People have to live, learn and work in a digital society – Second Lady

Second Lady Matilda Amissah Arthur has charged librarians in the country to follow the changing media landscape and the rapid growth in information, which is affecting us all now than ever before, to learn new skills.

She said information literacy can create new opportunities to improve one's quality of life, adding that information literacy empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information to achieve their personal, social and occupational goals.

Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur made the call when she delivered the keynote address at the Biennial Congress & Annual General Meeting, 2014; of the Ghana Library Association, on the theme: Information Literacy and a Changing Landscape in Cape Coast University

She said information literacy has become a basic human right in this digital age, so people have to live, learn and work in a digital society. In order to survive and succeed in this complex environment, we all need skills to enable us locate, assess and package the needed information for effective use. We are confronted daily with new information as well as knowledge in different forms.

Mrs Amissah Arthur said embracing the digital society is sometimes very challenging due to how it is presented to us. She said digital and social media tools have brought some innovations. She said the change from labour and capital-based economies and to one based on information requires information literate workers who will interpret information rightly. The workforce is now more diverse and the economy is now more global, saying skills required are beyond reading and writing.

Adding that the Universities are going through changes caused by the increase in student population, budget cuts and increase in service demands.

The President of the Ghana Library Association, Dr. Perpetual Dadzie, speaking on the theme said the information landscape is constantly evolving with the changing social, political and economic environment of our society.

She thus entreated library and information professionals to accept change as part of their roles, as information literacy contributes greatly to the quality of life.

"Our role as library professionals is to accept and embrace change and to equip ourselves to guide all users in both the digital and non-digital environment," she said.

She noted that librarians and information professionals must be information literate themselves, adding that information literacy can create new development and new opportunities to improve the quality of life and so contribute greatly to life-long learning.

The Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. D.D. Kuupole, who chaired the occasion, said information needs to be handled properly because of the changing media landscape, which is as a result of development in technology.

Prof. Kuupole added, "so I want to believe that as professionals, you will be helping us - those of us in the education enterprise - to do things properly; in terms of library usage and information literacy acquisition.