#MILID yearbook: Opportunities for Media and Information Literacy in the Middle East and North Africa

The open access book has been published:
Abu-fadil, M., Torrent, J. and Grizzle, A. (Eds) (2016). Opportunities for Media and Information Literacy in the Middle East and North Africa. Gothenburg, Sweden: The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. ISBN 978-91-87957-33-8
This is the latest MILID Yearbook (Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue). The chapters are:
- Magda Abu-Fadil: Introduction:
- Alton Grizzle: Preliminary Comparative Analysis of Media and Information Literacy in the MENA Region
- Jad Melki & Lubna Maaliki: Helping Arab Digital and Media Literacy Blossom. Three years of the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB)
- Jordi Torrent: Youth and Digital Media. Drafting a Landscape from Fez and Cairo
- Lucy Nuseibeh & Mohammed Abu Arqoub: An Overview from the Occupied Palestinian Territories
- Abdul Ameer Al-Faisal: An Iraqi Perspective
- Redouane Boujemaa: An Algerian Perspective
- Abdelhamid Nfissi & Drissia Chouit: A Moroccan Perspective
- Samy Tayie: An Egyptian Perspective
- Yasar Durra: A Jordanian Perspective
- Naifa Eid Saleem: An Omani Perspective
- Magda Abu-Fadil: A Lebanese Perspective
- Carmilla Floyd & Gabriella Thinz: Empowering Children and Youth in Tunisia
The page with links to all the MILID yearbooks is http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/media-development/media-literacy/global-alliance-for-partnerships-on-media-and-information-literacy/milid-network/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Seagulls over the Thames, December 2017

The lack of civility in the "Arab spring" #wlic2013

The lack of civility in the "Arab spring" and librarians and document manager’s duties for civic literacy and librarians and document managers duties from Ahmed Ksibi (Institut Supérieur de Documentation, Tunis, Tunisia) is the next paper at the IFLA World library and Information Conference in Singapore.
The speaker noted that the "Arab spring" movement began in Tunisia and shook the Arab world. Although Tunisia is small, it has a long history and had the first constitution in the world (as Carthage). The speaker identified the demands of the young people who took part in the uprisings - to do with demands for freedom, dignity and employment and catch up with gains in other counries. Ksibi talked about the demonstrations and activisim elsewhere e.g. in Spain and in the USA, also stimulated by the worldwide economic crisis.
He said that the arab spring is now turning to a dark autumn with a "gerontocracy retrograde" taking power and increased moves from militia and facist powers.
In terms of "lack of civility" he listed elements such as the impunity of people who practised violence, uncontrolled construction, increase in pollution etc. This should be reveresed with a movement for civic literacy. There has been a previous IFLA conference on the topic of civic literacies.
It was vital to accompany the revolt with a conception of the library as contributing to civic culture. The ides of the library as the "third place" that can establish a process of dialogue and be a place of discussion was very important. There, people can engage with each other about complex public issues, in a non-partisan manner. Also there can be access to documents and data relating to civic literacies on open web sites. The full paper is at http://library.ifla.org/261/1/099-ksibi-fr.pdf