Abstract:
Offering Information Literacy ( I L ) * programs, in addition to the traditional library tour, to the new
entrants to the university is becoming vital, to prepare the students for the increasingly complex
information environment in the university library. However, the IL program planners do not have a
sufficient knowledge of the new entrants' information seeking behaviour, to plan more contextspecific
programs. To fill this knowledge gap, the principal researcher undertook a study in the
Faculty of Law, at University o f Colombo. Two objectives were formulated: 1) to study the pattern
of the gender basis of access to select social media and e-mail, and 2) to investigate the genderbased
preferences in communicating with the library through social media, e-mail and Short
Message Service (SMS). The total population (250) enrolled in the Faculty for 2014/2015 academic
year was surveyed using a structured questionnaire and SPSS (Ver. 22) was used to analyze and
interpret data. The study established that there is an observed gender-based difference in the access
to FaceBook (FB), Twitter and e-mail and in the preferences of communicating with the library
through SMSs, but Cramer's V test proved that this correlation is not statistically significant. The
study proved that, 78.4% have an e-mail account, 52.4% have an FB account but only 14.2 % have
a Twitter account. Of the respondents, 91.8% are willing to communicate with the library using FB,
Twitter and e-mail and 88.7% are willing to receive SMSs from the library. In planning the IL
programs and information services for these respondents, it is recommended for the library staff to
consider their preferences so that the information is delivered to the net-generation students in their
preferred methods.
Key words: Undergraduates, Face Book
