Information Literacy: A Southern Hemisphere Need Panel: Information Literacy 360 “International Special Libraries Day 2004” Special Libraries Association, DC Chapter Kiplinger Washington Editors Building, 1729 H Street NW, Washington, DC, April 22, 2004, 6-9:00 PM Jesús Lau, Ph.D. Director, USBI Veracruz Library, and Coordinator, UV Virtual Library Veracruz, México / Personal: Institutional: *Part of this presentation was delivered at the Mortenson Center (Distinguished Lecture Series), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003

Information competencies Socio-Economic and political development is best advanced by people who recognize their need for information, and identify, locate, access, evaluate and apply the needed information.

1 North - South

World Social Stratas Poor Very poor Middle class Wealthy

Wealthy/Poverty Connotations 1.Income Gross National Income per Capita 2.Basic needs Food Health Housing Education Employment 3.Capability Information competencies Research Management

Population 2002 (World Bank, 2002)

2 Knowledge Gaps

Internet: A great Venue for information ♦Internet is opening access to information ♦Great amounts of resources are available ♦Some information aggregators are giving information away ♦However, low use capacity limits information benefits in Southern populations

Information Development in the Southern Hemisphere ♦Publishing is limited ♦Scientific serials are just few ♦Nobel prizes are not from developing countries ♦Reference publications are also scarce

Information/Knowledge Chain 2. Packing Publishing Databases/electronic media companies Information aggregators 1. Production Authors Inventors Researchers 3. Storage/ Distribution Bookstores Libraries Information services 4. Use/Demand Researchers Academics Students Companies

Production/Demand: Researchers (UNESCO) CountryResearchers Africa71,308 America124,899 Asia4,483,881 Europe1,892,307 Oceanía60,066 Canada Japan651,099 United States (12) (13)* Notes -12 Not including data for law, humanities and education. -13 Data refer to researchers only.

Production: Patents (wipo) Country ApplicationsPercentage USA % Germany % Japan % Subtotal % United Kingdom % Other developed Countries % Subtotal % Rest of the world % Total %

Production: Serials (ISSN, 2003) CountryISSN Records Africa7,064 Asia37,369 Europa584,632 Latin America/Caribbean27,842 Oceania61,691 Canada111,618 Japan30,947 United States161,031

Production/Demand: Newspapers/Circulation (Unesco, different years) Continents Number of Dailies (000) Circ Total (millions) Per 1,000 inhabitants Developed countries Developing countries Least developed

Storage/Distribution: National Library Collections Country UnitVolumes ´000 Africa America Asia Europe Oceania Canada Japan General note For general explanations and definitions, please refer to the beginning of this chapter. 17 Data refer only to books.

Storage/Distribution: Public Library Collections (UNESCO) Country UnitVolumes Africa America Asia Europe Canada Japan

Demand/Production: Internet ( 2003) USA, Canada, Japan, and West Europe 90% Demand 70% Computer servers English Language 60-80% Internet content 60% English speakers users 8% English speakers of total world population

3 Knowledge Bridge

Educational - Development ♦Education enables people to be better citizens ♦It helps economic mobility of individuals ♦It determines national progress ♦Education access is a challenge ♦Education quality is even a greater one ♦Information development is related to education ♦Education fosters information competences

Teacher – Centered Education ♦Equips students with static knowledge ♦Teaching to the test ♦Reproducing texts ♦Students are classroom-bound ♦Predominates in developing countries

Information Literacy - Hurdles Hurdles Professor´s course notes Textbooks Professor lecture- based learning Rote learning Memorization

Learner – Oriented Education ♦Fosters ♦Information competencies ♦Knowledge construction by learners ♦Life along learning ♦Independent students ♦Creativity and innovation ♦Open-horizontal management ♦Contributes to create a base for democracy

Information Literacy: A Must for Socio – Economic Development ♦Workers need to be learning constantly, jobs are for short time-span ♦The work place is moving from routine to rich-thinking activities ♦Education for future citizens is focusing on learning how to learn in information-rich enviroments ♦New education models are based on inquiry approach to learning rather than on transmission approach to teaching ♦Education´s new paradigm is to prepare students to know and to be able to do ♦Information competencies are a critical life skill

4 Mexican progress / IFLA

Mexican IL steps ♦Universities are implementing IL programs ♦Compulsory courses / tailored training ♦National association of university libraries has a IL national committee ♦Offers a training program for librarians ♦There are some dissertations and thesis on the subject

IL National Conferences ♦Three national IL meetings ♦Three IL manifestos ♦The manifestos have been distributed widely ♦Produced national standards ♦Proceedings have been published

IFLA – International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions ♦Information Literacy Section ♦Buenos Aires Conference, Aug ´04 ♦Two sessions during the conference ♦International Guidelines ♦Book on international IL practices / experiences ♦Offer international networking

Conclusions ♦The North-South knowledge gaps can be bridged by information competencies ♦Individuals of all ages need information literacy competencies ♦Education needs pedagogical changes in developing countries ♦Librarians are information experts who can advocate information development in Southern countries