Information Literacy: An International State-of-the-Art Report Mexico and Latin America

1. Information Literacy: An International State-of-the-Art ReportMexico and Latin America IFLA Satellite Conferece Library Statistics for the 21st. Century World UIS-IFLA-ISO Montreal, Canada, August 18- Jesús Lau, PhD jlau@uv.mx www.jesuslau.com Director, USBI VER Library, and Coordinator, UV Virtual Library Universidad Veracruzana www.uv.mx/bvirtual / www.uv.mx/usbi_ver Boca del Río, Veracruz, MÉXICO

2. Overview • Still scattered activity • Done mostly in higher education institutions • Most active countries: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Rica, Mexico • Some IL specific conferences are held • Papers often included in general library science conferences • About a dozen books published • Some serial articles published every year

3. Basic IL Concepts • Linguistic issues: More than a dozen terms denoting similar activities • Desarrollo de habilidades informativas • Alfabetización Informacional (ALFIN) • User education • User instruction • Information competencies • Resistance to be “alphabetized” • Desarrollo de Habilidades Informativas

4. IL for daily life: citizens, workers, business • No reported activity in private sector (often considered “training”) • Not much in public libraries either • Some ministries have started to show interest in the topic (e.g. Veracruz Education Department has requested the publishing of the Information Literacy Guidelines for distribution in local libraries)

5. Know How Materials • Most widespread IL activity in many countries • Universities and Ministries information literacy related manuals, flyers and other media

6. Library Tours • Many college libraries with a good technology base have created good multimedia tours: • UACJ • UVM • UNAM • UCOL (leading institution in tech goodies)

7. Tutorials on how to use specific information resources • Mexican examples: • UV: Tutorial on Catalog • UACJ: Multimedia program on Catalog • ILCE: Videos for user information • INEGI: web-based tutorials • Assumed to be likewise in most countries

8. Workshops / Hands On • Also well developed in major library organizations • Offered to students, faculty and staff • Different options: • Optional course or workshop • On request by faculty • As part of the curricula • For graduate students, etc.

9. Credit Courses • Mexico: leading country • As introductory course (ITESM, UACJ) • As full subject (UDLAP) • Clavijero Consortium: IL compulsory subject in more than 50 institutions • Universidad Veracruzana, optional • Much work still to be done

10. Publications • Mexico created its guidelines in 2002 • Monographs: Colombia, Brazil, Chile and México (nine) • Several theses have been done on the subject • Still no specific associations

11. Training the trainers • No formal studies in LIS schools • Some courses facilitated in México, Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala and Peru

12. Conferences • Oldest conference in Spanish-speaking countries: Encuentro DHI, Chihuahua, México, 1998 - • Valparaiso, Chile: Conference • Chile: Seminar • Costa Rica – Conference, aimed at creating national policies on IL • Lima, Peru – UNESCO regional workshop

13. Thank you!