Information Literacy: An International State of the Art

D. Organizations

1. 
   Associations and professional bodies
   

A working group on information literacy issues was set up in Catalonia in October 2003 under the name (in Catalan) «Grup de Treball ALFINCAT» (URL: http://www.cobdc.org/grups/alfincat). It also has a wide membership from other parts of the Spanish state. The aim is to exchange ideas, approaches and good practice, as well as the advancement and promotion of the information literacy agenda.
The ALFINCAT group arose thanks to the previously existing contacts with a number of professions throughout Spain whose members are interested in the subject and are aware of the need to unite the research efforts that have been carried out so far, in both theoretical and practical terms. It brings together professionals from multiple fields (public libraries, school libraries, university libraries, companies, etc.). Its diversity, both geographical and professional, now makes it possible to acquire a global overview of INFOLIT in Spain.
More recently, March 2006 saw the creation of the Asociación Valenciana de Alfabetización Informacional (Valencian Association for Information Literacy - AVALFIN), founded in the Comunidad Valenciana (Valencia region). It is promoted by Félix Benito and Ana Caro and includes members from elsewhere in Spain who are interested in INFOLIT. In principle, it is a regional platform existing for the development of research, development and innovation programs in the Comunidad Valenciana. Its website is currently under construction (http://www.avalfin.org/), but an address exists ([e-mail]) for those seeking information or wishing to collaborate. Work is also being done on designing a pilot program for integral experimentation with INFOLIT content with pupils of compulsory school age in a number of localities in the region.
Despite the prior existence in Catalonia of the above-mentioned ALFINCAT group for the promotion and diffusion of INFOLIT, we may consider this Valencian association to be the first to have been formally constituted in the INFOLIT field anywhere in Spain.

2. 
   Research projects / Research centers
   

Here we may mention the Alfin-EEES project, coordinated by Professor María Pinto. Alfin-EEES is an acronym in Spanish for Information Literacy in the European Higher Education Area. The project received funding in 2005 from the Program for Studies and Analysis of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. The outcome was the design and implementation of an e-learning training portal for transversal competencies in information for higher education, publicly available at http://www.mariapinto.es/alfineees (see, in the present report, section b.3: Tutorials and portals for citizens).