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The adoption of the information literacy (IL) agenda in Spain has been comparatively slow and fragmented due to cultural setbacks during the twentieth century. Since the late 1980s, however, developments in library services and staffing policies, reforms in education, and wide availability of ICTs, among other factors, have led to a brighter picture, with academic and public librarians all over the country engaged in IL activities for all types of users – though school libraries still lag far behind. The main problems still to be addressed seem to be much the same as in most comparable countries: IL as a responsibility for all learning facilitators, social awareness of lifelong learning needs, training of IL trainers, assessing the individual achievements and the institutional outcomes of IL training programmes, and a clear understanding of the remit and rationale for different literacies within the information society.

The purpose of the paper is to discuss conditions for an effective application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the pursuit of sustainability for cities.

After a brief overview of the possible contribution of ICT, the main findings of the CIBER study of the Google generation are summarised. The limitations and main focus on advanced countries in the present understanding of internet use are stressed. The current state of internet use in Mexico is summarised.

The need for proactive global policies aimed at reducing imbalances between regions and income groups on the one hand and developing and supporting an information culture on the other hand is emphasised.

The paper puts the “Google generation” and technopush discourses into perspective.