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languages, addressing both Information Literacy as a concept as
well as its “best practices,” how to learn it, and from where, and
from whom, and so on (notwithstanding how relatively
unsophisticated the result may have been), has plunged forward
unabated at an accelerating pace. In the author’s opinion, and
those of his collaborators, this non-English, multilingual set of
Information Literacy tutorial materials represents a vast knowledge
asset that lies virtually invisible, like a buried treasure. It is
unavailable and inaccessible to both non-anglophone people,
students, non-professional community, and disadvantaged
persons, as well as to most LIS professionals who do speak English
and may be either unaware of their existence, and/or are biased in
believing that they probably are, somehow, of an inferior quality to
English language IL resources.
There are about 7,000 living languages spoken by the world’s 7
billion people, and obviously we cannot embrace all of them. Most
are languages spoken by only one or a few tribes, sects, or ethnic
groups within a country, often in remote and isolated geographic
locations that frustrates any kind of human or other traffic in or
out, and therefore many of these languages are at a high risk of
dying out. English may not even be the most frequently spoken
language given the growth of China and India. However, the
project aims to
include the most widely spoken languages, and invites
contributions for languages which may have been omitted. Having
said that, however, no language is unimportant and the objective
is to be as inclusive as possible.
The International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA), regional LIS associations such as Commonwealth
Library Association (COMLA), and national LIS associations
encouraged this project, as well as UNESCO.
Recently, we could observe a growing plurality of new concepts
and terms such as Media and Information Literacy (MIL), Multiple
Overview of Information Literacy Resources Worldwide |26