The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL), and the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), jointly announce the co-sponsorship of a Meeting of Experts to plan an International Leadership Conference on Information Literacy.

NCLIS, NFIL, and UNESCO are collaborating to organize a Meeting of Experts, in early Spring 2002, to plan and organize a larger International Leadership Conference on Information Literacy that would be held later in 2002 or in early 2003. Mr. Luis Tiburcio has been designated as the liaison person from within UNESCO's Education Sector unit, working with Mr. Philippe Queau, Director of the Information Society Division in the Communication and Information Sector unit. Dean Patricia Breivik, Director of Libraries at San Jose State University in San Jose, California, Chairperson of NFIL, will serve as the Forum's liaison. Dr. Forest Woody Horton, NCLIS Consultant, will serve as the NCLIS liaison, under the guidance of NCLIS Chairperson Martha Gould and Vice-Chairperson Joan Challinor.

NCLIS Chairperson Gould defines information literacy as the ability to locate, retrieve, evaluate, organize, understand, and utilize information. In her June letter to UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura suggesting an international information literacy meeting, she stated, "It is not enough just to learn how to use computers and connect with telecommunications networks. Those skills are often called computer literacy and media literacy. While learning about computer literacy and media literacy is a necessary pre-condition to information literacy, they are insufficient for the Internet Age. In short, a million hits from a World Wide Web search is not going to get you very far. Every country in the world is quickly coming to the conclusion that the key to dealing with the so-called Digital Divide is to address the challenge of ensuring that every individual learns basic information literacy skills."

The preliminary Meeting of Experts will address questions such as additional co-sponsorship of the larger conference, specific conference goals and themes, expected outcomes, program content, conference venue, financing and funding sources, appropriate invited audiences and so forth.

NFIL is the lead focal point for coordinating the involvement and participation of the education, library, information, and other interested communities in these meetings, including the American Library Association and the American Education Association, and other associations, the national libraries and library institutions, and other organizations. Interested individuals and organizations should direct their inquiries to Dean Breivik at pbreivik@email.sjsu.edu. The Forum's website is www.infolit.org.

The NCLIS role is primarily in the area of facilitating liaison with UNESCO and with other international library and information services organizations such as IFLA, and to coordinate the Federal role with the Department of State, the Department of Education, and other agencies. NCLIS will also post information on its website at http://www.nclis.gov.

UNESCO views the proposed conference as, "effectively completing the series of regional and thematic pre-conferences prior to the World Summit on the Information Society 2003 being organized by the United Nations, with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as lead agency." In the words of Sir John Daniel, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for the Education Sector, "UNESCO, with its unique set of alliances with civil society and with teachers, scientists and artists, librarians, archivists, broadcasters and journalists, will be an active partner in the preparation of the Summit, to which the Conference on Information Literacy should provide substantial input."

NFIL and NCLIS conducted a preparatory meeting at NCLIS in Washington, D.C. on October 9-10, 2001, which was attended by UNESCO and other invited officials, for the purpose of planning the Meeting of Experts.

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged by Public Law 91-345 to appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information resources and services and to advise the President and Congress on national and international library and information policies and plans.