IASL 2006 - Portugal

IASL 2006 began yesterday with my induction into the working of the Executive and the Board. Meetings went from 9:30am 6:30pm and we haven't finished yet. The keynote this morning was by Ross Todd and challenged participants to become proactive in lityeracy and information literacy outcomes for students. Participants are from all over the world with 30 Australians, but only one from WA. It is always interesting to see how others are tackling essentially the same problems - poor recoginition and status, lack of funding and staffing, difficulties with technologies and a lack of understanding about the role of the TL in schools. Others who are working in developing countries have additaional probelms such as lack of essential infrastructure (like roadsn and buildings!), no trained staff and poor communications. It is always surprising to learn that we are all facing the same issues - how to effectively solve them and re-empower citizens through access to information (and this includes location and understanding) is the challenge for the profession in the 21st century. Hope to be back online agian tomorrow.
:)
BC