J. Yap Speaks at the Global MIL Week

The fifth annual global celebration of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week took place from 31 October to 5 November 2016. The Global MIL Week 2016 includes the Sixth Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) Conference and the First General Assembly of the Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL), which took place from 2-5 November 2016 in São Paulo, Brazil.

The Global MIL Week activities and conference share the latest research, projects, new ideas and information with a diverse gathering of stakeholders involved in information and media literacy, and in print, screen-based and digital media. 

More than 68 papers were accepted and presented including the paper of Joseph Yap entitled, “Defining understanding and promoting cultural diversity through the human library program.” The theme for this annual event is “Media and Information Literacy: New Paradigms for Intercultural Dialogue.”

The four-day conference was sufficient enough to learn new things from the media and information literacy field. The first day was a kick start of the youth agenda held at the British School of Creative Arts. More than 150 participants joined the pre-conference. On the second day, the opening ceremony was welcomed by Marco Antonio Zago, Rector of the University of São Paulo. He mentioned that “universities have the difficult task of educating for times of uncertainty. We don’t know which technologies will be available, but we know they will be different than today”. He added that “we need to look into strengthening the behaviors and abilities to take decisions, to communicate and argue and to train for the future. This conference also provides us with responsibility, to think critically about the purpose of MIL and what kind of society we want to live in."

Yap's presentation was scheduled in the session “Ever-evolving MIL competencies: The changing role of libraries, museums and community spaces (case studies, best practices)”. He was privileged to speak together with Dr. Albert Boekhorst, a renowned library personality and is an active member of IFLA. In the audience was also Dr. Jesus Lau, a well-known librarian in Mexico and is a multi-awarded librarian. He talked about the human library program and how it became an effective MIL program to reduce discrimination and address the differences in us especially in our multi-cultural situation.