Category: Information Ethics

Call for papers on critical pedagogy and library instruction

by RoryLitwin

Critical Pedagogy and Library Instruction: An Edited Collection Critical pedagogy seeks to identify, critique, and disrupt the inequalities of the dominant culture, thus equipping learners to transform oppressive social, cultural, and economic conditions. While many theorists, critics, and practitioners have considered how critical pedagogical strategies and perspectives might be employed in higher education, the academic … Read more Call for papers on critical pedagogy and library instruction

Saad Eskander’s open letter to the Hoover Institution

by RoryLitwin

Open letter from Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archives, June 21, 2008 An Open Letter to the Director of Hoover Institute I have read Mr. Sousa’s letter to Mr. Mark Greene, President of the Society of American Archivists (dated 06-06-08), Mr. Al-Jaberi’s statement (dated 27-04-08) and the article published by Stanford … Read more Saad Eskander’s open letter to the Hoover Institution

Review of Questioning Library Neutrality

by RoryLitwin

Jeff Lilburn has reviewed Questioning Library Neutrality for the blog LibrarianActivist. His review is careful not to be overly excited by the book, but is much appreciated as the first review of the book to hit the screens, and by a person who understands what the book is trying to say. Thank you Jeff and … Read more Review of Questioning Library Neutrality

What is a progressive librarian?

by RoryLitwin

From Caroline Nappo of the UIUC GSLIS PLG chapter: Dear Colleagues, Last week the University of Illinois GSLIS chapter of the Progressive Librarians Guild hosted a panel discussion titled “What is a ‘Progressive Librarian’?” Our guests were Carolyn Anthony, Sanford Berman, Allison Sutton, and Anke Voss. Professor Abdul Alkalimat moderated the discussion. An audio recording … Read more What is a progressive librarian?

NY Times reports on media manipulation by Pentagon

by RoryLitwin

You could call it a bombshell if what the New York Times is reporting now were not already well known by skeptical observers, but it’s significant that the Times is reporting it, and that it’s being picked up by TV outlets. The big news is that “military experts” who have been been giving “objective analysis” … Read more NY Times reports on media manipulation by Pentagon

Drug companies authoring articles in medical journals and adding scientists as authors after the studies are written

by RoryLitwin

Here’s some predictable news: A group of four researchers have published findings in the new issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that articles in medical journals are often written by drug companies and publishers, with legitimate scientists added as authors when the articles are submitted. Their research was based on court … Read more Drug companies authoring articles in medical journals and adding scientists as authors after the studies are written

New from LJP: Questioning Library Neutrality

by RoryLitwin

Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian Editor: Alison Lewis Price: $18.00 Published: April 2008 ISBN: 978-0-9778617-7-4 Printed on acid-free paper Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian presents essays that relate to neutrality in librarianship in a philosophical or practical sense, and sometimes both. They are a selection of essays originally published in Progressive … Read more New from LJP: Questioning Library Neutrality

Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information Studies

by RoryLitwin

I should have mentioned this conference when I first learned about it. Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information Studies. It’s coming up next month at the Center for Information Policy Research at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I’m planning to be there, so if you’re there and … Read more Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information Studies

Napoleon III and public libraries

by RoryLitwin

From Lara Moore’s Restoring Order: The Ecole des Chartes and the Organization of Archives and Libraries in France, 1820-1870 (pages 208-209): It … appears that the late Empire had strong political misgivings about the extension of libraries to the “popular” classes. In April 1864, Interior Minister Paul Boudet dispatched a circular marked “confidential” to department … Read more Napoleon III and public libraries

Get your medical records online, courtesy of Google and Microsoft

by RoryLitwin

Google and Microsoft have both been working on new services to provide access to medical records. Pretty exciting huh? Microsoft’s thing is HealthVault and Google’s is Google Health. I’m sure it’s all very secure and only accessible to Microsoft and Google employees for serious purposes, as governed by those always-changeable privacy policies. What I’m wondering … Read more Get your medical records online, courtesy of Google and Microsoft

Dueling Paradigm Shifts

by RoryLitwin

We’re presently awash in talk about a great paradigm shift that puts the user at the center of our planning for services. This is sometimes referred to simply as user-centered librarianship. It has been a hot idea for at least a decade, but has gained new power and momentum because of ideas about the interactivity … Read more Dueling Paradigm Shifts

Habermas on Web 2.0

by RoryLitwin

The price we pay for the growth in egalitarianism offered by the Internet is the decentralised access to unedited stories. In this medium, contributions by intellectuals lose their power to create a focus. That’s Jürgen Habermas, originator of the concept of the public sphere, on Web 2.0, in his acceptance speech on winning the Bruno … Read more Habermas on Web 2.0

David Bade’s Responsible Librarianship

by RoryLitwin

Responsible Librarianship: Library Policies for Unreliable Systems Author: David Bade Price: $22.00 ISBN: 978-0-9778617-6-7 Printed on acid-free paper The three papers in this volume were written in the wake of a single policy decision at the Library of Congress: the decision to cease the practice of distinguishing and collating series through the use of distinctive … Read more David Bade’s Responsible Librarianship

Hoover Institution to Accession Looted Documents

by RoryLitwin

This is rather unbelievable. Two shipping containers of records from the Baath Party of Iraq – about seven million pages – are being transferred to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, over the objections of Iraq’s archivist, the celebrated Saad Eskander. They have been in the possession of a non-profit run by Kanan Makiya, an … Read more Hoover Institution to Accession Looted Documents

ALISE Information Ethics Statement

by RoryLitwin

Toni Samek and other library educators concerned with the declining place of information ethics, intellectual freedom, and matters having to do with the unique ethos of librarianship formed a Special Interest Group in ALISE (the Association of Library and Information Science Educators) to address Information Ethics in library education. Their SIG released a statement on … Read more ALISE Information Ethics Statement

Interview with Toni Samek

by RoryLitwin

The BCLA IFC blog has an interview with Toni Samek, who is a very progressive LIS professor at the University Alberta. Toni writes and teaches on topics in critical librarianship, and had a book published earlier this year from Chandos Press: Librarianship and Human Rights: A Twenty-First Century Guide. The interview at the BCLA IFC … Read more Interview with Toni Samek

OncologySTAT: end run around objectivity

by RoryLitwin

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a brief news item today about a Reed-Elsevier web portal for oncologists called OncologySTAT, which provides free access to medical research in journals that are otherwise mainly accessed through library subscriptions, and pays for the service by showing ads to users. The kind of ad-based model in use here … Read more OncologySTAT: end run around objectivity