Good stuff

I really find the Britz article very compelling ... so much so that I keep revisiting it to read excerpts over and over again. I think it is a very effective capstone piece for class, and I can't believe we're gettin' near the end.

Britz accurately discusses so many of the social justice issues related to our global information society. I think what is so dramatic is that lack of access, lack of financial capital for pay for essential information, and the like are even greater problems due to the poor financial climate (which hadn't taken off in earnest at the time of this article's publication).

This article is a "keeper" for me because it frames so well what should be our mission at every level/type of librarianship - to even the playing field for users as much as possible. I keep "jewels" of thought that I've collected on a bulletin board in my office that is really only visible to me. I look at them when I need inspiration (or a laugh in the case of cartoons). I've added the following from Britz:

What then are the "morally wrong things" in the global Information Society? I list a number of these "wrongs:"

1. The brain drain in particular from the poor and developng nations.
2. High illiteracy levels in the world.
3. Unfair international intellectual property right regimes - specifically toward the developing countries.
4. Unfair exploitation and misappropriation of indigenous knowledge and artifacts.
5. High communication cost in particular in the developing nations.
6. Strict censorship and suppression of the right to freedom of expression in some countries.
7. Imbalance of the north-south and south-north flow of information.
8. The threat to the privacy of individuals and related information wrongdoings.


I'm looking forward to reading others' thoughts!