Information Literacy as a Catalyst for Educational Change: A Background Paper

Information literacy is a natural extension of the concept of literacy in our information society, and information literacy education is the catalyst required to transform the information society of today into the learning society of tomorrow. Across the world, educators in primary, secondary, tertiary and professional education contexts have been developing strategies and policies for designing learning opportunities that will enable learners to take advantage of the information and communication infrastructures available to them. This paper, a reprint (with permission) of Bruce's paper in the proceedings of the UNESCO Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, provides a background discussion of information literacy as a catalyst for educational change.