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The purpose of this paper is to profile the prizewinners of the most prestigious award in Mexico, the National Prize for Sciences and the Arts and the Emeritus Professorship awarded by the National University of Mexico.

The paper draws upon data retrieved from the Web of Science (1995‐2006).

The 68 laureates published 1,175 papers and received a total of 13,443 citations. The most productive scientists were in the age group 65‐69, while those over 75 years of age were the least productive as well as the less cited. Most prizewinners have at least 35 years' experience scientists, who have been active as researchers for 30‐39 years, were the most productive and the most cited.

Results presented in this paper could complement other indicators of research performance used to determine the visibility of Mexican science, research institutions and individuals and whether resources and influence should be distributed more equitably. The operationalization of the Matthew effect could be minimized if awards committees were to correlate bibliometrics with the peer review process in order to reward the most creative researchers.

The paper focuses on research performance of Mexican academics.

The use of bibliometric techniques to assess the scientific activity of Third World countries is not new. Cross‐national comparisons using publications and citation counts may point up relative strengths and weaknesses at the macro level, but there is also a need to evaluate specific fields in particular countries.

A growing concern for universities is developing a new educational model in which the student is educated both for future social responsibilities, and where information literacy is viewed as a lifelong learning requirement. Thus, there is a pressing need for empirical analyses to identify the extent to which university students are information‐literate. Therefore, an investigation of university students from two institutions in the USA and Europe was carried out in order to determine how they use their libraries, information and computers. It was found that there were similarities and differences between the two groups of students from the University of Murcia, Spain, and the National University of Mexico.

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.