IASL2006

The 2006 IASL Conference

Lisbon, Portugal, 3-7 July

Keynote Speaker Biographies

Isabel Veiga
Commissioner of National Reading Plan
Ministry of Education, Portugal

Isabel Veiga is a writer (the author of many books for children under the name of Isabel Alcada) and a professor in the Dept. of Sociology of Education, Lisbon School of Education. Graduated in Philosophy (1974), University of Lisbon, and in Education (MD), Boston University (1984). She coordinated the working group responsible for the School Library Network Program (1996-1997), and is presently the Commissioner for the National Reading Plan. She was a member of the Board of Directors Serralves Foundation, Porto (2001-2005).

Ross Todd
Director of Research, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ (U.S.A.)
Website -- Ross Todd

Ross J Todd is Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA, and currently is the Director of the Masters of Library and Information Science program. He teaches courses in human information behaviour, qualitative research methods, as well as courses in the school library specialization. His current research focuses on four key areas: understanding the cognitive dynamics of adolescent information seeking and utilization; examining how learners build new knowledge in complex information environments; understanding how school libraries contribute to student learning outcomes, and developing approaches to evidence-based practice for school librarians. He is also Director of Research for CISSL, the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries based at Rutgers University. He received several honours and awards.

Abstract
From Learning to Read to Reading to Learn: School Libraries, Literacy and Guided Inquiry
School libraries are about the future. They are about the development of knowledgeable and knowing young people; young people who have the ability to read the word and the world, and who can live their lives as thinking, informed, knowledgeable and productive citizens of an increasingly inter-connected world. They are about young people who have the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to invest wisely in confidently shaping their own futures and their lives as family, community and workplace members. Reading, Knowing and Doing are the multiple faces of the future global citizens that we nurture in our schools. Reading, Knowing, Doing, as the multiple faces of literacy, are the multiple faces of quality school libraries. And Reading, Knowing and Doing are at the heart of informed, in-tune, and in-touch school librarians committed to providing the best opportunities for our students to learn to use their minds well.
In Reading, Knowing and Doing, we have a very important and noble work to do. School libraries as powerful and engaging places in the lives of students do not happen by chance or force. They are achieved through wise and deliberate decisions and actions and instructional interventions on our part; actions, interventions and productive learning partnerships that enable us to work in transformative ways in our schools. In this paper, I will briefly address each of the dimensions of Reading, Knowing and Doing as the literacy-knowledge-learning foundations of school libraries. As the school library research builds, we see strong and compelling evidence that school libraries are engaging places in the lives of our students, and at the same time we see challenges ahead where much needs to be done. These challenges take us beyond traditional notions of reading, writing, and numeracy, as well as long standing conceptions of information literacy. They focus our thinking on the building blocks of a knowledge-based society, and the knowings and doings that will enable our students to get there. They challenge us to embrace a powerful vision of knowledge centeredness rather than information centeredness, and to align our leadership, pedagogy and resources to create that vision.

Conference Programme -- Tuesday

Javier Echeverría (Spain)
Research Professor
Departamento de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad
Instituto de Filosofía, CSIC (Madrid, Spain)

Javier Echeverria (Pamplona, Spain), graduated in Philosophy (1970) and Mathematics (1970) and Ph.D. in P hilosophy (1975) at the Universidad Complutense, in Madrid (Spain). In 1980, he obtained the grade of Docteur d'Etat-ès Lettres et Sciences Humaines, at the Université Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), in Paris (France).
Since 1979 to 1986 he was Professor at the Universidad del Country Vasco (Spain) and Full Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the same University, in San Sebastian (Spain) since 1986 to 1996. As for the first October, 1996, he became Research Professor of "Science, Technology and Society" Area at the Philosophy Institut of the Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC, Madrid, Spain).
He was President and member of the executive borrad of several scientific organizations. He is Member of the I nternational Academy of the Philosophy of Science and Vicepresident of the Sociedad Española Leibniz.
He published several books and obtained the Spanish prize Premio Anagrama de Ensayo (Essay) in 1995 and in 2000 the Spanish prize Premio Nacional de Ensayo, granted by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to the essay work Los Señores del Aire.
Major research areas of interest: Philosophy of Science and Technology, Science and Values, Ethics of Science, Science, Technology and Society Studies, New Technologies of Information and Communication and Leibniz.

Abstract:
Libraries in e-Europe: multimedia school library networks
The research and university libraries, as well as many public libraries were in the front of the information society during the decade of 1980-90, mainly in USA and in the Anglo-American countries. On the contrary, the introduction of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in school libraries was much more recent, although children and young people are the main users of these new technologies. The educational systems of both elementary and high schools were in general very slow in the use of such technologies for the learning and teaching processes. In Europe, this tendency is now changing, mostly because of the Lisbon Agenda (2000), which gave birth to the eEurope 2002 and eEurope 2005 plans. To built the eEurope – which is not the same thing as the geographical and political Europe – an e-learning program was created, whose main goals were the adaptation of the scholar centres to the digital space, mainly in what refers to Internet connexions. Recently (sptember 2005), the European Union renewed the Lisbon Agenda, redesigning its proposed actions according to the program 2010, which means several significant changes in the strategies for the promotion of Europe.
This keynote is based on the analysis of the changes provoked by ICT in the scholar systems and in the life of young Europeans, showing that there is, in reality, an educational divide between pupils and teachers: school libraries can fight this gap, whenever they adapt multimedia formats and organize themselves as networks. The challenge for school libraries is their transformation into digital repositories of learning materials (EU 2002, UNESCO 2003).

Conference Programme -- Tuesday

José Afonso Furtado
Art Library Director
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal)

José Afonso Furtado was born in Alcobaça in 1953. Graduated in Philosophy by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, he holds the position of Director of the Art Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation since 1992. He is a member of the Advisory Council for Libraries, under the Ministry of Culture, since 1998, and has been a regular lecturer in the Publishing Course of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Portuguese Catholic University, and invited lecturer in the post-graduation course of Intellectual Property Rights, in the Faculty of Law of the same University. Besides a variety of journals articles and conference papers, he has published O que é o Livro, Lisboa, Difusão Cultural, 1995,  Os Livros e as Leituras. Novas Ecologias da Informação, Lisboa, Livros e Leituras, 2000 and O papel e o pixel. Do impresso ao digital: continuidades e transformações, Florianópolis (Brazil), Escritório do Livro, 2006.

Abstract:
Literacy issues in the era of the new media
The production, transmission and conservation of information and knowledge have been historically connected to paper and printed materials. Nevertheless, it is nowadays impossible to ignore the dramatic effects of the shift to an informational and networked society, and of the advances of New Information and Communication Technologies, on understanding the nature and function of documents as we have seen them traditionally. In this sense, our time is marked by the complex relationship between the processes of technological development and the social and cultural practices and institutions. Empirical evidence reveals that nowadays information is mostly created, recorded and stored on digital media and that information flows use more and more electronic diffusion channels. While Information and Communication Technologies offer enormous possibilities for development, so they can equally generate new inequalities. Since the last decade of the XX century, the term digital divide has been used to generally refer to the different difficulties found in the interaction (or its absence) with new technologies, hence in accessing content, services and information resources. More recently, the complexity of access issues has been underlined, stressing the fact that it cannot be reduced to problems of technological infrastructure, multiplication of equipments or bandwidth, rather it involves motivational questions, new skills and a particular attention to patterns of usage access.
Our electronically mediated world is related to the emergence of new types of text, new language practices and new social formations. Problems of access and credibility of information become of utmost importance in a context where traditional literacy is confronted with the multimodality of information and communication induced by the diffusion of new technologies and media, raising challenges that demand, from the different social stakeholders, a new ethical approach, an ethics of information.

Resumo:
A produção, transmissão e conservação da informação e do saber tem estado historicamente ligada ao suporte papel e ao material impresso. Contudo, não é hoje possível ignorar que a passagem para uma sociedade de informação e de rede e o desenvolvimento das Novas Tecnologias de Informação e de Comunicação tem afectado significativamente o modo de pensar a natureza e funções dos documentos tal como tradicionalmente os temos conhecido. Este período caracteriza-se assim pela complexidade das relações entre processos de desenvolvimento tecnológico e práticas e instituições sociais e culturais. A evidência empírica vem revelando que a informação é agora criada, registada e armazenada sobretudo em suportes digitais e que os fluxos de informação utilizam cada vez mais canais electrónicos de difusão. Se é certo que as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação oferecem enormes possibilidades para o desenvolvimento, podem igualmente estar na base de novas desigualdades. Na última década do século XX, o termo genérico fractura digital (digital divide) passou a ser utilizado na maioria das instâncias para designar as diversas dificuldades encontradas na interacção (ou ausência dela) com as novas tecnologias e, desse modo, no acesso a conteúdos, serviços e recursos de informação. Mais recentemente, tem sido sublinhada a complexidade da questão desse acesso, que não se pode reduzir a problemas de infra-estrutura tecnológica, de multiplicação de equipamentos ou de largura de banda, mas que envolve questões motivacionais, novas competências e uma atenção particular aos padrões de uso do acesso.
O nosso mundo electronicamente mediado está associado à emergência de novos tipos de texto, novas práticas de linguagem e novas formações sociais. Os problemas do acesso a da credibilidade da informação assumem uma importância decisiva num contexto em que a literacia tradicional se vê confrontada com a multimodalidade da informação e da comunicação induzida pela difusão das novas tecnologias e dos novos media, desafios que exigem das diversas instâncias sociais uma nova abordagem ética, uma ética da informação.

Conference Programme -- Wednesday

Jean-Louis Durpaire
General Inspector of National Education
Ministry of National Education, Superior Education and Research
Paris (France)

Mathematics teacher for twelve years, later working for the Ministry of National Education for 25 years, Jean-Louis Durpaire was director of the regional centres of pedagogical documentation (CRDP) of Dijon (1988-91) and Poitiers (1991-2002). From 2000 to 2002, he was deputy-assistant to the general director of the national centre of pedagogical documentation (CNDP).
Since 2002, he is General Inspector of National Education. He is especially responsible for the following of documentary issues at elementary and high schools. He is also responsible for the recruitment of teacher librarians.
He is the author of the report Documentary Policies at School Establishments (2004). Before, he published Internet in French Schools (CNDP, 1997).

Abstract:
Information Literacy: the French approach
The Orientation and Program Act for the Future of Schools (23 April 2005) has established the notion of the basic skills that every pupil should have before leaving the formal educational system. These bases, which are still being defined, include the domain of information and communication technologies.
The informational skills and competencies are not the domain of a specific discipline of the secondary education, except for the students of the communication and information area. They are inscribed in the general programmes of the different courses (history, geography, chemistry, physics, French, etc.). Their evaluation is though connected with each course. On the other hand, for ten years now, several training tools are being used in order to change the traditional ways of teaching. Their common characteristic is the enforcement of information research and documents production by the pupils. Recently, the B2i – certificate on Internet and informatics – has been instituted to validate the competencies on the use and processing of information through the new information tools.
The French educational system is also characterized by the existence of a teacher librarian in each school. This teacher librarian, more than a documentation and information technician, is an integrant member of the pedagogical team. He participates in the pedagogical council, is a counsellor of the school director in what concerns information and documentation policies, and he uses his knowledge to support information literacy programmes. The papers developed both by teacher librarians and general teachers are object of reflection at a local and national levels. An order from the ministry is now being studied: it will define the paper of each one inside the school establishment in the context of the development of their information policies.

Résumé de l’intervention
La loi d’orientation et de programme pour l’avenir de l’école (23 avril 2005) a institué la notion de socle des compétences que tout élève doit posséder avant de quitter le système éducatif. Ce socle dont la définition plus précise est en cours inclut la maîtrise des techniques de l’information et de la communication.
Les compétences informationnelles ne relèvent pas d’une discipline spécifique dans l’enseignement secondaire, sauf pour certains élèves de lycée (section information-communication). Elles sont inscrites dans les programmes des disciplines d’enseignement (histoire, géographie, physique-chimie, sciences et vie de la terre, français, etc.). Leur évaluation est donc intégrée à chaque discipline. Par ailleurs, depuis une dizaine d’années, des dispositifs de formation sont mis en place qui font évoluer les démarches classiques d’enseignement. Leur caractéristique commune est de faire appel à la recherche d’information et à la production de documents par les élèves. Enfin, vient d’être institué le B2i - brevet informatique et Internet – pour valider des compétences en matière de maîtrise de l’information, via les nouveaux outils.
Le système éducatif français se caractérise aussi par le fait que chaque établissement scolaire dispose d’un professeur-documentaliste. Celui-ci n’est pas seulement un technicien de la documentation ; il est membre à part entière de l’équipe pédagogique. Il participe au conseil pédagogique (instance nouvelle au sein de l’établissement), il conseille le chef d’établissement en matière d’information et de documentation, il apporte son aide à la mise en place des formations au littérisme informationnel. La répartition des rôles entre les professeurs documentalistes et les professeurs disciplinaires fait l’objet de réflexions tant au niveau ministériel que local. Une circulaire ministérielle est en cours de rédaction: elle viendra repréciser le rôle de chacun au sein de l’établissement scolaire dans le contexte du développement des politiques documentaires des établissements scolaires.

Conference Programme -- Wednesday

Carol C. Kuhlthau
Director of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ (U.S.A.)
Personal Webpage

Dr. Kuhlthau is a professor in the Dept. of Library and Information Science, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She is also the Coordinator for School Library Media Specialization and the Director of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL).
Carol Collier Kuhlthau coordinates the Ph.D. concentration in library studies and the M.L.S. educational media specialist program. In her recent book, Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services (2nd Ed, 2004), she summarizes her research and proposes uncertainty as a principle for redefining library and information services and systems for the information age.
Research Interest: The user's perspective of the information search process.
Dr. Carol Kuhlthau specializations include information seeking and use, user-centered information services and systems, user education, and school library media services. She is the author of dozens of scholarly papers and books, a frequently invited consultant and lecturer, and active in professional associations. Her awards include the ALA Jesse Shera Award for Outstanding Research (1989), the ACRL Miriam Dudley Instructional Librarian Award (2000) and the LITA Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology (2002).

Abstract:
Information Literacy through Guided Inquiry: Preparing students for the 21st Century
Across the globe, school libraries play an essential role in preparing students for living and working in the 21st century through information literacy. The Rutgers University Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) promotes this initiative through research on the impact of school libraries on student learning, research symposia for international school library scholars, and training institutes for school librarians. Our research shows that guided inquiry is a dynamic innovative way of developing information literacy through the school library. Guided inquiry is carefully planned, closely supervised, targeted intervention of an instructional team of school librarians and teachers that gradually leads students through the research process toward independent learning. Guided inquiry develops research competency and subject knowledge as well as fostering cooperative learning, motivation, reading comprehension, language development and social skills that underlies literacy for the 21st century.

Conference Programme -- Thursday

Jose Pacheco Pereria
Professor, ISCTE, Lisboa, Portugal

Jose Pacheco Pereria is a historian, professor and political analyst. He was born in Porto and graduated in Philosophy from the University of Porto. As a politician he was a member of the Portuguese Parliament from three mandates from 1987 to 1999, and a member and Vice-President of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. He is a permanent commentator of the Portuguese written press (newspaper Publico and magazine Sabado) and television (Sic Noticias). He is the author of several articles and books on Portuguese contemporary history.

Alexandre Castro Caldas
Director of the Neurology Departament of the Hospital de Santa Maria
Lisbon (Portugal)

A. CASTRO-CALDAS is Director of the Institute for Health Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University and was formerly Professor of Neurology of the Medical School of the University of Lisbon and Head of the Department of Neurology of Hospital de Santa Maria. Member of several international societies, he is Past-President of the International Neuropsychological Society. The main scientific interest concerns Cognitive Neurosciences. He published more than 100 papers in this area and a textbook in Portuguese for Students.

Abstract:
Brain mechanisms involved in learning to read in adult life
Previous research revealed that adult subjects that were unable to attend school in the proper age for social reasons were different from literate controls. The differences were found both on performances in several cognitive tasks and in the pattern of brain function and even in anatomical development of the brain. When illiterate subjects learn to read in adult life it was found that they use different areas of the brain to support this new information in comparison to those that learned in the proper age.

Conference Programme -- Friday

Last Updated 11 June 2006 (KSB)