INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS AND COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION LITERACY Zdravka Pejova Independent information professional, Ljubljana, Slovenia;

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS AND COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION LITERACY

Zdravka PejovaIndependent information professional, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Skopje, Macedonia

[email protected]

UNESCO Training the Trainers in Information Literacy Workshop, September 3-5, Ankara-Turkey. Pejova,Z.:International Developments...

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THIS PRESENTATION WILL BE ABOUT:

THE NEED FOR INFORMATION LITERACY IN CONTEMPORARY ECONOMIES AND SOCIETIES

UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION LITERACY

THE DRWABACKS OF THE LOW LEVEL OR LACK OF INFORMATION LITERACY

SOME OF THE MILESTONES OF THE LAST 15 YEARS

BRIEF SURVEY OF INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY ORGANIZATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, INITIATIVES AND ACTIVITIES

EXAMPLES OF SOME INFORMATION LITERACY BEST PRACTICES (Country policies, strategies, frameworks , databases, tutorials...)

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: INFORMATION LITERACY FOR EDUCATION QUALITY ENHANCEMENT


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CONTEMPORARY ECONOMIES AND SOCIETIES :

ARE CHARACTZERIZED BY: • continious and progressive development of

information products and services & increased possibilities for access and use of information enhanced by the ICT and Internet →

• intensified education and research activities →

• necessity for lifelong learning →

ARE FACED WITH:

Information explosion with which people have to cope in their individual lives, at schools and universities, in doing business, and also in their responsibilities as ordinary citizens,

Recognition that knowledge is the key to economic growth, competitiveness of enterprises, employment, quality of life, health and environment…,

Growing pressures on people to go on developing skills and knowledge at all stages of their schooling and also working life-time, as job mobility increases and job tasks become more complex...,

→ This situation demands improvement of the capacities of students, teachers, researchers, administrators, managers, entrepreneurs and workers, as well as of the wider population in general, for efficient location, and critical and responsible use of information and knowledge, that is improvement of their INFORMATION LITERACY skills and competences.


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UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION LITERACY

It is always important to point out to the distinction betweenComputer/Digital Literacy and Information Literacy !

Information literacy is the one, which:– includes a set of generic skills and competencies as well as skills and

concepts that are specific to a given discipline, subject matter area, profession or sector.

– is different from, but encompasses and employs Computer/ Digital Literacy and Media Literacy

– goes far beyond basic instruction in how to use a library.


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METAPHORS ?

Bell,C., Bury, S., & Mgwigwi, T. (2008, May. When the time comes, Will you be ready?strategies and tools to build a framework for Information literacy a across the curriculum. Workshop presented at the workshop on Instruction in Library Use, Kelowna, BC.


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Information skills include:- Information seeking / inquiry- Information use- ICTskills / fluency

Generic skills include:- Problem solving- Collaboration & teamwork- Written & oral communication- Critical & creative thinking- Quantitative literacy (numeracy)- Integration of learning (metacognition)

Values & beliefs include:- Ethical reasoning- Civic responsibility & engagement- Intercultural knowledge & actions- Propensity for lifelong learning

Generic skills

Information skills

Values & beliefs

Discipline or topic

Information LiteracyIL

Bell,C., Bury, S., & Mgwigwi, T. (2008, May. When the time comes, Will you be ready?strategies and tools to build a framework for Information literacy a across the curriculum. Workshop presented at the workshop on Instruction in Library Use, Kelowna, BC .

INFORMATION LITERACY FORMATION


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INCREASED AWARENESS OF THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY

Results: Intensified information literacy actvities at numerous universities

around the world and at IFLA, UNESCO and other national and international organizations and associations

Creation of a considerable corpus of theoretical and practical Information Literacy knowledge

Increased awarness about the Information behaviour of people

Recognition of the need for developing and implementing Information literacy education and training programmes.


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INFORMATION LITERACY SITUATION

Information literacy situation differs considerably among countries/continents, mainly in correlation with the level of development/strength of their:

o Economy and society o Education and research systemso Information and library infrastructureo Information and Library Science schools o Information and Library professional associations

o qualified information and library professionals, who are knowledgable and enthusiastic about information literacy development.

Despite intensive IL developments, increased international cooperation, significant promotion and support from UNESCO in many countries the level of information literacy is still very low !


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LOW LEVEL OR LACK OF INFORMATION LITERACY

• causes serious underutilization of the existing wealth of information and knowledge in the academic and research sector, in the commercial and corporate sector, in public administration and among all citizens in general

→ results in poor performance of enterprises and low quality of governance policy and decision making, often at high economic and social costs;

• does not yield the fair return of investment into the purchasing of information resources;

• undermines the efficiency and quality of the academic and research work;

• hinders joining the international education and research cooperation;

• causes wastes of valuable research talents and intelectual potential;

• creates serious obstacles in increasing and improving lifelong learning activities.


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ALA definition of Information Literacy – (ALA, 1989)http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/presidential.cfm

Big6 Skills - (M.B. Eisenberg & R.E. Berkowitz, 1990) http://www.big6.com/

Seven Faces of Information Literacy (Ch. Bruce, 1997) http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~bruce/inflit/faces/faces1.htm

Seven Pillars of Information Literacy (SCONUL, 1999) http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/sp/model.html


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Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL, 2000)http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standards.pdf

Basili, C. (ed.) (2003) Information Literacy in Europe: a first insight into the state of the art of Information Literacy in the European Union. Rome, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 318 p.

Virkus, S. (2003) "Information literacy in Europe: a literature review." Information Research, 8(4), paper no. 159, http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]

The Prague Declaration. (2003) .“Towards an Information Literate Society” stated information literacy as “an integral part of education, which can contribute critically to the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”

http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconf&meet/post-infolitconf&meet/PragueDeclaration.pdf


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Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework. (2004)http://www.anziil.org/resources/Info%20lit%202nd%20edition.pdf

The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. (2005) “Information Literacy lies at the core of lifelong learning. It empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion of all nations” http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/20891/11364818989Beacons_of_the_Information_Society___The_Alexandria_Proclamation_on_Information_Literacy_and_Lifelong_Learning.doc/Beacons%2Bof%2Bthe%2BInformation%2BSociety_%2B%2BThe%2BAlexandria%2BProclamation%2Bon%2BInformation%2BLiteracy%2Band%2BLifelong%2BLearning.doc

EFIL – European Forum on Information Literacy.( 2007) http://cf.hum.uva.nl/akb/efil/


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INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY ORGANIZATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, INITIATIVES AND ACTIVITIES

ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) – The main authority on Information Literacy and a gateway to resources on information literacy which help to understand and apply the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education to enhance teaching, learning, and research in the higher education community. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.cfm

ACRL-IIL (ACRL - Institute for Information Literacy) - has three basic goals:– Prepare librarians to become effective teachers in information literacy programs; – Support librarians, other educators and administrators in playing a leadership role

in the development and implementation of information literacy programs; – Forge new relationships throughout the educational community to work towards

information Literacy curriculum development http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/professactivity/iil/welcome.cfm


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ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association - Information Literacy Forum) http://www.alia.org.au/groups.moreinfo.html?ID=49

ANZIIL (Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy) supports organisations, institutions and individuals in the promotion of information literacy and, in particular, the embedding of information literacy within the total educational process. http://www.anziil.org/

ENIL (European Network for Information Literacy) - is a network of researchers actively involved in Information Literacy, drawn from most of the EU 25 countries. http://www.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/EnIL/index.html

FORMIST (Formation à l'information scientifique et technique, France)http://formist.enssib.fr/documents/inscription_aux_7es_-n-6681-ran--typ-.html

IAIL (International Alliance for Information Literacy). The evolving purpose for the Alliance is to facilitate the sharing of information and expertise on information literacy across regions and nations of the world. The founding members are: ANZIIL, EnIL, NFIL, NORDINFOLIT, IASL, IFLA http://www.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/EnIL/Iailpage.html


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IFAP - UNESCO (Information for All Programme) -is an intergovernmental programme, created in 2000. Its main strategy in the area of information literacy consists of awareness-raising about the importance of information literacy at all levels of the education process – basic education, primary and secondary education, technical and vocational training and lifelong education – and of establishing guidelines for integrating information literacy issues in curricula. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1627&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

IFLA- Information Literacy Section - The primary purpose of the Information Literacy Section is to foster international cooperation and to promote information literacy in all types of libraries, as well as to lead the information world in promoting information literacies as they relate to the three IFLA Pillars: Society, Membership and the Profession. http://www.ifla.org/VII/s42/index.htm


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ILIG (the Information Literacy Interest Group of the Canadian Library Association) http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2338221377

IVIG (Information Education and Information Literacy Working Group of the

academic librarians in the Czech Republic) http://knihovny.cvut.cz/ivig/e-index.html; http://knihovny.cvut.cz/ivig/summary-strategy.pdf

LOEX - is a self-supporting, non-profit educational clearinghouse for library instruction and information literacy information. Founded in 1971, LOEX (Library Orientation Exchange) has grown from a lending repository of library instruction materials and host of an annual conference on the subject to an internationally known organization that serves as a conduit for those working in the field. In 2008, LOEX has over 650 member libraries in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. http://www.emich.edu/public/loex/loex.html


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NFIL (National Forum on Information Literacy, United States) was created in 1989 as a response to the recommendations of the American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. The Forum is a broadly-based group of over 90 national (and more recently international and corporate) organizations and one of the main promoters of information literacy on a global scale. http://www.infolit.org/index.html

NORDINFOLIT (Nordic Forum for Information Literacy) is a coalition of information literacy experts of the Nordic countries http://www.nordinfolit.org/default.asp?nid=59

SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) - Advisory Committee on Information Literacy http://www.sconul.ac.uk/topics_issues/info_literacy/


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INFORMATION LITERACY: AN INTERNATIONAL STATE-OF-THE ART REPORT. Second draft, May, 2007. Project Coordinator: Jesus Lau ([email protected], Chair, Information Literacy Section, IFLA

Project team members: I. Australia (Judy Peacock); II. French Speaking Countries: Belgium, France, Quebec, Switzerland (Sylvie Chevillote); III. Latin America (Jesus Lau); IV. Nordic Countries: Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden (Eva Tolonen); V. Russian Federation (Alexander Fedorov, Vera Petrova and Natalya Gendina); VI. Spain (Maria Pinto and Dora Sales); VII. Sub-Saharan Africa (Babbakisi T. Fidzani); VIII. United Kingdom and Ireland (Sheila Webber and Claire McGuiness); IX. United States and Canada (Linda Goff); X. South Africa (Karin de Jager, Mary Naisembini and Peter Underwood)

http://www.infolitglobal.info/docs/UNESCO_IL_state_of_the_art_report_-_Draft070803.doc


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INFOLIT GLOBAL - INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY RESOURCES DIRECTORY - An international database compiling a directory of information literacy resources. Taken at the initiative of UNESCO/IFLA in 2006 with the aim to assess what has been achieved in leading countries, and explore what direction should be taken to foster further development in nations that need to start a program in this field.

The input of records is open to anyone interested in reporting IL resources, either the author or users of such tools. Regional/language coordinators were appointed, plus country contacts whose role was to promote the directory in their geographical or language regions. http://www.infolitglobal.info/


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COIL-LL ( Clearing House for Information Literacy and Life Long Learning):

• The Concept of CoIL-LL, was originally presented at the UNSCO-CEI workshop in March, 2006;

• Elaborated as a complementary activity to INFOLIT GLOBAL, it is still in its experimental phase;

• One of the main activities and special feature of the Clearing House is maintaining a database/roster of information literacy experts, researchers, teachers interested in collaboration, sharing experience and providing expertise on implementation of information literacy programmes. http://www.coil-ll.si/


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WebSeal Summer School on Information Literacy and Learning Research 25-26.8.2008 Tampere, Finland - is organized by the Department of Information Studies (University of Tampere) and the WebSeal project*. The seminar is a forum for doctoral students and researchers interested in the cross-disciplinary research of information literacy and learning https://www11.uta.fi/blog/webseal/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Web Searching, Information Literacy and Learning (Web-SeaL) is a research

project funded by the Academy of Finland for the years 2006-2009. The project aims to study the relations between Web searching, information literacy and learning and to clarify the interplay of information literacy and learning in the Web-dominated information environment

https://www11.uta.fi/blog/webseal/index.php/web-seal-description/.


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Creating Knowledge – Conference (5 conferences so far) is organized on the behalf of NordinfoLIT, the Nordic Forum for Collaboration on Information Literacy, by the Forum of User Education, which is an interest group of the Danish Association of Research Libraries. Co-organizers are the Danish Network for University Pedagogy, a grassroots’ initiative of university teachers with intentions to develop the quality of university education and teaching. The conference is emphasizing the educational, technological and organizational challenges for libraries, which on the basis of the library profession, teach their customers to comprehensively manage information in an educational context. http://www.congress.utu.fi/creatingknowledge2008/


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THE INFORMATION LITERACY LANDSCAPE: Information literacy and lifelong learning, 5 – 7 October 2007, Belgrade, Serbia.

The conference addressed a wide range of information literacy themes: Critical thinking/evaluation of information; Teaching & Assessment of information literacy; Access to information: the 'have' vs. the 'have not'; Economic, legal, ethical, and social aspects of information literacy; Information beyond Google.

http://slim.emporia.edu/globenet/belgrade2007/


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EXAMPLES OF SOME INFORMATION LITERACY BEST PRACTICES(Country policies, strategies, frameworks , databases, tutorials...)

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND are among the leading countries in the field of information literacy development and implementation. Together they have established ANZIIL - Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy with the aim to supports organisations, institutions and individuals in the promotion of information literacy and, in particular, the embedding of information literacy within the total educational process. http://www.anziil.org/.

WEST REVIEW: FINAL REPORT LEARNING FOR LIFE (1998). proposed a useful

framework for Australian graduate outcomes in higher education… including “research, discovery, and information retrieval skills and a general capacity to use information”.

Although no university has yet adopted a university-wide strategy for curriculum integration and assessment focussed on generic skill development6, it is clear that most have defined a core set of graduate outcomes which explicitly or implicitly identifies information literacy as one of the core attributes to be acquired as an outcome of a tertiary qualification.” (Peacock, 2007)


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EXAMPLES OF SOME INFORMATION LITERACY BEST PRACTICES

AIRS Online - Produced and hosted by Queensland University of Technology (QUT/QLD), AIRS Online is an Advanced Information Retrieval (AIRS), a mandatory coursework requirement of doctoral enrolment at QUT. It is founded on the principle that the simple transfer of content to an online environment will not deliver equivalent learning outcomes for students. Unlike a web-based tutorial, the course has been designed to actively engage students in teacher-facilitated, self-directed learning. http://airs.library.qut.edu.au/

INFOTREKK - CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - "I just don't know where to start looking for information. I can't work out my reading list - and don't know how to use the library catalogue. And I've heard people talk about electronic databases! What are they? Help!" (Lee, first year student)

To this, no doubt, a universally found statement at universities all over world made by students confused by the maze of print and electronic information around, the Curtin University of Technology has responded by creating the InfoTrekk. InfoTrekk takes students through a series of 10 steps that they can use to approach any essay or presentation topic. http://library.curtin.edu.au/research_and_information_skills/online_tutorials/infotrekk/index.html

PILOT: Your Information Navigator Produced and hosted by QUT Library, PILOT encompasses all facets of information searching, retrieval, management and evaluation. http://pilot.library.qut.edu.au/


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QUT – Queensland University of technology: »Information Literacy Coordinator« http://www.library.qut.edu.au/about/contact/j_peacock.jsp

http://www.caul.edu.au/caul-doc/achievement2004peacock.doc

RMIT Postgraduate Information Research Skills Tutorial - Produced and hosted by RMIT University, this online tutorial is designed to assist postgraduate students to develop a systematic method of searching for information that can be applied to current research, a literature survey, solving laboratory problems and other research needs. http://www.lib.rmit.edu.au/tutorials/postgrad/

University of New South Wales: program »Enabling Skills for Information Literacy» http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/instruct/il/references.htm#acadplan

University of Auckland Information Literacy Policy program. 2006. (Academic Plan 2005-2007) http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/instruct/il/references.htm#acadplan


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Hong Kong - Applying Learning Outcomes Concepts to Higher Education: An Overview - prepared for the Hong Kong University Grants Committee by Peter Ewell, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) http://www.hku.hk/caut/new1/documents/OBA_1st_report.pdf ;

http://www.hku.hk/caut/new1/documents/OBA_2nd_report.pdf

FINLAND - In Finland the official document “The Ministry of Education Development Plan for Education and Research 2003-2008” recognizes the role of libraries in contributing to the development of teaching and study methods and in ensuring that university and polytechnic graduates have good information literacy. http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Julkaisut/2004/liitteet/opm_190_opm08.pdf?lang=fi

Information Literacy Weblog – has been invaluable contribution to the world wide development of information literacy. It has been set up and maintained (updated several times each week) by Sheila Webber and Stuart Boon. http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

The information literacy website (UK) - a website which aims to be the UK portal for information literacy, supported by a number of professional associations in the UK. It supports practitioners by providing news, case studies, examples of best practice and freely available toolkits. The aim is to provide a practical resource that information professionals regularly visit to discover the latest developments in information literacy. http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/


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Robinson, A. (2005) Strongest links: website for school librarians http://www.strongest-links.org.uk/infolit.htm

Susie Andretta’s ITIL website with various resources, teaching material and links at http://www.ilit.org/

OPEN UNIVERSITY INFORMATION LITERACY UNIT: http://

library.open.ac.uk/help/infolitunit.html - Open University: SAFARI: Skills in Accessing, Finding, and Reviewing Information

http://ltssolweb1.open.ac.uk/safari/signpostframe.htm - Open University: MOSAIC: Making Sense of Information in the Connected Age http://

www.open.ac.uk/mosaic/index.cfm - RDN Virtual Training Suite (tutorials in many subject areas) http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/

South Bank University, England. Information Quest. http://www.lisa.lsbu.ac.uk/quest/index.html

University of Aberdeen, Scotland. E-Resources (Tutorial) http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/lib262/e-resources/start


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University of Leeds, England. Workbooks and tutorials in different subject areas (not all are available outside the university). http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/training/index.htm

Information Literacy Resources This page provides links to organisations and committees concerned with information literacy; super-sites and resources; and selected reports and articles. http://dis.shef.ac.uk/literacy/resources.htm

SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy. http://www.sconul.ac.uk/activities/inf_lit/

CILIP – CSG (Community Services Group) Information Literacy Group. http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/bysubject/informationliteracy

http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/bysubject/informationliteracy

LILAC Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference http://www.lilacconference.com/dw/2008/


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Siena College Information Literacy Faculty Development Grants—Fall 2008 Institutions of higher education have to show evidence that information literacy is being incorporated into the general education and disciplinary education programs at their respective institutions. The purpose of these grants is to provide faculty with opportunities to develop creative approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment related to the broad range of competencies envisioned in the Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education http://www.siena.edu/level2col.aspx?menu_id=530&id=8771

Project SAILS – began 2001 with the goal of developing a standardized test of information literacy skills that would allow libraries to document skill levels for groups of students and to pinpoint areas for improvement. A team of experts in librarianship, test design and measurement, data analysis, and programming was brought together for the development and implementation of the project. A three-year research and development phase involving more than 80 higher education institutions in the U.S. and Canada culminated in 2006 in the production version of the SAILS test. https://www.projectsails.org/sails/aboutSAILS.php?page=aboutSAILS


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Information Literacy Tutorials can be effective academic resources to help students understand information literacy. Some online tutorials:

• University of Central Florida’s Library Research tutorial http://infolit.ucf.edu/ ;

• TILT tutorial created by the University of Texas http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/nf/intro/internet.htm ; • Searchpath created by Western Michigan University http://www.wmich.edu/library/searchpath/ ;

• CSU (California State University) Information Competence tutorial by Cal Poly (California Politechnic) State University http://lib.calpoly.edu/infocomp/

• Pennsylvania State University Library http://www.libraries.psu.edu/instruction/infolit/andyou/infoyou.htm


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University of North Florida: Information Literacy QEP (Quality enhancement Plan) Proposal: Infusing the Power of Information Literacy / Diane Tanner, Department of Accounting & Finance Coggin College of Business

Given that information literacy is applicable to all disciplines, the model proposed for UNF (University of North Florida) takes the approach of integrating information literacy into all academic programs from the lower-level general education curriculum through the graduate level.


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UNESCO-CEI WORKSHOP ON INFORMATION LITERACY INITIATIVES FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, LJUBLJANA, ICPE, 2006

Representatives of CEI – Central European Initiative countries (Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine) librarians, information professionals, officials from ministries, education agencies, employment services, NGOs, including experts from EU and USA.

– Carried out an Information Literacy survey to assess the Information Literacy situation in the region.

– discussed the needs for awareness raising and building up national capacities for information literacy development.

– produced the document: “Achieving an Information Society and a Knowledge-Based Economy through Information Literacy: Proposal for an Information Literacy Platform and an Action Plan for Central and South-East European Countries” http://www.coil-ll.si/UserFiles/File/Proposal%20for%20an%20Information%20Literacy%20Platform_Brochure.pdf


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UNFAVOURABLE INFORMATION LITERACY SITUATION IN CEI COUNTRIES:

• Lack of national information literacy policies and strategies• Insufficient focus on information literacy in education• Insufficient support for the library and information sector• Limited cross-country, regional and global cooperation• Lack of evidence of the existing information literacy skill levels• Poor information literacy skills in the workplace• Potential social exclusion from the information society• Insufficient investment and financial support


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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The majority of information literacy education and research activities all over the world have been initiated from and carried out by librarians and information professionals.

This is a clear indication that the development of information literacy competences and skills requires:

– A well developed library and information infrastructure,

– Quality information resources, and– a critical mass of dedicated

information, library and ICT professionals, researchers and academics.

Many countries do not have the necessary resources or the capacity, in terms of developed library and information infrastructure and professional manpower specialized for information literacy, so that they could cope on their own with the challenges of developing and carrying out systemic programmes for information literacy development and implementation.


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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The critical question is how those countries, which are poor both in library and ICT infrastructure and resources, and in particular in Information and Library Science Schools (that is countries which lack professional manpower who will take the initiative and provide professional and scientific foundations to the information literacy programmes), could catch up with the information literacy development in the world?

The answer is in:– an intensified international cooperation among information professionals,

teachers, researchers and students from the countries which are rather advanced and their colleagues from the countries which are less advanced in information literacy development;

– taking advantage of various educational exchange funding and aid schemes to create joint teams which would launch and carry out information literacy projects.


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THESE JOINT TEAMS SHOULD COLLABORATE ON:

Assessment of the information literacy situation based on surveys and studies of information needs, information-seeking methods, and working use of information in context of individual countries´ information infrastructure;

Preparation of comprehensive and long term information literacy strategies and programmes for systematic development and implementation of information literacy in education systems (following the Australian example of close cooperation between the professional community and the government);

Selection, tayloring and applying information literacy approaches and best practices (curricula and syllabi, training modules and other practical solutions) to the local situations;

Defining the necessary manpower, financial, time span and infrastructure preconditions for information literacy implementation;

Taking advantage of the various existing development aid programmes for securing the necessary financial support.


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PROPOSALS TO GOVERNMENTS TO:

Formally recognize the need for integrating Information Literacy within the curricula of their education systems from early levels to postgraduate studies;

Support the development of policies and strategies for expanding Information literacy training programs beyond education systems and make them part of the continuous professional education and lifelong learning for the workforce;

strengthen the position of information and library schools and libraries as the strongest points for initiating and carrying out information literacy programmes!

• “Schools of library and information science have long traditions in addressing the topics of information resources, information systems and services, and user information behaviour.

• In cooperation with other actors, these schools should produce professionals who are able to spread the concept of information literacy across the education system, libraries, through the cultural sector, and in the information industry and other economic and social sectors.(Steinerova,2006)".

• -----------------------* Steinerová,J.(2006) Professional development for information

litercy. In Z.Pejova (Ed), Achieving an Information Society... accesibale


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PROPOSALS TO GOVERNMENTS TO:

Accept the realization that information literacy is:

an important factor of the ongoing reforms of education;

a key precondition for improving the learning outcomes of students and enhancing the quality of education and research work in general.

Take the necessary actions for and provide support to the information literacy development and implementation.


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INFORMATION LITERACY FOR ENHANCEMENT OF EDUCATION QUALITY

An example from USA:

The concept of quality enhancement is central to the accreditation principles of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Core Requirement 2.12 specifies that an institution must develop “a carefully designed and focused course of action that addresses a well-defined issue or issues directly related to improving student learning.” http://web.wm.edu/sacs/qep_prospectus.php?&=&svr=www

Many universities have made the integration of Information Literacy into the curriculum as their QEP project.


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Situation in the Central and South East Europe:

MARIBROR DECLARATION on the role of libraries in the evaluation and accreditation of university programmes - issued at a round table of 12 countries from the region, held at the Annual Conference on COBISS in 2006 (organized by the Institute of Information Sciences, Maribor, Slovenia and the Danube Rector Conference) as a response to a very concerning state of non recognition of libraries in the national standards and criteria for evaluation and accreditation, in particular in the setting up of new universities and higher education institutions. http://home.izum.si/cobiss/konference/konf_2006/mariborska_deklaracija-bh.pdf

Extending this declaration by making the information literacy a mandatory criterion for evaluation and accreditation of universities will open the possibilities for taking bolder steps in launching information literacy projects.


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Making the UNESCO-TTT 2008 workshop into an annual, Summer School, event:

Information Literacy Workshop-cum-Seminar: Enhancement of Education Quality through Information Literacy

This should be an event at which leading information literacy professionals from around the world as guest lecturers will be sharing / transferring their information literacy knowledge and experience, and will be working together with the participants on finding solutions to the information literacy problems in their respective countries.

Documents

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS AND COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION LITERACY Zdravka Pejova Independent information professional, Ljubljana, Slovenia;