Research Competency Enhancement Plan in an Academic Library for Undergraduate Students

Producing quality research studies has been given importance by universities, not only those written by its faculty members, but by students as well. As such, this  study was conducted to determine the level of research competencies of  undergraduate students in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It is also aimed to find out if there is a significant difference in the research competency of the students when group according to profile. Furthermore, this study tried to identify the challenges encountered by the students in using library resources and services while writing their research paper. The descriptive method of research was utilized and the researcher developed a survey questionnaire for collecting data which was validated by expert, pilot tested and undergone a reliability test.  Gathered data were interpreted and analyzed using mean computation, percentage and ranking and one-way analysis of variance. Results revealed that respondents are competent in  conducting research study, they good research skills and they possess positive  attitudes towards research writing. Further analysis showed that there is a significant  difference in students’ research capability when group according to profile. Respondents also identified poor internet connection, difficulty in locating resources and that the limited number of library materials were their main problems during research writing. With these gathered data, a research competency enhancement plan was developed and proposed which hopes to respond to the needs of the students and to lessen, if not eliminate, the challenges they face in conducting research studies.