The global economy is currently being transformed from an industrial economy into a knowledge economy where knowledge is the major driving force for wealth generation. The growth of this knowledge-based society is bringing fundamental changes in the production, distribution and#N#exchange of information; almost every socio-economic and cultural institution will feel the effects.#N##N#Information and communication technologies, especially Electronic Publishing, play a major role in the way information content is being created, distributed and used in today’s society.#N#In parallel, a key challenge in the context of this emerging global information society is the need to provide individuals with skills that will enable them to locate, access, retrieve, evaluate, interpret and act on information,#N#in their professional or personal lives and to become active and responsible citizens, in other words to become information literate. Today, Information Literacy is recognised as making an important contribution to decision making, problem-solving, independent learning, continuing professional development (life long learning) and research.#N#One of the most e±cient ways to achieve this is through the educational system. Information skills acquisition should start at the very early stages of the educational process, at primary and secondary level and then extend up to the tertiary level – further education and higher education.#N#This paper will review some of the concepts of Information Literacy. A brief overview is made of some standards and approaches to acquisition of the necessary competences, as they apply to Information Literacy; these have been produced mainly for the higher education sector.
['Ana Maria Ramalho Correia', 'José Carlos Teixeira']
INFORMATION LITERACY IN THE ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AGE