Personal information organization literacy in the academic context: Scale development, performance assessment, and influence exploration

Personal information management literacy (PIML) is a literacy that has been increasingly valued and highlighted in the emerging knowledge society, yet the related research is insufficient. This study focuses on personal information organization literacy (PIOL) as an essential component of PIML, examining its measurement, assessment, and influence in the academic context. We conducted two linked studies to address the research questions. In Study 1, we developed a scale to measure PIOL in the academic context through three phases: generating a sample of items, exploring the factorial structure, and examining the reliability and validity. In Study 2, based on the developed scale, we assessed the performance of college students in PIOL and explored the influence of PIOL on their learning performance. The results indicate that PIOL in the academic context is a five-dimensional construct. There is a gap between college students’ real performance and the ideal level of PIOL in the academic context, and their PIOL performance differ significantly, allowing them to be categorized into four groups. Moreover, it is verified that college students’ PIOL has a beneficial effect on their learning performance, including mitigating procrastination, alleviating passive procrastination, and elevating academic grades. This study takes a pioneering step in measuring PIOL and discovering its effect, with the potential to inspire educators to incorporate more PIOL elements into information literacy standards and to define PIOL education.