The Alexandria Delegation Right to left: Jill Cody, Colloquium Facilitator, Abdelaziz Abid, UNESCO, and Dr. Patricia Breivik, Colloquium Leader

Tarek Sharif, son of Omar Sharif, attended the Awards Dinner on behalf of his father.

Building upon a report entitled “The Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society,” issued by the first international Information Literacy Meeting of Experts (facilitated by Jill Cody), held in Prague, the Czech Republic in late 2003, the High Level Colloquium organizers invited 30 participants from 17 countries, representing six major geographic regions, to assess the progress and opportunities for implementation of the report’s recommendations, with the goal of empowering citizens across the globe to be information literate. Jill Cody, again, facilitated this High Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning, held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt, on 6-9 November 2005.

In today’s complex world/environment, the participants affirmed that information literacy is not just a necessity, but a basic human right that promotes social inclusion in all nations. They urged governments and intergovernmental organizations to pursue policies and programs to promote information literacy and lifelong learning because they are essential to the development of the Information Society. These basic rights, principles and goals are embodied in a single page document entitled “Beacons of the Information Society: The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning."

Over a period of a year, a series of organizational development activities assisted organizers in designing the conference format to reach desired outcomes. We facilitated the four-day conference, and coauthored the post-conference report for the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The culmination of the meeting was The Prague Declaration, adopted by the attendees representing all five continents of the world.

 

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