to develop their information literacy skills in the digital era. It was found that most of the survey participants never received information literacy instructions during their entire academic career. However, they perceived such skills as very important in the workplace. In another study, Naveed (2022) assessed the self-efficacy of PCSIR scientists for information literacy. The results indicated that these scientists were comfortable in basic levels of information literacy. Whereas, they were less comfortable in advanced levels of information literacy. Moreover, two other recent studies assessed the information literacy skills of library professionals in Pakistan (Ali and Mustafa, 2017; Khan, 2020).

A perusal of the existing research on workplace information literacy indicated the need for more inquires focusing the information literacy in the workplace especially of police officers. There is much needed to be understood about workplace information literacy in different professional groups to inform policy and practice despite the given importance to workplace information literacy. No such study appeared to have been conducted on police officers in the context of their workplace in Pakistan. This is an important segment of professional groups dealing with the safety and security of the public requiring the attention of information literacy research scholars. The present research is, therefore, intended to investigate the current state of affairs about information literacy development among investigation officers working at the Punjab Police from the division of Sargodha, Pakistan. It is hoped that the results of the proposed research will generate useful insights for policymakers and practitioners in the police force in developing a need-based information literacy curriculum. The results may pave the way for the inclusion of information literacy capabilities as part of basic training and various in-service training courses for the police force. This study may also guide information professionals serving in special libraries to manage information literacy instructions in the workplace. This research would have a significant contribution to the literature on workplace information literacy, especially of investigation officers as no such study had appeared so far. This study is geared toward achieving specifically the following research objectives.

Research objectives

• 1) To determine the extent to which the investigation officers of the Punjab Police are able to develop their information literacy skills.
• 2) To identify the perceptions of these investigation officers about the importance of information literacy skills in the workplace.
• 3) To measure the perceived levels of information literacy self-efficacy of these investigation officers.
• 4) To explore the mean difference in investigation officers’ information literacy self-efficacy based on age, sex, designation, professional experience, computer proficiency, and English language proficiency.

Methods and Procedures

The study is based on a quantitative research design using a survey method along with a questionnaire for data collection from the targeted population. The questionnaire was developed based on previous studies (e.g., Al-Daihani and Rehman, 2007; Anwar, 1979, 1981; Kilic, 2010; Naveed and Rafique, 2018). A perusal of published research also indicated the suitability and wide usage of an information literacy self-efficacy scale developed by Kurbanoglu et al. (2006) for information literacy assessment (Keshavarz et al., 2017; Mahmood, 2017; Naveed, 2022; Shim et al., 2009). Furthermore, this scale (25-items) has also been used successfully by Al-Daihani and Rehman (2007) and Kilic (2010) to assess the information literacy of police officers in the context of the workplace due to its suitability, reasonable length, high reliability, and consistency.

The present study adopted this scale to assess information literacy self-efficacy of scientists working at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Lahore. The survey questionnaire consisted of the scale and some demographic variables such as age, sex, academic qualification, research experience, and number of publications. The statements of the scale were measured on a seven-point Likert type scale having response categories (1= almost never true, 2= usually not true, 3= sometimes but infrequently true, 4= occasionally true, 5= often true, 6= usually true, 7= almost always true).

The present research, therefore, adopted this 25-item version to assess the self-efficacy of investigation officers for information literacy along with certain other questions and personal variables such as sex, age, designation, professional experience, computer proficiency, and English language proficiency. Each statement was measured on a seven-point Likert type scale (e.g., (7= almost always true; 6 = usually true; 5 = often true; 4 = occasionally true; 3 = sometimes but infrequently true; 2 = usually not true; 1 = almost never true). The initial draft of this questionnaire was submitted to a panel of experts (one workplace information literacy researcher and two police officers) for review of content validity and revised accordingly. The expert panel suggested the usage of the POLCOM as an information source instead of the POLNET. The POLCOM is software for computerization of record and criminal tracking system used by investigation officers of Punjab Police to solve criminal cases without certain hurdles by the Punjab Police.

Population and sampling

All the investigation officers working in the different districts of the Sargodha division were considered as the study population. There was a total of 696 investigation officers who were serving in the Sargodha division. Table 1 presented the details of these investigation officers serving in the different police stations of four districts of Sargodha divisions. The sample size (234) was drawn using an online calculator by selecting a 95% confidence interval and a five percent margin of error. The recruitment of the sample was made using a stratified convenient sampling process due to the non-availability of a composite list of these investigation officers, time limitation, and accessibility issues through random sampling in the prevailing scenario of Covid-19 at the time of data collection (i.e, April-July 2020).

Data collection and analysis

The administration of the survey questionnaire to the investigation officers was completed personally by visiting police stations of four districts of the Sargodha division. As for as ethical considerations are concerned, this study was reviewed and approved by the Department of Information Management, University of Sargodha, Sargodha. The written intuitional permission was sought from the competent authorities for data collection. The application along with a covering letter and questionnaire was filed in the office of the Reginal Police Officer (RPO) for approval to collect data from the survey participants. The RPO allowed for data collection from investigation officers serving in the Sargodha division. This approval was used to collect data from investigation officers of each police station in each district of the Sargodha division. These investigation officers were briefed about the purpose of the research, the value of their participation in it, and the assurance of confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. Each investigation officer voluntarily participated in the survey and returned the filled questionnaire after four to six weeks. The follow-up reminders via phone calls were also sent to these officers for survey completion. A total of 200 responses out of 234 were received achieving a reasonably good and acceptable response rate of 85.47%. The rest of the investigation officers did not respond due to either non-availability or administrative responsibilities. Moreover, the received responses were examined for completeness of information before entering into SPSS and data analysis. Each questionnaire was entered into SPSS (version 22) for data analysis. Afterward, the data were analyzed by applying both descriptive (frequencies, percentages, mean scores, standard deviations) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance).

Results

Profile of the survey participants

It would be worthy to examine the profile of the survey participants before going into the details of the development of information literacy skills, their perceptions about it, information literacy self-assessment, and relationship testing. Table 2 presented the profile of the survey participants. Of the 200 survey participants, there were 199 males (99.5%) and 1 female (.5%) indicating quite low participation of females in the survey. The reason for low participation might be due to the low joining of females in the Punjab Police due to cultural sensitivity. The age of the survey participants ranged between 24 and 59 years. A large majority of the survey participants (n=177, 88.5%) had their age less than 40 years. There were only 23(11.5%) participants who had their age greater than 40 years. These figures indicated that these survey participants were active and in the middle age of their lives.

Most of these participants (n=110, 55.5%) had their designation as ‘Assistant Sub Inspector’ which was followed by those (n=57, 28.5%) having designation ‘Sub Inspector’. There were only 33(16.5%) participants who had their designation as ‘Inspector’. As far as their professional experience is concerned, 107 (53.5%) participants had their professional experience up to five years. This was followed by those (n=43, 21.5%) having experience bracket 6-10 years and 11-15 years (n=39, 19.5%). Only 11(5.5%) had their professional experience above 15 years. These figures also indicated that most of these participants (n=113, 56.5%) had computer proficiency at moderate levels, followed by those (n=68, 34.0%) having low levels of their computer proficiency. There were only 19 (9.5%) participants who had computer proficiency at high levels. These investigation officers were also asked to specify their levels of proficiency in the English language. These results revealed that a little less than half of the survey participants (n=96, 48.0%) had low levels of English language proficiency. This was followed by those (n=90, 45.0%) having their proficiency in the English language at moderate levels. Only 14(7.0%) participants had high levels of proficiency in the English language.

RO1: Participants’ Development of Information Literacy Skills

Information literacy instructions received

These participants were asked whether they received or not any instructions concerning information literacy. The results indicated that a majority of these participants (n=146, 73.0%) did not receive any formal instructions for information literacy skills. However, a little less than one-third of the total participants (n=54, 27.0%) received instructions about information literacy.

Of these 54 participants who received information literacy instructions, 33(61.1%) received such instructions while studying at college were 21 participants (39.9%) received information literacy instructions while being in-service. A large majority of these participants (n=46, 85.9%) mentioned the duration of received information literacy instructions as 1-5 hours.

Topic covered in information literacy instructions

The participants who received information literacy instructions were asked to specify the topics for which they had received instructions. Each participant provided multiple responses. The topics of information literacy covered in these instructions included: Legal research skills (n=30, 15%), orientation of library resources and services (n=25, 12.5%), basic searching skills (n=20, 10.0%), guided library tours (n=6, 3.0%), and advanced information skills (n=6, 3.0%).

The usefulness of information literacy instructions in the workplace

Those participants who received information literacy instruction were also asked whether the instruction was useful in their work context or not. A large majority of these participants (n=49, 90.8%) found such instructions useful in the workplace. However, there were only five participants (9.2%) who did not find such instruction to be useful at the workplace.

RO2: Participants’ Perceptions about the Importance of Varied Information Literacy Skills at Workplace

All the survey participants, whether they received information literacy instruction or not, were requested to specify their perceived level of importance for varied information literacy skills on a five-point scale (e.g., 5=extremely important, 4=important, 3=relatively important, 2=Not important, 1=Not at all important). The mean and standard deviation of each information literacy skill is presented in Table 3. These figures indicated that these investigation officers perceived all the skills as important with a mean score of 3.51 and above.

RO3: Participants Perceived Level of Information Literacy Self-efficacy

The survey participants were asked to record their levels of self-efficacy for information literacy on a seven-point Likert scale (e.g., 7= almost always true; 6 = usually true; 5 = often true; 4 = occasionally true; 3 = sometimes but infrequently true; 2 = usually not true; 1 = almost never true.). Table 4 indicated the mean scores and standard deviation for each item of the information literacy self-efficacy scale. The utilization of these measures to determine participants' level of self-efficacy for information literacy was not only supported by Kurbanoglu et al. (2006) but also many other scholars (Aharony and Gur, 2017; Kwon and Song, 2011; Mahmood, 2013; Naveed and Ameen, 2017; Ting-ting and Sun, 2012). These investigation officers were confident and competent in basic skills for information literacy as they assessed themselves as ‘often true’ for identification of potential information sources, making decisions about where and how to find needed information, usage of multiple information sources, learning from problem-solving experience, selection of the appropriate level of communication with the targeted audience, writing an investigation report, making an oral presentation, defining information needs, and critical evaluation of information and recognition of errors in logic with means cores of 3.75 and above. However, these participants were less comfortable with advanced levels of information literacy as they assessed themselves as ‘occasionally true’ for determining the credibility of information, formulating questions representing their information needs, criticizing the quality of information seeking process, determining the content for presentation, paraphrasing information, recognizing the interrelationship between concepts, selecting appropriate information for addressing information needs, classifying and identifying points of agreement or disagreements, synthesizing information, using internet tools, evaluating online resources, using e-resources, limiting search strategies, and using intranet (POLCOM) search tools with mean scores 3.33 and above.

RO4: Relationship of information literacy self-efficacy with personal variables

The relationships of the total mean score for the overall information literacy self-efficacy scale (25-items) with participants’ sex, age, designation, experience, computer proficiency, English language proficiency, and information literacy instruction received were also examined by applying certain inferential statistics such as independent sample t-test, correlation coefficients, and One-way ANOVA. These measures had been not only widely used and considered suitable in checking and comparing the means among groups in social science (Field, 2009; Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007) but also in the area of information literacy (Baro and Fyneman, 2009; Kwon and Song, 2011; Mahmood, 2013; Naveed and Ameen, 2017; Punter et al., 2017; Taylor and Dalal, 2017; Tella and Mutula, 2008; Ting-ting and Sun, 2012). The detail of results for these measures is outlined in Table 5. These results indicated no statistically significant mean difference in the index of information literacy self-efficacy based on sex, designation, and English language proficiency as p-values were less than the alpha value (p<0.05). However, there was a statistically significant mean difference in the information literacy self-efficacy scores of participants based on their age. professional experience, computer proficiency, and information literacy instruction received. In other words, as the age, professional experience, and computer proficiency of the survey participants increased, their self-efficacy for information literacy also increased.

Discussion

The results revealed that a large majority (n=146, 73.0%) of these investigation officers did not receive any instruction concerning information literacy during their entire career. This finding was not surprising and expected as the special libraries and academic institutions particularly schools and colleges in Pakistan usually do not make provisions to impart such instruction (Naveed, 2022; Naveed and Rafique, 2018). Some university libraries made such provisions and began to offer information literacy instruction in the second decade of the 21st century. These instruction programmes are still in an infancy stage and are far behind those being offered in the developed world (Hamid and Ahmad, 2016; Kousar and Mahmood, 2015; Anwar and Naveed, 2019; Naveed, 2022; Naveed and Mahmood, 2019, 2021; Naveed and Rafique, 2018; Ullah and Ameen 2014). The current instruction programmes are unable to develop advanced levels of information literacy as the contents of these programmes included library orientation, citation management, and searching skills. Furthermore, the provision of such instructions for in-service professionals is almost non-existent. This finding appeared to agree with that of Anwar (1979, 1981), Naveed (2022), and Naveed and Rafique (2018) who reported that most of the college teachers and scientists serving at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) never received any formal information literacy instructions).

There were 54 (27.0%) participants who received information literacy instructions of short duration, either while studying at college or being in service, covering topics such as legal research skills, library services orientation, basic searching skills, and guided library tours. These participants found such instructions useful in the workplace. These results were also anticipated and appeared to be in line with those of Naveed and Rafique (2018) who also reported similar results. It was worth mentioning here that these investigation officers, whether they received information literacy instructions or not, perceived information literacy skills as important for their workplace context. This finding was also in line with that of Naveed and Rafique (2018) who discovered that the PCSIR scientists recognized the importance of information literacy in the workplace.

The analysis also indicated the survey participants were comfortable with basic information literacy skills as they assessed themselves as ‘often true’ as they can identify potential information sources, decide where and how to find needed information, use multiple information sources, learn problem-solving experience, select adequate communication levels, write investigation reports, make an oral presentation, define information needs, and evaluate information and recognize errors. The interpretation of these results needs to be made considering the theory of the Dunning-Kruger effect as the systematic review by Mahmood (2016) discovered that low performers overestimated their information literacy skills in most of the cases. These findings were also supported by the results of Naveed (2022), Naveed and Rafique (2018), and Naveed and Mahmood (2019, 2021) reporting high self-efficacy of their survey participants for information literacy in the workplace.

While on the contrary, these participants felt least comfortable with advanced levels of information literacy as they assessed themselves as ‘occasionally true’ as they had low self-efficacy in determining information credibility, formulating precise questions representing their information needs, criticizing the quality of information seeking process, identifying the content for presentation, paraphrasing information, recognizing the interrelationship between concepts, selecting appropriate information for addressing information needs, classifying and identifying points of agreement or disagreements, synthesizing information, using the internet tools, evaluating online resources, using e-resources, limiting search strategies, and using intranet (POLCOM). These findings appeared logical as a large majority of the survey sample never received information literacy instructions. Also, because most of the Pakistani libraries either academic or special did not make provision for advanced levels of information literacy skills (Anwar and Naveed, 2019; Naveed, 2022; Naveed and Rafique, 2018; Navee and Mahmood, 2019, 2021). These results appear to be in line with that of Al-Daihani and Rehman (2007) reporting that the police officers in Kuwait had weaker computer and information capabilities. Conversely, these results partially agree with those of Kilic (2010) who discovered high information literacy self-efficacy of police officers from the Turkish National Police Force for defining information needs, initiating search strategy, locating and accessing information sources, interpreting and synthesizing, and evaluating information. However, the Turkish police officers had the lowest scores of self-efficacies for communicating information along with moderate levels of computer literacy skills and frequency of information source usage. These results had quite serious implications for the efficiency and effectiveness of the workings of investigation officers of the police. While more studies needed to be done, it might be one of the key factors for low performance for justice dispensation, the crisis in rule of law, and declining position in the World Justice Project Rule of Law (2020a, 2020b) and Global Justice Index Report (2020) as Pakistan is ranked 120 of 128 countries and placed the fifth position out of six in South Asia (Gu et al., 2020). These investigation officers might be experiencing information anxiety in the absence of advanced information literacy skills as no such research focusing on workplace information anxiety available so far (Naveed and Anwar, 2019, 2020).

Investigated in addition was whether personal and professional variables of investigation officers predicted their information literacy self-efficacy. It appeared that the participants' age, professional experience, and computer proficiency positively predicted their information literacy self-efficacy. It implied that as the age, professional experience, and computer proficiency of these investigation officers increased, their information literacy self-efficacy also increased. These results were also quite logical as the individual grew older and gain experience at the workplace, their learning experience, confidence, and competencies also increased with time. These results seemed to agree with those of Aharony and Gur (2017), Naveed (2017), and Naveed and Ameen (2016a, 2016b, 2017) who also found that age and experience are also a predictor of information literacy self-efficacy. Conversely, the finding of experience as a predictor of information literacy self-efficacy also appeared to disagree with that of Kilic (2010) who reported no relationship of experience of Turkish police officers with their information literacy self-efficacy. These results also contradicted that of Naveed (2022) who reported sex as a predictor of information literacy self-efficacy in the workplace because females had higher self-efficacy than males. This finding also appeared to disagree with the results of some other studies who also found females were more discerning than males for information literacy skills (Kwon and Song, 2011; Naveed and Ameen, 2017; Punter et al., 2017; Taylor and Dalal, 2017). While on the other hand, the studies Baro and Fyneman (2009), Ting-ting and Sun (2012), and Tella and Mutula (2008) reported males ahead of females in their self-perceived information literacy skills. The appearance of computer proficiency as a predictor of information literacy self-efficacy among these investigation officers also appeared logical because computer literacy is considered a prerequisite for information literacy (Eksi, 2012). This finding corroborated the results of Kurbanoglu (2003) and Demiralay and Karadeniz (2010) reporting that computer self-efficacy had a positive effect on information literacy. This finding has implications for policy and practice for information literacy as the enhancement of computer proficiency can also enhance their self-efficacy for information literacy.

Conclusions

This research is the first of its nature that has provided a pragmatic insight into the current status of information literacy skills of investigation officers of Punjab Police, Pakistan. Therefore, there is a need for additional inquiries for a better understanding of information literacy in the police force. The results of this research revealed that a large majority of the survey participants never received information literacy instructions during their entire careers. However, these investigation officers perceived information literacy skills as important in their workplace context. Furthermore, these participants were weak with advanced levels of information literacy. Indeed, it is the workforce whose capabilities matter the most in the efficient and effective exploitation of the available information systems and resources. Merely, the availability of information systems and resources does not guarantee their ultimate utilization. Therefore, these results indicated a critical need for the development of information literacy skills of the police force especially of investigation officers for both strategic and operational businesses. These findings are important for policy planners in the articulation of policies and practices for the design and implementation of a need-based information literacy instruction programme for the police force in general and investigation officers in particular in the country. The library administration should also collaborate with the department responsible for training and development of the police to impart advanced levels instruction of information literacy instruction. Furthermore, the results of this study may also be useful for library professionals serving in special libraries in designing a need-based and user-centered information literacy instruction programme for information users at the workplace.

An active collaborative effort is required by the policymakers, information professionals, and information users if an efficient and effective information literacy instruction programme is to be implemented in the police force. A good solution can be a mechanism closer to the National Information Literacy programme proposed by Anwar and Naveed (2019) for creating awareness and imparting information literacy to students and the in-service workforce. This study is one of the initial steps for understanding the need for information literacy in the workplace, especially the police force. It is hoped, this study would be a great contribution to the existing literature on workplace information literacy as only a few studies are available focusing on the information literacy of the police officers. In limitations, the findings cannot be generalized as the data were a collection from only 200 respondents of Punjab Police from the Sargodha division. There may be a sampling bias as the recruitment of the survey participants was made through a stratified convenient sampling procedure. Therefore, the conclusions drawn from this research needed to be strengthened with further investigations.

About the author

Muhammad Asif Naveed is currently working at Department of Information Management, University of Sargodha, Sargodha. He completed his PhD from the Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab in 2016. He also obtained the degree of Master of Science in Public Policy from University of Management and Technology with a Gold Medal. His research interests include: information behaviour; information literacy; information anxiety; information sociology; and information policy. Corresponding e-mail: masifnaveed@yahoo.com
Muhammad Kamran is currently working with Punjab Police in the Sargodha division. He has recently completed his MPhil from the Department of Information Management, University of Sargodha. His research interests include workplace information literacy, and information behaviour. E-mail: kamran_riaz786@yahoo.com

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