Category: Information Ethics

CFP – 2nd Milwaukee Conference on the Ethics of Information Organization

by RoryLitwin

CALL FOR PAPERS 2nd Milwaukee Conference on the Ethics of Information Organization June 15 – 16, 2012 Milwaukee, WI Information organization, like other major functions of the information professions, faces many ethical challenges. In our literature, ethical concerns have been raised with regard to, topics such as, the role of national and international tools and … Read more CFP – 2nd Milwaukee Conference on the Ethics of Information Organization

CFP: Queers Online: LGBT Digital Practices in Libraries, Archives, and Museums

by RoryLitwin

CFP: Queers Online: LGBT Digital Practices in Libraries, Archives, and Museums (An Edited Collection to be published as part of the Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies) Litwin Books and Library Juice Press Rachel Wexelbaum, Editor Emily Drabinski, Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Series Editor Contact Information: Editor: Rachel Wexelbaum, Collection Management … Read more CFP: Queers Online: LGBT Digital Practices in Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Students at the University of Denver Want Books

by RoryLitwin

Here is a guest post from Julie Teglovic, an MLIS student at the University of Denver, where students have been protesting a decision regarding the library… Library as Space: University Students Want Books This April, the paper books at the University of Denver’s Penrose Library began a move into a storage facility 10 miles away … Read more Students at the University of Denver Want Books

Kierkegaard on impact factors

by RoryLitwin

I was just reading a bit of Kierkegaard’s Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and came across a section that I think applies to the bibliometric obsessions with impact factors, h- and g-indexes, and other quantitative measures of the value of a scholar’s work. The following is from pages 119 and 120 of the translation by Swenson and … Read more Kierkegaard on impact factors

My problem with Banned Books Week

by RoryLitwin

Some of my colleagues in the Progressive Librarians Guild used to complain that Banned Books Week was an unfortunate distraction from the greater problem of a propagandistic media system. I shared that view and still do, but it is not the objection that I want to explain today. My problem with Banned Books Week is … Read more My problem with Banned Books Week

Suppression of science has continued, despite Obama’s Scientific Integrity Initiative

by RoryLitwin

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is coming to the defense of biologist Charles Monnett, who is being hounded by the Interior Department because of a 2006 publication that communicated alarming news about the effects of global warming on a polar bear population. Since the publication was in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the investigators have … Read more Suppression of science has continued, despite Obama’s Scientific Integrity Initiative

CFP: Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (An Edited Collection)

by RoryLitwin

CFP: Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (An Edited Collection) Editors: Shana Higgins and Lua Gregory are instruction and reference librarians at University of Redlands. They recently co-taught a first-year seminar titled, “Bleep! Censorship and Free Speech in the U.S.” Outline: In her award winning essay “Information Literacy and Reflective Pedagogical Praxis,” Heidi … Read more CFP: Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (An Edited Collection)

Koofers – stealing students’ work to help other students cheat

by RoryLitwin

No comment on this other than to say that Koofers is incredibly slimy, and it rankles me that they seem to be getting some tacit support from legitimate institutions. Here is a post by my friend Nicole Pagowsky on how Koofers ripped off one of her student papers and posted it to their for-profit site … Read more Koofers – stealing students’ work to help other students cheat

And our privacy quietly erodes as state power grows

by RoryLitwin

Here is a scary if unsurprising bit of news: a report in PC world on a recent study by Christopher Soghoian: “US Police Increasingly Peeping at E-mail, Instant Messages.” Soghoian’s paper is linked in the article, which begins: Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such … Read more And our privacy quietly erodes as state power grows

New book: The Culture of the Internet and the Internet as Cult: Social Fears and Religious Fantasies

by RoryLitwin

The Culture of the Internet and the Internet as Cult: Social Fears and Religious Fantasies Author: Philippe Breton Translator: David Bade Price: $22.00 Published: March 2011 ISBN: 978-1-936117-41-3 Printed on acid-free paper French author Philippe Breton examines the Internet and the culture surrounding it through the lens of its philosophical and cultural background. Central in … Read more New book: The Culture of the Internet and the Internet as Cult: Social Fears and Religious Fantasies

Some objections to our use of library statistics

by RoryLitwin

The use of certain library statistics, mainly related to circulation and its electronic semi-equivalents, has taken on a high degree of importance in library management since 1979, when Charlie Robinson introduced the “give ’em what they want” philosophy of collection development at Baltimore County Public Library. Circulation statistics provide an easy way present an argument … Read more Some objections to our use of library statistics

Selection from Philippe Breton, relating to Wikileaks

by RoryLitwin

Litwin Books will soon be publishing an English translation of Philippe Breton’s 2000 book, Le culte de l’Internet: Une menace pour le lien social?, under the English title: The Culture of the Internet and the Internet as Cult: Social Fears and Religious Fantasies. Here is a bit from Chapter Four that comes to mind for … Read more Selection from Philippe Breton, relating to Wikileaks