Digital Literacies for Learning is written for a diverse community of educators, librarians, information technologists and researchers to help them enable students to successfully learn in the technological and digital global environment. This is most important in the 21st century since information is generated more quickly than ever before and is becoming the foundation for economic development throughout the world. Information-seeking behaviour is changing at a faster pace than ever before owing to the internet and the emergence of powerful search engines. Academic institutions in the electronic age have been undergoing a variety of changes to deal with new ways of teaching to prepare students for productive futures in an electronic information environment featuring increasing online access to digital and electronic information.

Twenty-five authors from nine countries and four continents address new literacies such as information literacy, technological literacy, media literacy and digital literacy in the teaching and learning environment of higher education. The first part of this volume explores the landscape of digital literacy, learning and teaching environments and e-learning. Virtual learning environments are described and the change from traditional educational environments to the e-learning environment is explained. Online teaching and learning have been revolutionizing the entire academic environment and online scholarly communication is quickly emerging as a major academic enterprise and requires many changes in the publishing and research environments.

The second part of this volume addresses the enabling of digital literacies and the teaching of information competencies, and outlines the information commons as a student-centred environment. Learning management systems are becoming more important on campuses and are described in terms of social elements, student feedback and equity. Achieving information and computer technology (ICT) literacy is also becoming a major goal on many university campuses, and successes and failures regarding these efforts are documented. A number of universities are beginning to instruct graduate students in information and computer skills to prepare them for the future technological information environment.

It is important to note that not only do universities have to cope with major changes to be successful in the digital environment but academic libraries likewise are undergoing major changes at an increasingly fast pace to remain not only viable in the electronic information age but to evolve into major centres for learning, teaching and socializing.