Institution:
Castilla-La Mancha Regional Library

Toledo

Address:
Castilla-La Mancha Regional Library
C/Cuesta Carlos V, s/n
45001- Toledo
Tel.: 925 256680
925 225434
925 284438
Fax: 925 253642

Contact person:
José Antonio Merlo Vega (author of the report School libraries, information literacy and reading promotion initiatives in Spain)
Professor at the
Dpto. Biblioteconomía y Documentación.
Universidad de Salamanca
Tel.: +34-923.294.580
Fax: +34-923.294.582
Vice Director 
Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez
Peñaranda de Bracamonte
Salamanca

Professionals from public, school and university libraries, university professors and representatives of the administrations formed an information literacy working group (including 80 members), that organised on 2-3 February 2006 the working seminar at the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Library in Toledo:

Libraries, learning and citizens: information literacy

The following document, serving as the basis for the development of information literacy in Spain, was approved: 

Libraries for lifelong learning: Toledo Declaration on information literacy (p. 5-7)

Toledo, 3 February 2006

"We live in a knowledge society where we must learn throughout our lives and develop skills in using information in accordance with our personal, family and community goals, always in an atmosphere of social inclusion, cultural preservation and intercultural respect. This has been affirmed by numerous declarations of international organisations, and it has also been accepted by informaiton professionals thorugh institutions such as IFLA and manifestos such as the Prague Declaration: Towards and Information Literate Society and the Alexandria Declaration on information literacy and lifelong learning.

Information literacy is an essential tool for the acquisition of information competencies, as well as for citizen development, participation and communication. Knowing how to access information and use it effectively, critically and creatively have become necessary skills. Therefore, information and education professionals  in Spain met in Toledo for the working seminar on "Libraries, learning and citizens: information literacy" in order to analyse how this concept can be applied as well as the situation of information literacy programmes in Spain. Another of their aims was to propose priority lines in different regional areas. After their discussion, they formulated the following considerations addressed to society in general, authorities, institutions, social actors and professionals.

1. Libraries and their staff contribute to maintaining and improving the educational level of the population as a whole through their facilities, resources and services and through the training and reading promotion activities they conduct.

2. Libraries and information centres should design and implement training activities in an effective manner, in coordination with the institutions responsible for providing training in basic competencies.

3. Institutions should promote the ongoing professional development of library employees in order to ensure that they are constantly updated on any type of information affecting the groups they serve.

4. Libraries should have a specific training policy for all their staff members which would enable them to act in improving the information literacy of citizens and make it possible for them to work towards lifelong learning.

5. The compulsory educational system is the starting base for training in the use of information, and therefore, it si necessary to give school libraries a lead role as resource centres for learning and acquiring competencies.

6. The curricula of universities that train information professionals should incorporate content relating to information literacy and the pedagogical issues involved in teaching it.

7. Professional associations should give priority in their offering of ongoing training activities to the new challenges posed by information literacy and lifelong learning.

8. The actors involved in the promotion of information literacy should establish local, provincial, regional and national fora as platforms for inter-institutional reflection, dissemination and cooperation.

9. The main points of reflection for these fora, which could represent the first steps in a national information literacy promotion agenda, should be:

    9.1 Development of a model and specific framework for the key competencies included in information literacy.

    9.2 Development of an information literacy curriculum proposal adaptable to different library, disciplinary, learning and life contexts, depending on the population segments targeted.

    9.3 Implementation of an activities programme to develop social awareness about the need for information literacy.

    9.4 Systematic gathering of examples of best practices in evaluating training programmes and the certification of individual levels.

    9.5 Creation, maintenance and updating of a specific website on key literacies and competencies, as a resource and support centre for the fora and initiatives that are developed.

    9.6 Identification of key partners in different areas in order to establish, update, promote and disseminate the agenda of actions.

    9.7 Establishment of an effective and fluid mechanism for participation in the international lifelong literacy agenda, which would take the competencies and responsibilities in each area of action into consideration.

10. Cooperation in the development of key competencies and literacies should follow two lines:

   10.1 On the one hand, information professionals should work on the interaction between theory and professional practice, and secure cooperation among information centres, so that information training advances and is in line with its educational objectives.

   10.2 On the other hand, institutions, organisations and professionals interested in promoting information competencies should establish relations with each other in order to coordinate and develop joint activities.


Those in attendance at the Toledo Seminar will undertake to perform whatever actions are appropriate with institutions, organisations and associations in their professional and geographic spheres in order to obtain public support of the considerations reflected in this document and theri commitment to act on behalf of information literacy".

The document was originally written in Spanish, and entitled Bibliotecas por el aprendizaje permanente: Declaración de Toledo sobre la alfabetización informacional (Alfin). 
It is freely available online at: http://travesia.mcu.es/S_ALFIN/ficheros/Declaracion_Toledo.pdf.

Keywords: policy document - Toledo Declaration -  information literacy - libraries - lifelong learning - knowledge society - citizen development - social inclusion - citizens' information literacy - information competencies - libraries' educational role - information literacy development - information literacy promotion - national information literacy agenda - school libraries - reading promotion - learning resource centres - libraries' training policy -  information literacy model - information literacy curriculum - information literacy curriculum development - IL training programs - evaluation of IL training programs - information literacy certification - librarians' professional development  - librarians' professional training - IL best practices - lifelong literacy - international lifelong literacy agenda - key literacies - key competencies