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Information Activism
An information activist is someone who works to make information available to the general population. According to Anthony Molaro, "An information activist is a vigorous advocate of knowledge gained through study, communication, research or instruction". Information activism at libraries and among librarians began in the 1960s, when many libraries advocated for the information rights of their clients. Their activism projects thereafter extended beyond library walls to advocate for issues such as tenancy and labour rights. With the advent of new information technologies and the information explosion of the late 20th century, information activism expanded in scope to include people who utilize information in the service of advocacy. Tactical Technology Collective has proposed a definition of information activism as “the strategic and deliberate use of information within a campaign” which specifically refers to the use of publicly available information in activist projects. Informa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include printed materials and other physical resources in many formats such as DVD, CD and cassette as well as access to information, music or other content held on bibliographic databases. A library, which may vary widely in size, may be organized for use and maintained by a public body such as a government; an institution such as a school or museum; a corporation; or a private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of librarians who are trained and experts at finding, selecting, circulating and organizing information and at interpreting information needs, navigating and analyzing very large amounts of information with a variety of resources. Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Criticism
Information criticism (also critique of information or information critique) is understood as a transformation of critical theory to contend that today there is no longer any transcendental, objective, or privileged position from which critique or social analysis can be undertaken. If society is intrinsically informational, and the analyst is inescapably part of the society, so too must the analyst and the analysis be informational, as tied up with and characterized by the nature of information as every other social entity or phenomenon. As Lash (2002) wrote, "The critique of information is in the information itself" (p. 220); "Information critique must be critique without transcendentals" (p. 9). Andersen (2005/2008) equates information criticism with the criticism of the functionality and legitimacy of knowledge organization systems such as bibliographies, classification systems, thesauri, encyclopedias and search engines — all systems that in some way or another mediate the reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radical Reference
Radical Reference is a distributed collective of library workers, students and information activists who work on social justice issues. They provide professional research support, education and access to information to activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists who they describe as their "patron base". The organization was formed in 2004 by Jenna Freedman, Chuck Munson, Ellen Knutson, Kris Kasianovitz, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo in order to coordinate a team of volunteer library workers in assisting demonstrators and activists with their activities surrounding the Republican National Convention in New York City. The group used a combination of pre-made "ready reference kits" which contained "maps, legal information, lists of events". The reference volunteers who were working at the event wearing "Info Here" shirts were also connected to home support volunteers who could answer more complex questions using their home computers. Libraria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Data
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements such as open-source software, hardware, open content, open specifications, open education, open educational resources, open government, open knowledge, open access, open science, and the open web. The growth of the open data movement is paralleled by a rise in intellectual property rights. The philosophy behind open data has been long established (for example in the Mertonian tradition of science), but the term "open data" itself is recent, gaining popularity with the rise of the Internet and World Wide Web and, especially, with the launch of open-data government initiatives such as Data.gov, Data.gov.uk and Data.gov.in. Open data can be linked data - referred to as linked open data. One of the most important forms of open data is o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Librarians Without Borders
Librarians Without Borders is an international nonprofit organization with headquarters located in London, Ontario, Canada. This is not to be confused with Libraries Without Borders, which has its headquarters in France, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, or Bibliothécaires Sans Frontières, a now defunct French nonprofit. The organization is overseen by student committees at five Canadian Universities and a volunteer Executive Team and Board of Directors. Librarians Without Borders seeks to provide access to information in communities worldwide by creating partnerships with local people and local librarians. Librarians Without Borders engage in a number of outreach programs created to inspire a love of learning, community engagement and citizen scientists. Members are located in over 75 countries with the majority in Canada and the United States. History Librarians Without Borders (LWB) was founded by Melanie Sellar and Jorge Chimbinda at the University of Western Ontario's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freedom Of Information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigenous, and traditional knowledge; freedom of information, building of open knowledge resources, including open Internet and open standards, and open access and availability of data; preservation of digital heritage; respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, such as fostering access to local content in accessible languages; quality education for all, including lifelong and e-learning; diffusion of new media and information literacy and skills, and social inclusion online, including addressing inequalities based on skills, education, gender, age, race, ethnicity, and accessibility by those with disabilities; and the development of connectivity and affordable ICTs, including mobile, the Internet, and broadband infrastructures". Public ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Culture Movement
The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's original creators, by using the Internet and other forms of media. The movement objects to what it considers over-restrictive copyright laws. Many members of the movement argue that such laws hinder creativity. They call this system "permission culture". The free-culture movement, with its ethos of free exchange of ideas, is aligned with the free and open-source-software movement, as well as other movements and philosophies such as open access (OA), the remix culture, the hacker culture, the access to knowledge movement, the copyleft movement and the public domain movement. History Precursors In the late 1960s, Stewart Brand founded the ''Whole Earth Catalog'' and argued that technology could be liberating rather than oppressing.. He coined the slog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zine
A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ... work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine (Blend word, blend of ''Fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by Fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Library And Information Science
Library and information science(s) or studies (LIS) is an interdisciplinary field of study that deals generally with organization, access, collection, and protection/regulation of information, whether in physical (e.g. art, legal proceedings, etc.) or digital forms. In spite of various trends to merge the two fields, some consider the two original disciplines, library science and information science, to be separate. However, it is common today to use the terms synonymously or to drop the term "library" and to speak about ''information departments'' or ''I-schools''. There have also been attempts to revive the concept of documentation and to speak of Library, information and documentation studies (or science). History By the late 1960s, mainly due to the meteoric rise of human computing power and the new academic disciplines formed therefrom, academic institutions began to add the term "information science" to their names. The first school to do this was at the University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Wants To Be Free
"Information wants to be free" is an expression that means all people should be able to access information freely. It is often used by technology activists to criticize laws that limit transparency and general access to information. People who criticize intellectual property law say the system of such government-granted monopolies conflicts with the development of a public domain of information. The expression is often credited to Stewart Brand, who was recorded saying it at a hackers conference in 1984.. History The phrase is attributed to Stewart Brand, who, in the late 1960s, founded the ''Whole Earth Catalog'' and argued that technology could be liberating rather than oppressing.. What is considered the earliest recorded occurrence of the expression was at the first Hackers Conference in 1984, although the video recording of the conversation shows that what Brand actually said is slightly different. Brand told Steve Wozniak: Brand's conference remarks are transcribed accur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data Activism
Data activism is a social practice that uses technology and data. It emerged from existing activism sub-cultures such as hacker an open-source movements. Data activism is a specific type of activism which is enabled and constrained by the data infrastructure. It can use the production and collection of digital, volunteered, open data to challenge existing power relations. It is a form of media activism; however, this is not to be confused with slacktivism. It uses digital technology and data politically and proactively to foster social change. Forms of data activism can include digital humanitarianism and engaging in hackathons. Data activism is a social practice that is becoming more well-known with the expansion of technology, open-sourced software and the ability to communicate beyond an individual's immediate community. The culture of data activism emerged from previous forms of media activism, such as hacker movements. A defining characteristic of data activism is that ordinary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, with the past century in particular bringing many new media and technologies into play. From the earliest libraries in the ancient world to the modern information hub, there have been keepers and disseminators of the information held in data stores. Roles and responsibilities vary widely depending on the type of library, the specialty of the librarian, and the functions needed to maintain collections and make them available to its users. Education for librarianship has changed over time to reflect changing roles. History The ancient world The Sumerians were the first to train clerks to keep records of accounts. ''"Masters of the books"'' or "keepers of the tablets" were scribes or priests who were trained to handle the vast amount and c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
