Information Literacy: An International State of the Art

participative citizenship;

social inclusion;

acquisition of skills;

innovation and enterprise;

the creation of new knowledge;

personal, vocational, corporate and organisational empowerment; and,

learning for life.

Library and information services professionals therefore embrace a responsibility to develop the information literacy of their clients. They will support governments at all levels, and the corporate, community, professional, educational and trade union sectors, in promoting and facilitating the development of information literacy for all Australians as a high priority.

6. 
   Australian School Library Association Policy Statement on Information Literacy
   

ASLA produced a key policy statement for school libraries on information literacy in 1993, in conjunction with ALIA. The policy was adopted in November 1994.

Australian School Library Association and Australian Library and Information Association (1993) Learning for the future: developing information services in Australian schools. Curriculum Corporation.

Available online: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/p_infol.htm.

[Excerpt] “Effective learners are not just those people who are knowledgeable but rather they are people who are able to find and use information as required. We might say that effective learners are those who are information literate. Information literacy is synonymous with knowing how to learn. This means that the ability to process and use information effectively is more than a basic tool for the empowerment of school students: it is in fact the basic survival skill for those who wish to be successful in the 1990s and beyond.”