• Technological developments are driving the need for rethinking education, for improving design of information systems, and for addressing pressing public policy questions. 

• The Pacific Bell/UCLA Initiative at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies will engage in both short-term and sustained efforts focused on these issues. 

The explosion in the amount of information available - and the ease with which we have access to that information - is dramatically reshaping how we live our lives. It is becoming clear that we need to rethink the kinds of knowledge and skills we emphasize and teach so that everyone can function successfully in an increasingly information-based economy. We also need to be more thoughtful about the ways in which information is made available so that people can readily access and use it appropriately. Good design of the materials and systems by which we access information can make this process work well and even transparently; bad design can prevent access entirely. Finally, we need to understand and contribute to the discussions about critical social and policy issues that are increasingly pressing in this dynamic environment. 

This emerging concept of "information literacy" ó the ability to access, evaluate, and use information from electronic, print, and other sources - will be at the core, explicitly and implicitly, of much of what we will be doing in schools and in libraries, at home, at work and at play. If we fail to address the need for this 21st Century literacy, the consequences will be dramatic and they will occur sooner than we might anticipate. 
 
 

• The Summit ís primary goal is to raise awareness of the need for an information literate citizenry. It is planned for October 2000. 

• Speakers will address the technological environment driving change, the opportunities and challenges presented by these changes, and current practice in teaching information literacy. 

To set the stage for the Summit, we plan to release a report that will provide background for researchers, practitioners, and the general public addressing such as issues as what information literacy is, why it is important, and what curricula, frameworks, and other initiatives exist. Our agenda for the Summit includes providing context for the day by discussing the technology developments that are the backdrop and the driving force behind the explosion in the availability of information, and elaborating on the dimensions of this explosion. We will focus our attention on what the promise and the reality are for our nationís schools, libraries, and other institutions, including first-hand experience with current classroom and library practice. The day will conclude with a look at plans for the Initiative to address these issues. Speakers will include scholars, business and political leaders, and others that represent diverse and important perspectives on these issues. 

The Summitís audience will include the library community; educators and educational leadership; policy and government leaders; not-for-profit organizations with related missions; and other allies and potential allies in the cause of information literacy. We plan to extend our reach through a comprehensive communications program that takes advantage of developing technologies such as videoconferencing and the Internet. 
 
 

Beginning in early 2000 and continuing through calendar year 2001, we plan sustained work on information literacy through a set of projects that will address three aspects of information literacy: 1) the need to educate the end-user of information, 2) the need to design information materials and systems based on good principles and practices, and 3) the need to address emerging policy issues. 
 
 

• To develop a critical understanding of what currently exists as a basis for advancing knowledge and practice, we will compile existing knowledge and practice in information literacy that is now widely dispersed, evaluate it, and aggregate and integrate the most promising practices. We plan to develop further what we learn, and disseminate the results through our own programs and other channels to which we have access. 

• As one outcome of this work, we envision developing standards for what constitutes an information literate student at appropriate mileposts in K-12 and higher education, and for what teachers and librarians should know and be able to do in carrying out their professional work with their students and patrons. 

Our work in this area will focus on bringing together current knowledge and practice for analysis, development and dissemination, and as a basis for generating new knowledge. Our first project will be to examine, critique, synthesize, and formulate what we find when we look at existing current curricula, frameworks, and other information literacy initiatives, resulting in a report that will both provide the context for our own further work, and baseline information for other constituencies interested in these issues. As part of this work and to fit into the increasing focus on standards-based education we plan to develop student standards for information literacy in both K-12 and higher education. 

To extend our efforts, we will provide professional development opportunities for teachers and librarians so that they are able to effectively incorporate information literacy curricula into their teaching. We are also interested in incorporating what we learn into our own degree programs as models for other similar programs. Our objective for this phase of our relationship with Pacific Bell is to identify those elements of information literacy we would like to integrate into our degree programs, and to develop a plan for that integration. 
 
 

• Our goal is to develop overall principles for good design of information systems and materials, including traditional media such as print and new media exemplified by the Web, that will stand up to the rapidly changing technological environment, to use these principles to develop specific guidelines that work today, and to periodically adapt those guidelines in response to changing information delivery environments. 

• We plan to work closely with the information delivery and design communities to help develop the principles and guidelines, and to propagate these through their design work. 

This project is the necessary complement and mirror to the work on educating users. It seeks to establish ways of designing information delivery systems and materials that match the information literacy level of the user. We will examine factors that inhibit efficient and effective use of an information system, and how best to design those systems to match the literacy levels, technological capabilities, and other characteristics of the user. The outcomes from this work will include a set of principles and a grounded set of guidelines to influence the work of design professionals and others who develop information systems and materials. 
 

• We also plan work that overlaps our interests in both users and design, developing assessment tools that can improve both user education and design practice. 

Overlapping both user and systems efforts of the Initiative is our interest in developing Web-based assessment tools. These tools could measure the quality of user interaction with one of todayís primary vehicles for delivery information, the Web, and the impact on user knowledge from that interaction. The results could influence both how we educate students to use the Web and the design of material presented on the Web to improve its ease of use and value for the user.
 
 

• Addressing policy issues will be both implicit and explicit in the work that we do. 

• We will identify critical policy issues that merit deeper attention, and take advantage of existing policy networks of which we are a part to inform policy development. 

Implicit in the work conducted by the Initiative is a wide array of policy issues, including information literacy standards, issues related to the "Digital Divide," and privacy and ownership concerns. We anticipate that over the next two years, critical policy issues such as these will emerge from individual projects and from looking across projects as well as from the external national and state policy environments. We anticipate disseminating the results of our policy research to both policymakers and to the broader public to inform public discussion of these important issues. Additionally, an advisory panel will help guide the policy work of the Initiative. 
 
 

Co-Directors:  Aimeé Dorr and Howard Besser