Policy recommendations on disinformation and media literacy

Published in May 2026:
EAVI - European Association for Viewers Interests. (2026) Teachers 4.0 Digital Age: Policy recommendations on disinformation and media literacy for national and EU policymakers https://eavi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Teachers-4.0_WP6_D.6.3.-Policy-Recommendations_EAVI.pdf
It is an output of Teachers 4.0 digital age project which includes in its aims "Development of a comprehensive curriculum that will guide teachers and educators in the ways they may teach their students the necessary skills to thrive in the digital age."
Photo by Sheila Webber: border in Botanical Gardens, July 2026

Media Literacy report released

The UK's House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee published its report on Media literacy yesterday (25 July 2025). Numerous individuals and organisations submitted oral or written evidence.The report: 
- "examines trends in the media and information environment and the need to improve UK media literacy;
- examines the role of the Government and Ofcom in relation to media literacy;
- examines the contributions of online platforms and the media industry to work in this area;
- examines how to improve the media literacy skills of UK adults; and
- examines options for improving children and young people’s media literacy."

I haven't read the report so far, just skimmed through and done my usual search for libraries and for information literacy. Information Literacy primarily appears when the UK's Media and Information Literacy Alliance's submission is being cited or quoted, plus a couple of references to UNESCO's MIL initiatives. Libraries and librarians are mentioned, particularly in the recommendation quoted below, but in the context of public libraries, rather than libraries/librarians in formal education. The report makes a number of recommendations, including embedding media literacy in the school curriculum.
This is the recommendation that mentions libraries most prominently.
"The Government is right to identify the importance of supporting people’s digital skills at their points of interaction with public services. Libraries and librarians are particularly well placed to provide media literacy education for adults as they already serve the information and literacy needs of local communities. We were pleased to see the Government highlight the role of public libraries in its digital inclusion action plan. (Paragraph 175)
"We support efforts to strengthen the ability of local organisations and public services to provide media literacy training. We restate that this must be seen as complementary to, but distinct from, digital inclusion initiatives. We recognise, however, that frontline services and community groups are already stretched in assisting users with other, urgent matters and have limited capacity to take on additional responsibilities. (Paragraph 176)
"The Government’s digital inclusion action plan should build media literacy competencies by enabling more consistent support—for example through leveraging platforms’ funding—for initiatives delivered locally or through public services. The Government must ensure that in relying on trusted local stakeholders for delivery, it does not place further strain on frontline services and community groups without providing additional funding and support. (Paragraph 177)" (p.7)
You can read the report online or in pdf. This is the page with links to submitted evidence as well as to the final report https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9030/media-literacy/publications/
Photo by Sheila Webber: orange rose, July 2025

Making lifelong learning a reality: a handbook

I don't think I covered this 2022 UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning publication Making lifelong learning a reality: a handbook  https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381857 (this is the English version, it also links to the French and Spanish versions).
It starts by defining LLL and explaining why it is important (including its relevance to Sustainable Development Goals) and then has chapters on creating LLL policy, implementing a LLL strategy and finally an example of LLL implemented at city level.
Since one of the UNESCO declarations has declared that information literacy is part of "the basic human right of lifelong learning" I think this handbook is relevant to IL. However, frustratingly, the term information literacy" is (from a quick search) only used once, in passing.
Nevertheless, examples are given where IL is relevant e.g. the example of knowledge sharing - "Lifelong learning villages in Mali" (p96). Certainly the statement at the start of the book seems to me intertwined with IL: "Lifelong learning is rooted in the integration of learning and living, covering learning activities for people of all ages, in all life-wide contexts and through a variety of modalities that, together, meet a range of learning needs and demands." (p17).
Photo by Sheila Webber: tree that thinks it's a sculpture, Gothenburg, June 2023

International Day of Education free conference 24 January #EducationDay

Should you happen to be available on 24 January 2020 and able to go to Paris, there is a free conference at UNESCO HQ to celebrate the International Day of Education. The programme is here. You don't have to register in advance, just turn up with some ID. UNESCO often stream at least part of their events, so they may be livestreaming. The home page for the day is at https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/educationday

Policy Brief on libraries and literacy; Soutenir les efforts nationaux d'alphabétisation: le rôle des bibliothèques; Aportes de las bibliotecas para contribuir a las iniciativas nacionales de alfabetización

UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning's Libraries and literacy: Using libraries to support national literacy efforts - UIL Policy Brief 6 (December 2016) has been published in French, Spanish and Arabic. The brief is a 4 page document which "examines the role of libraries in supporting lifelong literacy. The policy brief looks at how libraries nurture early literacy skills up to advanced levels of literacy proficiency, and the need for libraries to be involved in policy dialogue connected to literacy. The publication goes further to highlight the fact that libraries at every level, local and national, should be well-resourced to serve their surrounding communities and users in order to create a successful learning environment."
Thanks to Lisa Krolak for guiding me to the two ways in which you can access the non-English versions
1) There is a catalogue entry that has links to all four documents (English, French, Spanish, Arabic) at http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=246778
2) There is a news page with information about the document. You can see this page in English, French or German (but not Arabic!), and each version just contains a link to the briefing in that language. The English version is at http://www.uil.unesco.org/literacy-and-basic-skills/libraries-and-literacy-using-libraries-support-national-literacy-efforts. If you want the Spanish or French versions, look to the top left of the home page, where it says "English Français Español" and click for the appropriate language.
Photo by Sheila webber: fountain, Sheffield Botanic Gardens, March 2017

Digital Literacy articles; policy, expectations and laptops

In the Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy (Jubileumsnummer/2015). Open access .
- Digital Literacy and Digital Literacies: - Policy, Pedagogy and Research Considerations for Education by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel
- Educating the Digital Generation - Exploring Media Literacy for the 21st Century by Ola Erstad
- Digital Literacy in Upper Secondary School – What Do Students Use Their Laptops for During Teacher Instruction? by Marte Blikstad-Balas
- Challenging educational expectations of the social web: a web 2.0 far? by Neil Selwyn. A quote from this: "For all its intuitive appeal, the widespread valorisation of informal learning and the individualised learner with current understandings of the social web in education dangerously depoliticises the act of learning (Gorman 2007). Such arguments present an overly simplistic view of successful education as relying merely on groups of like-minded disembodied individuals, whilst failing to consider the wider social, economic, political and cultural contexts of the societal act of schooling."
Go to https://www.idunn.no/dk/2015/Jubileumsnummer
Photo by Sheila Webber: taken in Second Life, December 2015

Literacies as owned spaces in a changing world #IFLALimerick

More liveblogging from the IFLA Information Literacy Satellite conference held in Limerick, Ireland. The second keynote is from Conor Galvin, UCD Dublin College of Human Sciences, talking about Literacies as owned spaces in a changing world. His session touched on several different interesting perspectives on technology, education, and my post may look a bit disjointed as I pick bits out on the fly. In fact there wasn't so much about literacies in the end, but it was certainly a session I enjoyed. He started by asking us to talk to the few people around you about something that you'd discovered during the morning.
He mentioned work on use of technology in schools, and identified the importance of the approach and attitudes of the teacher. Galvin talked briefly about the http://etwinning.net European project "The free and safe platform for teachers to connect, develop collaborative projects and share ideas in Europe".
He went on to talk about the tech lifeline of people born in about 1995 (i.e. currently in early years at university), with landmarks like palmpilots, Napster, and iPhones. He said that they have a deep relationship with their technology (which was contrasted with "us" having a less deep relationship - which given the people in the room here I would not say is necessarily a contrast). Galvin said that students' views of institutional technology was critical, and that it did not fit in with the young people's habits although (I am glad to say) he did not buy into the idea of digital "natives".
Galvin then asked us to discuss and identify how our own institutions were doing in terms of interacting and supporting students with technology (most people thought their institutions were somewhere in the middle).
Following on from that he gave a trenchant critique of the current European Union take on higher education and how it has stopped being about a good life, or personal development, but rather employability and service of national economy. This is something I agree with (I mean in seeing it as impoverished, and not actually what education should be mostly about). He identified some virtually invisible leaders who are plugged into the political networks, who may be key people in commercial companies, European bureaucrats, heads of associations and so forth. He put up a nice quote (which I wasn't quick enough to capture) about how if you had universities run on marketing principles you get education that does not enable people to transcend their time (as opposed to cope with it). Galvin saw the increased politicisation, deregulation and managerialism of unversities as very worrying and quoted Habermas who talked about "refeudalisation" of society as people lost their voices and control over things: this is bound to lead to discontent and disorder as well.
He finished by talking about a more fulfilling vision for education, and this is where he came back to spaces and libraries, giving some examples of libraries that are "owned" public spaces where people can learn. In his slide on "Literacies/ Capabilities" he included words like "enjoy" and "values" as well as more concrete terms. Galvin urged librarians to get involved in strategy to help these kinds of changes come about, not as "deliverers" of a service, but rather as advocates, co-researchers, teachers and mentors.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Nora Barnacle's house, Galway, August 2014