Assessing the Information Literacy Skills Among Undergraduate Students at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana

Information literacy skills have become a topical issue in the academic lives of university students. It is a skill needed to be able to identify an information need, knowing the sources of information, effectively searching for information and ethically using information in this era of the information age. Various studies have observed that university students lack the basic skills needed to make them effectively search for academic information and how to apply them. This situation, if not checked, would negatively affect the academic lives of students. This paper, therefore, sought to examine the level of information literacy skills among incoming first-year undergraduate students of the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa so as to suggest ways of improving upon them. The level of information literacy skill, possession of basic information and communication technology (ICT) skills, awareness of various search strategies were examined by analyzing responses obtained from the administration of the questionnaire. It was found out that the majority of the students possessed basic ICT skills, however, their knowledge of various search strategies was low. Again, there was no course designed to introduce them to the acquisition of information retrieval skills. Various ways of improving information literacy skills among students have also been suggested

Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality: methods and data used in the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study

BACKGROUND: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria. METHODS: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation. In summary, these methods included estimating cause-specific mortality for every cause of injury, and then estimating incidence for every cause of injury. Non-fatal disability for each cause is then calculated based on the probabilities of suffering from different types of bodily injury experienced. RESULTS: GBD 2017 produced morbidity and mortality estimates for 38 causes of injury. Estimates were produced in terms of incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, cause-specific mortality, years of life lost and disability-adjusted life-years for a 28-year period for 22 age groups, 195 countries and both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: GBD 2017 demonstrated a complex and sophisticated series of analytical steps using the largest known database of morbidity and mortality data on injuries. GBD 2017 results should be used to help inform injury prevention policy making and resource allocation. We also identify important avenues for improving injury burden estimation in the future

Assessing the Information Literacy Skills Among Undergraduate Students at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana

Information literacy skills have become a topical issue in the academic lives of university students. It is a skill needed to be able to identify an information need, knowing the sources of information, effectively searching for information and ethically using information in this era of the information age. Various studies have observed that university students lack the basic skills needed to make them effectively search for academic information and how to apply them. This situation, if not checked, would negatively affect the academic lives of students. This paper, therefore, sought to examine the level of information literacy skills among incoming first-year undergraduate students of the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa so as to suggest ways of improving upon them. The level of information literacy skill, possession of basic information and communication technology (ICT) skills, awareness of various search strategies were examined by analyzing responses obtained from the administration of the questionnaire. It was found out that the majority of the students possessed basic ICT skills, however, their knowledge of various search strategies was low. Again, there was no course designed to introduce them to the acquisition of information retrieval skills. Various ways of improving information literacy skills among students have also been suggested

Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality: methods and data used in the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study.

BACKGROUND: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria. METHODS: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation. In summary, these methods included estimating cause-specific mortality for every cause of injury, and then estimating incidence for every cause of injury. Non-fatal disability for each cause is then calculated based on the probabilities of suffering from different types of bodily injury experienced. RESULTS: GBD 2017 produced morbidity and mortality estimates for 38 causes of injury. Estimates were produced in terms of incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, cause-specific mortality, years of life lost and disability-adjusted life-years for a 28-year period for 22 age groups, 195 countries and both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: GBD 2017 demonstrated a complex and sophisticated series of analytical steps using the largest known database of morbidity and mortality data on injuries. GBD 2017 results should be used to help inform injury prevention policy making and resource allocation. We also identify important avenues for improving injury burden estimation in the future