Mortenson Distinguished Lecture Mortenson Center for International Library Programs University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois, USA September 23, 2003

1.
INFORMATION COMPETENCIES:
A BRIDGE TO NARROW THE
NORTH-SOUTH KNOWLEDGE GAPS
Mortenson Distinguished Lecture
Mortenson Center for International Library Programs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Urbana, Illinois, USA, September 23, 2003
www.library.uiuc.edu/mortenson
Jesús Lau, Ph.D.
Director, USBI Veracruz Library, and UV Virtual Library Coordinator
Veracruz, México
jlau@uv.mx / jlau@uacj.mx
Personal: http://bivir.uacj.mx/lau
Institutional: www.uv.mx

2. Topics
 The North-South knowledge gaps
 Southern socio-economic development
 Information literacy challenges
 Indicators of information growth
 The role of education and pedagogy in
information literacy

3. Decision Making - Information
 Cancun, the sunny beach resort
 World Trade Organization, 5th. Ministers Meeting / 2003
 Information is needed for
 Negotiation
 Planning
 International negotiations have a great impact on local
economies
 Agriculture is a trade battle arena between developed and
developing economies
 International negotiations cannot be based on just good will
 Leaders require information about decision alternatives

4. International Trade Competition
 The world is not a charity planet, it is a highly
competitive place
 International trade competition is fierce
 Developing countries require information
intelligence
 Southern leaders seldom come to a negotiating table
with background information
 Their information competencies tend to be limited

5. Leaders Need Information
Competencies
 Governments need to know about:
 Competitors and potential allies
 New goods and products entering to the world market
 New technologies
 New entrants to the economy
 Information/knowledge is essential to compete
 Maquila industry is moving to China
 China has taken 15 years to become a world industrial
power, but Mexico did not notice it until now

6. 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.

7. North – South

8. World Social Stratas
Poor
Very poor
Middle class
Wealthy

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

10. Population 2002
(World Bank, 2002)
World 6,201,303
Low income 2,495,033
Middle income 2,741,531
Low & middle income 5,236,564
High income 964,739

11. Developing Regions
(World Bank, 2002)
East Asia & Pacific 1,823 900
Europe & Central Asia 475 1,970
Latin America & Caribbean 524 3,580
Middle East & North Africa 301 2,220
South Asia 1378 450
Population GNP per
Capita
Regions

12. 2
Knowledge Gaps

13. 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

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

15. Information/Knowledge Chain
2. Packing
•Editor
•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

16. Researchers
Notes
-12 Not including data for law, humanities and education.
-13 Data refer to researchers only.
Country Researchers
Africa 71,308
America 124,899
Asia 4,483,881
Europe 1,892,307
Oceanía 60,066
Canada 80 510
Japan 651,099
United States (12) (13) *962 700

17. Patents
Country Applications Porcentage
Africa 432 6.3
America 2 577.754 37.8
Asia 726.236 10.7
Europe 2 736.178 40.2
Oceania 279 4
Japan 11.846 0.293
USA 40.003 0.707
Total 6 805.047 100

18. Serials(ISSN, 2003)
Country ISSN Records
Africa 7,064
Asia 37,369
Europe 584,632
Latin América/Caribbean 27,842
Oceania 51,691
Canada 111,618
Japan 30,947
United States 161,031

19. Newspapers / Circulation
(Unesco, different years)
Number of Circ Total per 1,000
Dailies (000) (millions) inhabitants
World total 8 391 548 96
Africa 224 12 16
America 2 939 111 141
Asia 3 010 229 66
Europe 2 115 190 261
Oceania 103 6.4 227
Developed countries 3 972 276 226
Developing countries 4 419 272 60
Least developed countries 172 3.9 8
Continents

20. Continents Production Consumption Consumption
groups of countries (MT) (MT) per inhabitant
(kg)
World total 36 35 6.1
Africa 0.4 0.5 0.7
America 17 14 18
Asia 6.8 10 2.9
Europe 11 9.4 13.1
Oceania 0.8 0.8 28.2
Developed countries 31 27 21.9
Least developed countries 0.04 0.1 0.2
Newsprint
(Unesco, different years)

21. National Library Collections
General note
For general explanations and definitions, please
refer to the beginning of this chapter.
17 Data refer only to books.
18 Data refer only to gramophone records.
19 Data refer only to the number of visits to reading rooms.
Country Units Volumes
Africa 13 2,920
America 10 20,560
Asia 26 45,992
Europe 63 278,194
Oceanía 1 2,441
Canada 1 6,387
Japan 1 5,528

22. Public library collection
Africa 358 6,271
America 2,060 18,231
Asia 22,741 597,394
Europe 127,271 2,568,421
Canada (2) 1 045 70 077
Japan 2 172 195 390
Country Unit Volumes

23. Internet(www.blues.uab.es, 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

24. 3
Knowledge
Bridge

25. Education - 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 competencies

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

27. Information Literacy - Hurdles
Hurdles
Professors´
course notes Textbooks
Professor lecture-
based learning
Rote learning
Memorization

28. Learner-Oriented Education
 Fosters:
 Information competencies
 Knowledge construction by learners
 Life long learning
 Independent students
 Creativity and innovation
 Open-horizontal management
 Contributes to create a base for democracy

29. Learning Is Changing
(Goldfarb, 1999)
• Internet summarizes and orders information in a
hierarchical order
• The book-reader interaction has changed because “words
become pictures and pictures become words”
• Readers “gain information from bytes and text fragments
that are not organized in a straight line from beginning to
end or from left to right”
• Successful books that have appeal to new cyber readers
are non-linear, similar to computer formats: “graphics in
exciting new forms and formats¨

30. 4
Information
Competencies

31. Information Age
(Kuhlthau, 1999)
 It is characterized by instability and
uncertainty because of constant state of
innovation and development
 Society is shifting from scarcity of resources
to an abundance of resources
 Computer technology is changing learning
environments, communication and the way
people create

32. Information Literacy: A Must for Socio-
Economic Development
 Workers need to be learning constantly, jobs are for a 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 environments
 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

33. Competencies / Skills
 Reading
 Numerical
 Writing
 Information
 Computer
 Research

34. Professional Competencies
(Evers, Et al)
A. Mobilizing Innovation and Change:
Conceptualizing as well as setting in motion
ways of initiating and managing change that
involve significant departures from the current
mode.
- Ability to conceptualize
- Creativity, innovation, change
- Risk-taking
B. Managing People and Tasks:
Accomplishing the tasks at hand by planning,
organizing, coordinating, and controlling both
resources and people
- Coordinating
- Decision-making
- Leadership and influence
- Managing conflict
- Planning and organizing
C. Communicating: Interacting effectively with
a variety of individuals and groups to facilitate
the gathering, integrating, and conveying of
information in many forms (for example,
verbal, written)
- Interpersonal
- Listening
- Oral communication
- Written communication
D. Managing Self: Constantly developing
practices and internalizing routines for
maximizing one’s ability to deal with the
uncertainty of an ever-changing environment
- Learning
- Personal organization and time
management
- Personal strengths
- Problem-solving and analytic

35. Information Core Competencies
I
N
F
O
R
M
A
T
I
O
N
Identify
Locate
Access
Evaluate
Apply

36. 5
Library Role

37. Information Competencies
(American Asocciation School Libraries)
”Information users should have both
information-gathering strategies and the
critical thinking skills to select, discard,
synthesize, and present information in new
ways to solve real-life problems.”

38. Information Literacy Actors
Parents
Teachers
Professors
Librarians/Information
Professionals
Managers

39. The Librarians´ Role
 Librarians provide essential expertise:
 Access to information,
 Selection of information resources, and
 Facilitating the use of information in learning process
 Librarians and information specialists´ new roles:
 Knowledge facilitator
 Instructional facilitators

40. Libraries´ Role in Information Literacy
 Libraries´ new paradigm is to prepare users to know and to be able to do
 Libraries have the leading position of focusing on learning Libraries are
knowledge repositories and offer a wealth of information
 Libraries should be learning-centered institutions
 Libraries are or ought to be information literacy centers
 Libraries ought to be:
 An extension of the classroom
 Integrated into the curriculum
 Providing opportunities and resources to students´ inquiry process

41. Cancún: An Example of the
Importance of Information
.

42. Conclusions
 The North-South knowledge gaps can be bridged
by information competencies
 Individuals of all ages need information literacy
competencies
 Good decisions are based on good information
 Education needs pedagogical changes in developing
countries
 Librarians are information experts who can
advocate information development in Southern
countries