Papers for discussion Global Information issues: LIS educators and the public good Christine Stilwell
The author Christine Stilwell (
[email protected]) is Associate Professor, School of Human and Social Studies (Information Studies), University of Natal, South Africa. Keywords Africa, Globalization, Libraries, Continual professional development, Education Abstract This sub-theme paper addresses the question: for those who defend libraries as vital democratic institutions charged with providing free and equal access to information as a public good, how do we act in the Internet age? As with Thapisa's paper in this issue, to which this paper is partly a response, speculates on emerging issues and explores possibilities concerning Global Information, with particular emphasis on the educational aspects. Electronic access The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers/lm.asp The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com
Library Management Volume 21 . Number 4 . 2000 . pp. 188±191 # MCB University Press . ISSN 0143-5124
As educators in the African context, our concern is how to achieve a balance of global and regional socio-economic concerns if power is located in the northern countries of the world. Thapisa (2000) notes the necessity to address the needs and concerns of African people on a sustainable basis. Part of this links to Diana Rosenberg's observation that: A way must be found to support the redefinition of African librarianship, so that the assistance does not come laden with preconceived ideologies and directives (Rosenberg, 1994, p. 250).
Rosenberg's paper on libraries in Africa and the overall problem of sustainability suggests a need to achieve a situation without risks of one-sided donor aid. In terms of the Global Information issues raised by IT, and the possible dominance of controlling interests, there is a need for local regional links to strengthen the role of African participants which in turn are linked to controlling interests elsewhere. There is a need for African LIS people to engage creatively and with confidence in defining the process of participation. Budd (1995/1996) quotes Postman (1992): . . . in cultures that have a democratic ethos, relatively weak traditions, and a high receptivity to new technologies, everyone is inclined to be enthusiastic about technological change, believing that its benefits will eventually spread evenly among the entire population.
One sees this optimism in South Africa at the present time, for instance, in Vice President Mbeki's (1996) paper to the Information Society and Development Conference. A worrying aspect of Mbeki's paper is the lack of specifics. There is an encouraging emphasis on multipurpose centres which are in fact being explored as service provision sites by many groups in South Africa (Community Learning Centres Interest Group, 1995; KwaZulu Natal Department of Education and Culture, 1995; Wyley, 1995) but the concept needs to be grounded and developed, particularly in terms of rural information provision. One potential area concerning rural information provision is raised by the new national health system in South Africa whereby HealthNet can provide access for rural health information workers Thanks go to Andrew Kaniki, Thuli Radebe (Information Studies) and Jenny Aitchison (University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg Library), for critical comment on this sub-theme paper.
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(Pillay, 1996) to the current international consensus (Brittain, 1996) while achieving synergy with local indigenous knowledge. In this regard Kaniki (1996) notes increasing attention to bringing indigenous knowledge into the mainstream of ``scientific'' information. Another potential area is represented by proposals concerning wired distance education, in which links are envisaged between sites in the form of established community learning centres affiliated to the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Library Services and the distanced offerings of the University of Natal (Bawa, 1995). In the sphere of educating managers, there is the problematic issue of the upheaval brought about by technology in the workplace (Thapisa, 2000). Harris (1995/1996) raises questions about information technology's potential for job elimination: . . . to date, the evidence indicates that information technology does bring with it the opportunity for occupational upgrading though the creation of some new high tech jobs. However, there is also little doubt that many people are being displaced and deskilled as a result of technological change in the workplace.
Harris (1995/1996) points out that even some computer programmers are driven out of work by the very technologies they helped to create. For educators there are also the wider socio-political issues. Budd (1995/1996, p. 48) quotes Balabanian (1993) on the social importance of technology: Technology is not a neutral, passive tool devoid of values; it takes the shape of and, in turn, helps to shape, its embedding social system.
In the case of the Internet, which is ``the embedding social system'', how does one engage with it in a sovereign or independent and socially-rooted way? On the other side of the coin is the problem of the implications for those who, even in this high-tech age, are unable to gain efficient access? This relates to Lau's (1989) point in Thapisa (2000) about developing countries missing the information revolution. Budd (1995/1996, p. 48) quotes Karl Marx on the transformative power of technology. Marx asked:
2000), this paper is obvious proof of it having reached the southern tip of Africa. As educators in the post-apartheid era, we are enjoying fostering South-South links in matters, for example, pertaining to external examining, the publication of South-South journal articles (for instance in the African Journal of Library Archives and Information Science and Innovation) and in the sharing of this exchange through an Internet conference. Sited at a university, however, one is in a very different position from that to which many of our school library diplomates go on the completion of their formal training. Unlike their Australian or Icelandic counterparts (Clyde, 1994; 1995), very few schools in KwaZulu Natal are linked to the Internet, and the majority are unlikely even to have their own school library facility in the immediate future. Here is a challenge for the resource sharing capacity of the Internet. Concerning freedom of information and issues of conflicting freedoms crucial questions remain as to who are the controllers in a Global Information system (Thapisa, 2000). The advent of porn tycoons operating on the Internet to make profit is a case in point. These issues are too complex for examination here but, with reference to the public good in a general sense, this commercialisation is especially worrying as the emergence of the Internet, after its early United States Defense Department origins in 1969 (Goldstuck, 1995) was largely a response to a need for sharing views, information, to extending the invisible college, etc. In addressing concerns about non-virtual libraries, Harris (1995/1996, p. 5) suggests that: . . . in libraries one sees played out the conflicts inherent in a society in which the economy is based more and more on information-for-profit and yet, in which there is growing recognition that access to knowledge is a public good, one might even call it a public trust.
Linked to this is a tendency in public libraries to show an increasing preoccupation with providing service to business customers:
. . . is Achilles possible when powder and shot have been invented? And is the Iliad possible at all when the printing press and even printing machines exist?
In answer to the question, ``does the highway go South?'' (Gilbert et al., 1994, in Thapisa, 189
. . . thus the public sector library (indeed, the entire occupation of librarianship) is rapidly developing a culture in which what is most valued are technical functions in support of wealth creation rather than caring functions in support of the individual growth of all members of the community (Harris, 1995/1996, p. 6).
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Harris terms this process ``abandoning care'' or more appropriately abandoning ``share''. A great plus of the Internet has been the potential for those with access to share. A worrying aspect of the Internet is that materials preserved in electronic format are not part of the depository system, thereby increasing the tendency to have less and less information collected at the public's expense available in print form (Harris 1995/1996). This issue needs to be addressed. Is Africa to be accorded an equal place in the ``common neighbourhood'' (Mbeki, 1995, in Thapisa, 2000) and how is this to be achieved? The vice president's position paper referred to above, while welcome for its attention to information issues, is inclined to refer to IT as a magic wand that can effect the transformation of South Africa's information system effortlessly. We need to look at the provision of a basic LIS infrastructure and to address the larger question of how we avoid being relegated to: . . . a permanent position of conduit, importer and consumer of predetermined content rather than a formulator, contributor, producer and exporter of content (Thapisa, 2000).
Africa is seen as a revenue growth point by Intelsat and the latter has held a conference in Cape Town in 1995 at which the intention to pool resources was discussed (Thapisa, 2000). As Thapisa suggests, national information systems and strong economies in Africa are required to underpin the development of co-operative information systems in the region (Thapisa, 1996, p. 60) but it also requires effective mechanisms supported by those who participate. It is important that Africa secure a distinctive space within the Global Information infrastructure (Thapisa, 2000). Part of this, as Thapisa points out, means investing in education and the development of people, getting the basics right. Getting back to basics or first principles for Rosenberg (1993) means that the centrality of the user, rather than the computer or a national information policy, must be paramount to a library's philosophy. Kaniki (1996) suggests that in future we will need people to keep Web pages updated and to link relevant subjects, similar to what has been done in producing bibliographies and pathfinders in conventional library situations. It is plain that increasing access by individuals to the WWW will necessitate a
shift of focus in education and training with emphasis on the skirling of end-users (Kaniki, 1996). End-users already use a variety of ITbased resources, such as CD-ROMs, without the help of library and information workers. Budd (1995/1996) points out that some see the creation of freedom for librarians by technology but that this is ``freedom from interaction with information users and their efforts at construction of meaning''. Is this abrogation of responsibility not a cause for great concern? New technologies or advances in fairly new technologies do: . . . alter the structure of our interests; the things we think about. They alter the character of our symbols: the things we think with. And they alter the nature of our community: the arena in which thoughts develop (Postman, 1992, quoted in Budd, 1995/1996, p. 57).
Which way library and information studies in the light of these factors? How do we bring first principles to bear on guiding ourselves? How do we stand against the tendency to further commodify information, how do we avoid dominance? Blanke (1995/1996) has raised some of the issues that relate to these questions. This brings the discussion back to the opening question of the paper: for those who defend libraries as vital democratic institutions charged with providing free and equal access to information as a public good, how do we act in the Internet age? IT and the current enthusiasm for the potential effects of IT and the Internet in particular offer LIS people an unprecedented opportunity to ride the tide of support and we can use this enthusiasm to make up for decades of neglect by government and those in power in institutions. Library and information workers can pick up on what Thapisa (2000) has said about an integration of technology, humans, policies and standards. LIS workers would be a large force in determining how the plans for IT are in fact grounded or rooted in actuality and reality and in the humanising of IT's contribution. It is so true to say that computers need to be made more people-literate, not people more computer literate. There is the South African example of Community Education Computer Society (CECS, 1991) which seems to tread a middle ground. The issues concerning Global Information are too important to leave to technocrats and software experts (Thapisa, 2000) or for that
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matter to random forces especially if commercially inspired. Checks and balances need to be introduced as Thapisa (2000) suggests, but how this is to be achieved is the question. The Internet, like the public library (Calvert, 1994), is a social construct, and who is better able to play a judicious role in its future than library and information workers challenging a discipline-bound approach to information policy (Braman, 1989; Rowlands, 1996) in conjunction with colleagues, for instance, sociologists, economists and political scientists, from other core information policy fields.
References Bawa, A. (1995), Personal communication regarding distance education at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 27 September. Blanke, H.T. (1995/1996), ``Review of Into the Future by Harris, M.H. and Hannah, S.A.'', Progressive Librarian, Vols 10/11, pp. 92-6. Braman, S. (1989), ``Defining information: an approach for policymakers'', Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 233-42. Brittain, M. (1996), ``Health informatics'', lecture given at the University of Natal, Department of Information Studies, Pietermaritzburg, 5 March. Budd, J. (1995/1996), ``Technology and library and information science'', Progressive Librarian, Vols 10/11, pp. 43-59. Calvert, P.J. (1994), ``Library effectiveness: the search for a social context'', Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 15-21. Clyde, L.A. (1994), ``The Internet goes to school: use of the Internet in school libraries'', paper presented at Online Info 94: 18th International Online Information Meeting, London, December, Learned Information, Oxford, pp. 233-42. Clyde, L.A. (1995), Information Technology in Australian School Libraries: a Survey of Access Readers, Lindin, Reykjavik.
Community Education Computer Society (CECS) (1991), Invitation to the Natal Region Launch of CECS, April, Natal. Community Learning Centres Interest Group (1995), ``Community learning centres as sites for multiservice delivery'', paper from the conference, Learning Spaces Development in Southern Africa, 27-29 September. Goldstuck, A. (1995), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet: a South African Handbook, Struik, Sandton. Harris, R. (1995/1996), ``Service undermined by technology: gender relations, economics and ideology'', Progressive Librarian, Vols 10/11, pp. 5-22. Kaniki, A.M. (1996), ``Information for all: challenges for South African library and information science education and training'', inaugural lecture, University of Natal, Department of Information Studies, Pietermaritzburg, 5 June. KwaZulu Natal Department of Education and Culture (1995), Culture of Learning Project: Education Development Centres, Department of Education and Culture, Pietermaritzburg. Mbeki, T. (1996), ``A way forward to the Global Information society for South Africa and the developing world'', position paper read at the Information Society and Development Conference, Pretoria, 13-15 May. Pillay, S. (1996), Personal communication concerning applicability of Healthnet to rural information provision, Pietermaritzburg, 5 March. Rosenberg, D. (1993), ``Resource sharing ± is it the answer for Africa?'', African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 107-12. Rosenberg, D. (1994), ``Can libraries in Africa ever be sustainable?'', Information Development, Vol. 10, pp. 247-51. Rowlands, I. (1996), ``Understanding information policy: concepts, frameworks and research tools'', Journal of Information Science, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 13-25. Thapisa, A. (2000), ``The impact of Global Information on Africa'', Library Management, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 170-7. Wyley, C. (1995), Community Learning Centres: Towards a Model: a Briefing Document, Khupuka, Durban.
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