This project has its genesis in recommendations of a UNESCO supported Workshop on Information Literacy Competency Development for Information Professionals and Special Educators organized in November 2006 by SALIS in Chennai, India, and subsequent Information Literacy sensitization workshops held in Delhi and Nagpur in December 2006.

The Portal aims to raise awareness, sensitize and enhance information literacy competency skills of common information users as well as information professionals and educators in the South Asian sub-region. Its objectives are fully in line with UNESCO’s mandate to bridge the digital divide and UNESCO’s vision of knowledge societies.

The Portal covers a number of self-learning modules, such as:

• Information Communication Technology (ICT),
  
• Information Literacy,
  
• Lifelong Learning,
  
• Information Services for Disabled People,
  
• Freedom of Information, etc.

The information literacy competency skills promoted by the Portal derive from the existing international standards, adopted by UNESCO, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the American Library Association (ALA) and other professional societies. Indian library experts, in collaboration with lifelong learning experts, have developed the contents of the Portal modules using Moodle open source learning content management software.