Information literacy: the 21st century educational smartcard

Alan Bundy
alan.bundy@unisa.edu.au

Australian school, TAFE and university libraries have provided leadership in promoting information literacy as a profound educational issue requiring a fundamental paradigm shift in educational programs, their conduct and outcomes. Progress has been made but has been very uneven, and with limited impact on entrenched approaches to teaching and learning. Libraries need to become assertive about their educational partnership role, rather than propose themselves as support agencies with self-limiting roles focused on information management and delivery. A starting point would be for all educational libraries to review their mission statements for their educational context. Most of these statements are currently narrowly focused on information management and delivery rather than on educational outcomes.

This paper is based on a presentation to the International Association of Technological University Libraries (IATUL) Conference, Pretoria, South Africa in May 1998.