Improving Information Skills of the Postgraduate Students of NILIS University of Colombo: A Case Study

The paper provides a brief introduction to the establishment of the National Institute of Library and Information Sciences (NILIS) of Sri Lanka, its main functions and education and training programmes currently offered. It also discusses the changing pedagogical paradigms within the Sri Lankan education system and relevance of information literacy (IL). The paper also describes an international workshop organised by NILIS under the auspices of IFLA/ALP in 2004 which gave birth to Empowering 8™ a new IL model. The author discusses the necessity of developing such a model within the South Asian region, and also discusses a case study which integrates information skills into the Postgraduate Diploma in Teacher Librarianship conducted by NILIS.