This document discusses the role of public libraries and information literacy in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It outlines UNESCO's missions for public libraries, which include promoting literacy, education, creativity, cultural heritage, and access to information. The document emphasizes that media and information literacy is important throughout people's lives as societies and information environments change rapidly. It argues that libraries and librarians should play a key role in developing people's situational awareness of media and information issues to support lifelong learning and the SDGs.

1. Media and
Information Literate
Lives in the 21st
Century
Sheila Webber
October 2017
Libraries
& SDGs for

2. UNESCO missions for the public library
• creating and strengthening reading habits in children at an early age;
• supporting individual, self conducted & formal education at all levels;
• providing opportunities for personal creative development;
• stimulating the imagination and creativity of children and young people;
• promoting awareness of cultural heritage, appreciation of the arts, scientific
achievements and innovations;
• providing access to cultural expressions of all performing arts;
• fostering inter-cultural dialogue and favouring cultural diversity;
• supporting the oral tradition;
• ensuring access for citizens to all sorts of community information;
• providing adequate information services to local enterprises, associations & interest groups;
• facilitating the development of information and computer literacy skills;
• supporting and participating in literacy activities and programmes for all age
groups, and initiating such activities if necessary Sheila Webber, 2017

3. So libraries are much, much more
than access to books and
information!
Their mission connects with the UN
Sustaniable Development Goals
Their mission requires trained and
committed people to fulfil these
missions Sheila Webber, 2017

4. Media and Information Literacy
• Information not just media
– People (gesture, words, bodies); objects; research etc
• Lifelong
– Schuller and Watson (2009) note imbalance in money
spent on education (i.e. on younger people in formal
education) despite changing job patterns, ageing
populations etc.
– Problem for all countries; health, migration, change
• Lifewide
– Citizens in all situations and occupations
• MIL as cross-cutting enabler of SDGs Sheila Webber, 2017

5. Goal for MIL: Situational awareness”
• Individual reflecting on his/her MIL contexts
• Identifying MIL strengths, gaps & priorities for his/her
stage in life
• Being able to audit his/her context: at different stages
of life; at transition points; in response to critical events
• Moving awareness and understanding of own MIL to
the foreground: making MIL sustainable lifelong
• Role of library & information professionals and libraries
in educating, supporting and mediating this process
Sheila Webber, 2017

6. Media and
Information literate
person
Information economy:
•Law
•Changes in media
•Pricing etc.
Organisational culture:
•Mission; Values; Norms
•Management style; ways of working
•Information strategy
Personal goals,
relationships, habits,
special needs
Local & national
culture & society
Technical changes
The media and information literate person in a
changing information culture and society
Inter/ personal context
Johnston & Webber 2013, 2017
Based on Webber and Johnston, 2000
Libraries &
librarians
Educating

7. MIL as core enabler of SDGs
throughout citizens’ lives
Libraries and librarians are key
actors in this mission
Sheila Webber, 2017

8. Sheila Webber
Information School
University of Sheffield
s.webber@shef.ac.uk
Twitter: @sheilayoshikawa
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/
Photo:
Sheila
Webber
taken in Second
Life (TM Linden
lab)

9. References
• Schuller, T. & Watson, D. (2009) Learning Through Life: Inquiry into the Future for
Lifelong Learning (IFLL). Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
(NIACE).
• UNESCO. (n.d.). UNESCO Public Library Manifesto.
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/libraries/manifestos/libraman.html#2
• Webber, S. and Johnston, B. (2000) Conceptions of information literacy: new
perspectives and implications. Journal of information science, 26 (6), 381-397
• Webber, S. and Johnston, B. (2013) Transforming IL for HE in the 21st century: a
Lifelong Learning approach. in Hepworth, M. and Walton, G. (Eds.) Developing
people's information capabilities fostering information literacy in educational, workplace
and community contexts. Emerald. pp.15-30.