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Statement by Dr Alex Byrne
International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions
18 November 2005
Your Excellency, President of the World
Summit on the Information Society, distinguished delegates,
ladies and gentlemen. We congratulate those who have been
involved in this long WSIS process on what has been achieved
to date and encourage full commitment to the implementation
of the goals expressed in Geneva and here in Tunis.
I have the honour to speak to you as the
President of the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions which is the global
organisation for libraries and information services and
represents more than 500 thousand library service points as
well as the 2.5 billion registered library users around the
world.
We are concerned with the young child who
opens his first book or clicks on her first website, with
the student who researches a topic, with the professional
building a career, with the farmer trying to be more
competitive, with the researcher using e-journals to
investigate a new material or prevention of a disease and
with all the people whose lives are changed through ready
access to relevant and reliable information in any format.
We stand with the Secretary-General of
the United Nations and other distinguished speakers in
stating without equivocation
Everyone has the right to freedom of
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.
The Federation and our member
organisations are vitally involved with the creation of the
Information Society and its consequences for both economic
and social development. To advance that agenda, which is
vital for a secure and fair world, last week the Federation
held a pre Summit meeting, Libraries: the Information
Society in Action together with UNESCO and the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina. We discussed the key issues of the
information society and proclaimed a manifesto, The
Alexandria Manifesto on Libraries, the Information
Society in Action.
The Manifesto recognises that libraries
and information services are essential to the roll out of
the inclusive Information Society. Their impartial operation
helps to safeguard universal civil rights and intellectual
freedom. The unique feature of libraries and information
services is that they respond to the particular questions
and needs of individuals, complementing the general
transmission of knowledge by the mass media. They build
capacity and provide support and training for effective use
of digital and other information resources. Libraries are
critical to the development agenda and help to realise the
Millennium Development Goals, including reduction of
poverty.
To enable access to information by all
peoples, the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions is committed to the
fundamental human rights to know, learn and communicate
without restriction. It opposes censorship and supports
balance and fairness in intellectual property regulation.
IFLA is also vitally concerned to promote multilingual
content, cultural diversity and the special needs of
Indigenous peoples, minorities and those with disabilities.
IFLA urges national, regional and local
governments as well as international organisations to
invest in library and information
services as vital elements of Information Society
strategies, policies and budgets
promote open access to
information and recognise the importance of
information literacy and vigorously support for
strategies to create a literate and skilled populace
which can advance and benefit from the global
Information Society.
- ENDS -
The version of this paper to be loaded to
the website includes the key statements by IFLA, the
Information Literacy Experts Meeting and the Conference of
Directors of National Libraries.
Your Excellency, delegates and observers,
I thank you for your time and encourage you to continue the
work to create an information society for all, an
information society which guarantees the dual freedoms of
access to information and of expression and which will be
facilitated by strengthening the global network of
libraries.
Alexandria Manifesto on Libraries, the
Information Society in Action
Libraries and information services
contribute to the sound operation of the inclusive
Information Society.
They enable intellectual freedom by
providing access to information, ideas and works of
imagination in any medium and regardless of frontiers.
They help to safeguard democratic values
and universal civil rights impartially and by opposing any
form of censorship.
The unique role of libraries and
information services is that they respond to the particular
questions and needs of individuals. This complements the
general transmission of knowledge by the media, for example,
and makes libraries and information services vital to a
democratic and open Information Society. Libraries are
essential for a well informed citizenry and transparent
governance, as well as for the take-up of e-government.
They also build capacity by promoting
information literacy and providing support and training for
effective use of information resources, including
Information and Communication Technologies. This is
especially critical in promoting the development agenda
because human resources are central to economic progress. In
these ways libraries contribute significantly to addressing
the digital divide and the information inequality that
results from it. They help to make the Millennium
Development Goals a reality, including reduction of poverty.
They will do more with quite modest investments. The value
of the return is at least 4-6 times the investment.
In pursuit of the goal of access to
information by all peoples, IFLA supports balance and
fairness in copyright. IFLA is also vitally concerned to
promote multilingual content, cultural diversity and the
special needs of Indigenous peoples and minorities.
IFLA and libraries and information
services share the common vision of an Information Society
for all adopted by the World Summit on the Information
Society in Geneva in December 2003. That vision promotes an
inclusive society based on the fundamental right of human
beings both to access and to express information without
restriction and in which everyone will be able to create,
access, use and share information and knowledge.
IFLA urges national, regional and local
governments as well as international organisations to:
invest in library and information
services as vital elements in their Information
Society strategies, policies and budgets;
upgrade and extend existing
library networks to obtain the greatest possible
benefits for their citizens and communities;
support unrestricted access to
information and freedom of expression;
promote open access to
information and address structural and other
barriers to access; and
recognise the importance of
information literacy and vigorously support
strategies to create a literate and skilled populace
which can advance and benefit from the global
Information Society.
Adopted in Alexandria, Egypt, Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, on 11 November 2005
Associated documents:
Glasgow Declaration on Libraries,
Information Services and Intellectual Freedom
IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifesto
IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto: The
school library in teaching and learning for all
IFLA Internet Manifesto
Maintaining our digital memory: a
declaration of support for the World Summit on the
Information Society. Communiqué from the Conference of
Directors of National Libraries (CDNL), Oslo, August 2005.
Beacons of the Information Society -
Alexandria Statement on Information Literacy and Lifelong
Learning. High level Colloquium on Information Literacy and
Lifelong Learning, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 6-9 November
2005.
IFLA Statement on Open Access to
Scholarly Literature and Research Documentation.
See http://www.ifla.org/V/cdoc/policies.htm#Manifestos
for other statements.
Some further facts
There are worldwide:
more than half a million library
service points,
15.000 km of library shelving,
well over half a million Internet
connections in libraries,
1,5 trillion loan transactions
each year,
and 2.5 billion registered
library users.
The claim that libraries return at least
4-6 times the investment is supported by numerous studies.
See for example:
Svanhild Aabø. The Value of Public
Libraries. Paper presented at the World Library and
Information Congress in Oslo, August 2005. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla71/papers/119e-Aabo.pdf
Measuring our value. British Library
2003. http://www.bl.uk/pdf/measuring.pdf
José-Marie Griffith & Donald King.
Taxpayers return on Investment in Florida Public Libraries,
September 2004. http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/bld/roi/publications.cfm
Daniel D. Barron et. al.. The Economic
Impact of Public Libraries in South Carolina, 2005.
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/SCEIS/home.htm
Beacons of the Information Society
The Alexandria Proclamation on
Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning
Celebrating this week’s confirmation of
the site of the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the ancient
wonders of the world, the participants in the High Level
Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning
held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 6-9 November 2005
proclaim that information literacy and lifelong learning are
the beacons of the Information Society, illuminating the
courses to development, prosperity and freedom.
Information literacy lies at the core of
lifelong learning. It empowers people in all walks of life
to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to
achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational
goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and
promotes social inclusion in all nations.
Lifelong learning enables individuals,
communities and nations to attain their goals and to take
advantage of emerging opportunities in the evolving global
environment for shared benefit. It assists them and their
institutions to meet technological, economic and social
challenges, to redress disadvantage and to advance the well
being of all.
Information literacy
comprises the competencies to
recognise information needs and to locate, evaluate,
apply and create information within cultural and
social contexts;
is crucial to the competitive
advantage of individuals, enterprises (especially
small and medium enterprises), regions and nations;
provides the key to effective
access, use and creation of content to support
economic development, education, health and human
services, and all other aspects of contemporary
societies and thereby provides the vital foundation
for fulfilling the goals of the Millennium
Declaration and the World Summit on the Information
Society; and
extends beyond current
technologies to encompass learning, critical
thinking and interpretative skills across
professional boundaries and empower individuals and
communities.
Within the context of the developing
Information Society, we urge governments and
intergovernmental organisations to pursue policies and
programs to promote information literacy and lifelong
learning. In particular, we ask them to support
regional and thematic meetings
which will facilitate the adoption of information
literacy and lifelong learning strategies within
specific regions and socioeconomic sectors;
professional development of
personnel in education, library, information,
archive, health and human services in the principles
and practices of information literacy and lifelong
learning;
inclusion of information literacy
into initial and continuing education for key
economic sectors and government policy making and
administration, and into the practice of advisors to
the business, industry and agriculture sectors;
programs to increase the
employability and entrepreneurial capabilities of
women and the disadvantaged, including immigrants,
the underemployed and the unemployed; and
recognition of lifelong learning
and information literacy as key elements for the
development of generic capabilities which must be
required for the accreditation of all education and
training programs.
We affirm that vigorous investment in
information literacy and lifelong learning strategies
creates public value and is essential to the development of
the Information Society.
Adopted in Alexandria, Egypt at the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 9 November 2005.
Maintaining our digital memory: a
declaration of support for the World Summit on the
Information Society
Communiqué from the Conference of
Directors of National Libraries (CDNL), Oslo, August 2005
The National Libraries of the world are
the guardians of the cultural heritage expressed in a
nation’s documented memory which includes the digital
information produced in the Information Society.
National Libraries in all countries have
a mandate and duty to collect and preserve this digital
cultural heritage and to make it accessible both now and to
future generations.
It is a matter of the highest importance
to the National Libraries of the world that all states
develop coordinated national strategies for inclusive
information societies in which our digital heritage will be
preserved and made accessible with the same commitment
already shown to our nations’ printed records.
In the spirit of partnership and digital
solidarity we, the Directors of the National Libraries of
the world support the WSIS Geneva Declaration of Principles
and Plan of Action, adopted in Geneva, December 2003, in
particular those principles related to:
Section A Our Common Vision of the
Information Society
Section B An Information Society for All
Section C Towards an Information Society
for All Based on Shared Knowledge
Furthermore we seek the endorsement of
the Tunis meeting of the World Summit on the Information
Society, November 2005, for the full implementation of these
principles as well as the maintenance of our shared digital
memory. |
