Dr. Jan Steyaert is a faculty member at the Fontys University of Professional Education in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and research fellow at University of Bath, England. He has published widely on the application of technology in human services as well as on the dynamics between technology and social quality of society. His work focuses on research and developments projects for local agencies, local and national government (city of Eindhoven, Dutch ministry of welfare, ministry of the interior, ministry of housing, ministry of economy), and international work for the European Commission. Research Related to Information Literacy: In 2000, I developed and published a framework on digital literacy. This was based on the hypothesis that the digital divide was not limited to or not essentially about physical access to information technology, but about information skills. Information literacy is an essential factor in social inclusion/exclusion. This framework resulted in distinguishing three 'levels' of digital/information literacy. It makes clear that digital literacy is mostly about new instrumental skills, while underneath, the traditional strategic information skills are generic to all media. However, because of the transformation towards an information society, they significantly gain importance. Instrumental skills indicates the operational manipulation, dealing with the technology as such, the keyboard knowledge. This has to do with simple basic actions (for instance, 'mouse up' means pushing the mouse away from you and not actually lifting it up as small children do to start off with) to more complex manipulations such as sending someone an e-mail with an attached data base or downloading accessory software from the Internet and installing it. Within the context of traditional media, instrumental skills are mainly reading skills. The concept of structural skills indicates that which has immediate relevance to the (new) structure in which information is contained. Within the context of traditional media, this has to do with skills such as the use of the index in a book (for which the use of the alphabet and the identification of relevant key words are necessary basic skills), or the use of the index system in a library. Changes in the structure of information can have major consequences. In new media the 'old' skills are complemented, for instance, by the skill to make use of hypertext (jumping via key words to other information sources), or looking for dynamic information (via discussion sites, rather than via static information on web sites). Sufficient knowledge of English can be considered to be another of these new skills. Strategic skills, as the term indicates, are of a more strategic nature and include the basic readiness to pre-actively look for information, the attitude of taking decisions based on available information and the continuous scanning of the environment for information that is relevant to work or personal life. Upcoming work in this area focuses on information literacy in professional settings, on communities of practice, on the 'google citation index' and 'information hang-outs' as new tools for professional communication supplementing scholarly writings through peer reviewed publications. This work is available in Dutch, and will most likely be updated and translated before summer 2004. Publications: Dr. Steyaert's publications can be downloaded from http://www.fontys.nl/sociaalplatform/ and http://www.steyaert.org/Jan/ Publications relevant to information literacy include (all can be downloaded from http://www.steyaert.org/Jan/): Steyaert, J. (2000). Digitale vaardigheden, geletterdheid in de informatiesamenleving. den Haag: Rathenau instituut. (English Summary available) Steyaert, J. (2002). Inequality and the digital divide: myths and realities. In S. Hick & J. McNutt (Eds.), Advocacy, activism and the internet (pp. 199-211). Chicago: Lyceum Press. Steyaert, J. (2002). Much ado about unicorns and digital divides. In J. van Beurden & P. de Graaf & T. Meinema (Eds.), Bridging the gaps (pp. 47-58). Utrecht: NIZW-ICSW. Steyaert, J. & Gould, N. (2004 (in press)). The rise and fall of the digital divide. In J. Graham & M. Jones & S. Hick (Eds.), Digital Divide and Back: Social Welfare, Technology and the New Economy. Toronto: University of Toronto. Contact Information: Dr. Jan Steyaert Professor Social infrastructure and technology Fontys University of Professional Education Department of Social Work Post-box 347 5600 AH Eindhoven the Netherlands Telephone: +31-6-502.42.296 (mobile) Jan@steyaert.org

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Dr. Lana Jackman
Sharon Weiner
Co-Chairs, National Forum on Information Literacy