It gives me an Immense pleasure to welcome you all to the 3rd international Conference on Information Literacy (ICIL – Africa 2024) hosted for the first time at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a center of creativity, a place for preserving heritage, a house of expertise for all disciplines, and an edifice that scholars and thinkers flock to visit. It has claimed its place in the international cultural scene through its diverse initiatives, services, activities, and events, as well as through establishing partnerships with leading organizations and institutions of learning all over the world.
Recently, the BA has established a collaborative partnership with North - west University (NWU) and Pretoria University in hosting the 3rd round of the ICIL biannual conference which is a sister conference to the European Conference of Information Literacy ECIL. This comes as a realization of the critical need to spread awareness about Information Literacy especially in the digital era and the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence. Information literacy has, also, proven to be the solution to protect people from mis/disinformation and fake news especially in the arousing times of conflict depicted in different regions around the world.
Information literacy according to the American Library Association is " a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information”. Building up on this concept, a group of influential information professionals and exciting keynote speakers from all aspects of library and information science and several other related sectors have gathered to disseminate their knowledge and experience around information literacy’s related topics and fields in the light of the latest technologies transformation.
I actively encourage practitioners and researchers to submit their abstracts and to take part at the conference which is taking place from the 14th to the 17th of October, 2024 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference center with the theme of: Information Literacy Revolution: Get Ready. The conference is a chance to share knowledge, and get inspired in a fantastic and supportive environment.
Looking forward to see you all there!
Ms. Dina Youssef
Head of Library Sector
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
