Middle East information literacy awareness and indigenous Arabic content challenges

Abstract

This article reports on researching “Middle East: Information Literacy awareness and indigenous Arabic World Wide Web content challenges”. The research reported upon was conducted in preparation for a training presentation which was delivered as a part of the UNESCO “Training the Trainers” (TTT) in Information Literacy workshop project that was held November 6–8, 2008 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. Although the concept of Information Literacy is relatively new worldwide, by now it is fairly well understood, practiced and pedagogically supported in the developed world. But, it is still quite a mystery for developing countries, especially in the Middle East and North Africa regions. Therefore, the presentation the authors were invited to deliver at the workshop aimed at creating a much needed broader awareness concerning the concept of Information Literacy, including the somewhat differing definitions which are used in various world regions and cultures, and the concept’s relevance to the advancement of knowledge, research, and the general level of education in the Arabic speaking world. Special attention was paid to these problems in the context of challenges faced by higher education institutions in the Middle East and North Africa regions.

The authors discovered that the problem of the scarcity of indigenous Arabic content materials on the World Wide Web is inextricably related to the challenges of increasing the awareness of Middle East and North Africa audiences to the relevance of Information Literacy. The authors endeavor to explain in detail what this inter-relationship is, and why and how the increase of Arabic materials on the Web could then lead to an increase in the awareness of Information Literacy in those Arabic speaking regions.

The workshop presentation aimed at explaining and promoting Information Literacy skills, not only to students and researchers, but also to future Information Literacy trainers (the participants at the UNESCO workshop). The language barrier, the Digital Divide, and the lack of adequate Arabic digital content/resources relating to Information Literacy, were all reviewed with the workshop participants, illustrated by real world case examples, and discussed, in an effort to simultaneously try to work toward a consensus approach to teaching and learning the IL concept, and at the same time create a heightened Information Literacy awareness. Rather than simply amplify in detail the technical contents of the workshop presentations the authors made in this article, and with the encouragement of the Review’s editor and guest editor, the authors decided to “tell their story” in anecdotal fashion, sharing with the workshop participants tales of the many challenges they faced in just preparing materials for their presentations – and covering both the presentation format and the presentation content aspects, including explaining why they selected a specific teaching and learning approach, and how they dealt with various delivery and implementation challenges. By so doing, readers faced with similar teaching challenges might be better prepared to respond to the many challenges, both in the context of the preparations they will be required to make as well as in the context of their actual content delivery at their workshops.

Keywords:

• Information literacy
• Middle East
• North Africa
• Arabic content
• Egypt
• American University Cairo
• AUC

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to a number of colleagues who patiently reviewed multiple drafts of this article. In particular the Review's editors, Dr. Horton and Dr. Carbo for their guidance and support throughout the writing process.