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Information Industry Literacy within the New Millennium: A Case Study of a Developing Country—Egypt

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Abstract

Information Literacy is a concept that does not just apply to individuals. It has considerable significance and relevance to institutions, and to all sectors of society. There is a general presumption, a fair one I believe, that if all sectors of a nation's society become more information literate, then the economy of the country, the quality of public policy decisions, and the quality of life of all individuals will improve concomitantly. This paper addresses information literacy as the author understands its applicability and relevance to the business and industry sector. Hence the paper's title "Information Industry Literacy," which can be translated as "the significance and importance of the information literacy concept to business and industry." That does not necessarily infer that commercial or for-profit firms, alone, should be the only component targets of information industry literacy improvements. Other "players" that are involved in the classic production-consumption economic model must also be involved, including the information literacy of consumers, the information literacy of raw material suppliers, of intermediary distributors, of government regulators, and so on. In short, not just the information literacy of the manufacturer. This paper's perspective is that of a businessman who has been intimately involved in information literacy improvements in one developing country, his native land, Egypt. The particular significance of the reopening in 2002, after centuries of dormancy, of the Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina) in a worldwide information literacy context is also addressed. The working definition of information literacy provided by the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts convenors has been accepted by this author and the term is used in the paper with the meaning ascribed by that definition. From time to time suggestions for strengthening that working definition are made.

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... Considering mentioned-above criteria, the 19 countries were selected for studying: India (Department of Information Technology (DIT), 2004), Belarus (National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2003), Egypt (Salem, 2002; El-Gabaly and Majidi, 2003), Malaysia (Rasool, 2003), Australia (ACS, 2002), Poland (Piątkowski, 2004), Argentina (Finquelievichy and Jara, 2000), Trinidad and Tobago (Macintyre and Ramnarine, 2003), Costa Rica (Monge and Chacón, 2002), Srilanka (UNCTAD, 2000), Uzbekistan (State Committee for Science and Technology, 2001), United Arab Emirates (Shalhoub and Al Qasimi, 2003), Finland (Aho et al., 2004Walliman and Baiche, 2001); then, the recommendations that have been implemented at least in two countries (at least with the frequency two) were selected as proposed recommendations to experts. The reason for selecting the frequency two is that the selected recommendations have been implemented and tested at least in two countries with different conditions. ...
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To be able to compete effectively in the emerging global economy, it is necessary that all nations continue to nurture e-business development. But, successful implementation of e- business needs operational policies and programs that fit with the internal situations of countries. In this paper, benchmarking 19 countries and 4 regions, 339 recommendations for e-business development are extracted. Using content analysis, 36 recommendations are selected and categorized into four groups of Human Resource, Security, E-Infrastructure, and Policies and Plans. A national survey is conducted and then using statistical test, the recommendations that fit with Iran internal situations are proposed. These recommendations are prioritized and categorized in three groups. These groups are: necessary and urgent, necessary and not urgent, and specific for Iran. The categorization is based on three criteria of importance in pundits' opinions, country's experience, and whether or not the recommendations have been implemented. The proposed recommendations are also ranked based on pundits' opinions. The proposed methodology is applicable for other developing countries by considering their pundits opinions.
... India (Department of Information Technology (DIT), 2004), Belarus (National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2003), Egypt (Salem, 2002;El-Gabaly and Majidi, 2003), Malaysia (Rasool, 2003), Australia (ACS, 2002), Poland (Piątkowski, 2004), Argentina (Finquelievichy and Jara, 2000), Trinidad and Tobago (Macintyre and Ramnarine, 2003), Costa Rica ( (2000) are also taken into account. ...
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The present study is the first attempt to make recommendations that enhance e-business deployment in Iran. In this paper, studying 19 countries and four regions, 339 recommendations for e-business development are extracted. Then, using content analysis, 32 recommendations are selected and categorised into four groups of 'e-infrastructure', 'human resource', 'security' and 'policies and plans'. Countries selected for extracting their recommendations are those whose circumstances resemble Iran's. Therefore, these recommendations seem to be able to be exploited by developing countries, in particular, by Middle East countries. Finally, a survey is conducted and using statistical tests, the recommendations that are compatible with Iran's internal circumstances are proposed. These recommendations are prioritised and categorised in three groups based on the criteria of the degree of importance in experts' opinions, country's experience and whether or not the recommendations have been implemented in Iran. The proposed recommendations are also ranked according to experts' opinions.
... Considering mentioned-above criteria, the 19 countries were selected for studying: India (Department of Information Technology (DIT), 2004), Belarus (National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2003), Egypt (Salem, 2002; El-Gabaly and Majidi, 2003), Malaysia (Rasool, 2003), Australia (ACS, 2002), Poland (Piątkowski, 2004), Argentina (Finquelievichy and Jara, 2000), Trinidad and Tobago (Macintyre and Ramnarine, 2003), Costa Rica (Monge and Chacón, 2002), Srilanka (UNCTAD, 2000), Uzbekistan (State Committee for Science and Technology, 2001), United Arab Emirates (Shalhoub and Al Qasimi, 2003), Finland (Aho et al., 2004Walliman and Baiche, 2001); then, the recommendations that have been implemented at least in two countries (at least with the frequency two) were selected as proposed recommendations to experts. The reason for selecting the frequency two is that the selected recommendations have been implemented and tested at least in two countries with different conditions. ...
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he present study is the first attempt to make recommendations that enhance e-business deployment in Iran. In this paper, studying 19 countries and four regions, 339 recommendations for e-business development are extracted. Then, using content analysis, 32 recommendations are selected and categorised into four groups of ‘e-infrastructure’, ‘human resource’, ‘security’ and ‘policies and plans’. Countries selected for extracting their recommendations are those whose circumstances resemble Iran’s. Therefore, these recommendations seem to be able to be exploited by developing countries, in particular, by Middle East countries. Finally, a survey is conducted and using statistical tests, the recommendations that are compatible with Iran’s internal circumstances are proposed. These recommendations are prioritised and categorised in three groups based on the criteria of the degree of importance in experts’ opinions, 50 P. Hanafizadeh et al. country’s experience and whether or not the recommendations have been implemented in Iran. The proposed recommendations are also ranked according to experts’ opinions.
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White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts
  • Shawky Salem
Salem, Shawky, "Information Industry Literacy within the New Millennium: A Case Study of a Developing Country-Egypt," July 2002, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. Available at: <http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconf&meet/papers/salem-fullpaper.pdf>
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