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024 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.9, 2017

and participation in joint operations by Finnish NGO’s. “The role of public libraries as promoters
of active citizenship, cultural diversity and democracy shall be strengthened”, said Rauha Maarno
(2017), Executive Director of the Finnish Library Association. In addition, IFLA takes advantage
of all the opportunities to propagate libraries’ social functions and takes advocacy as an important
strategy. It follows that libraries can highlight professional values only by rebuilding themselves in
transformations and enhancing contact with social development.

2 Literacies

Literacy in single form refers to the ability to read and write, whereas in plural form literacies refer
to a wide range of abilities and competencies. In the past it was public libraries’ task to promote
reading and guarantee more people’s literacy and basic education. However, literate people who
can only read and write are no longer qualified for job requirements. Therefore, education of
information, media, digital and technical literacies is put in agenda which is demonstrated in the
renaming of the International Reading Association (IRA). Founded in 1956, IRA has 300,000
members from over 60 countries. Its mission is to “improve reading instruction, facilitate dialogue
about research on reading, and encourage the habit of reading”. Now it was renamed International
Literacy Association (ILA), emphasizing “literacies are the foundation of all studies” (ILA,2016).
Focus on literacies enables libraries to broaden service space. Libraries should help elevate
professional literacies, contribute to employment and poverty alleviation, and enhance public
learning abilities to foster people with digital and technical literacies. The booming development
of modern science and technology endows libraries with infinite possibilities. Therefore, libraries
should adapt themselves to the development and expand service space. Recent reports show that
libraries, especially public libraries, are shifting focus from reading to more broaden literacies
including reading. Importance of information and technical literacies to modern people is
underlined. By granting more people literacies, job opportunities are increased, entrepreneurial
abilities are promoted and quality of life is elevated.
Taking media literacy as an example, Oxford Dictionaries declared “post-truth” the word of
the year 2016 and the American Library Association also listed it as one of ten hot issues in
American library community in 2016 (ALA, 2016). United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) integrates information and media literacies together which
were separate before. It stresses access to information and freedom of expression through
Information and communications technologies (ICTS). In October, 2010 UNESCO published
Towards Media and Information Literacy Indicators. Later it published related reports and
guides. Why post-truth arouses attention can be seen from statistics. First, taking United States
for instance, more people acquire information by internet and media. In twenty years ago only
12% American adults got news online, now 81%. Now 62% Americans get news from social
media and 72% get news from mobile devices (Mitchell, 2016). However, only 4% adults