My Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2017 Feature Conference presentation slides #globalMILweek

1. The role of
international librarianship
in facilitating
global media and information
literacy and intercultural
dialogue
Cases in Globalization, ICTs, and International librarianship

2. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL
(SDG)
17
Global partnership for
sustainable
development goals

3. Relevant UNSDG 17 target
“Enhance North-South, South-South
and triangular regional and
international cooperation on and
access to science, technology and
innovation and…”

4. Relevant UNSDG 17 target
“… knowledge sharing on mutually
agreed terms, including through improved
coordination among existing mechanisms,
in particular at the United Nations level, and
through a global technology facilitation
mechanism.”

5. Cautionary role for
International
Librarianship?

6. • Institutions
• Groups and
Organizations
• Individuals
Country
A
Country
B
Engage in
activities
develop maintain
Parker’s definition of
international librarianship
establish
affecting
• Library, documentation, or allied
services
• Library profession or librarianship
promoteevaluate
(Parker 1974, p. 221)

7. Caroll’s (1971) dissertation
“…library science
…‘the global discipline
Strategically best suited to bring about
one world of understanding
in a world of conflicting cultures
no longer apart by time and space.’

8. Facilitating intercultural dialogue
A library encourages cosmopolitan views
by “importing publications and other resources
beyond its borders.”
(Byrne 2003 p. 29)

9. Facilitating intercultural dialogue
Libraries facilitate users’
Global orientation and MIL
“through everyday use of international
electronic information sources and global
consolidation of media and publishing
interests.”
Byrne (2003 p. 29)

10. Facilitating intercultural dialogue
Libraries and their clients access
“information products which are simultaneously
global in scope and narrowed in provision.”
Byrne (2003 p. 29)

11. Media & Information Literacy
Media and information
and the abilities associated with finding, creating,
and using them
culturally situated/loaded

12. Be careful that MIL
does not favour
the domination of
Global North
culture,
technology, and
knowledge over
the South
1. Library classification
systems, policies, and
practices
2. media and publication
practices

13. Library classification
systems
(how information is
organized for access)
favour the domination of Global North culture and knowledge over
the South.

14. Imbalance in international
librarianship
Where power is situated within the social
formations and “discourses of the
West/North” industrialized societies of
North America and Europe.
(Olson 1998, p. 211)

15. Imbalance in international
librarianship
“global networks of international programs and
databases…spread the standards of [West/North]
formations”.
(Olson 1998, p. 211)

16. Global South perspective:
Librarianship facilitates
non-neutral
access
to knowledge and technology.

17. Comment by Alberto Manuel
“Entering a library, I am always struck by the way in
which a certain vision of the world
is imposed upon the reader through its
categories and its order"
(p. 47).

18. Comment by Alberto Manuel on
Dewey’s classification system
Dewey system limits the universe to what appears to be important to
“the inhabitants of a small northern island
and their descendants…”

19. Library of
Congress’ (LoC)
taxonomy
Maintained to reflect and
support organization of
knowledge according to a
particular hegemonic
American Congress
Anglo-centric worldview

20. Changing the headings
• require going through American decision makers, specifically,
meetings of the Policy and Standards Division (PSD) that maintains,
approves, and publishes changes to LoC classification scheme
https://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/subject/

21. Policy and Standards Division (PSD) in
March 2017
https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/cpsoed/psd-170320.html
Judgement made about proposal to add heading
“Dalu (South Asian people)”
“The proposal does not include any
information in English to support the form
of the heading...”

22. Policy and Standards Division (PSD) in
March 2017
https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/cpsoed/psd-170320.html
Proposal judgement on heading for:
East Coast (India)
“The proposal should provide citations to one
or more reference sources showing that that
particular area is called the East Coast of India.”

23. Classification system/subject
taxonomy of LoC (LCSH)
Not a global taxonomy that is fair and
equitable to other countries and non-
English Language speakers.
• Constrained by American decision
makers, English language, and
Westernized documentation practices

24. International librarianship
practices for selecting
media and publications
favour the domination of Global North culture, technology and
knowledge over the South

25. Global South perspectives
Post-colonial theory:
Global North produces and exports what is known
universally without the Global South being able to
challenge or provide much input to such
knowledge.

26. Libraries as agents of
Media imperialism

27. Dunn
“Global knowledge systems tend to
favour content that comes from the
planetary north.”

28. Byrne notes
The practices and profession of
librarianship may
“reflect the exercise of cultural hegemony
by the more dominant nations”

29. The “necessary procedure of
selecting…
that which is to be collected and made available
by a library”
privileges some cultural materials over others.
Byrne (2003 p. 31)

30. Information
products/capital
selected/held by libraries
Reflect the culture and values of Global North
• Books
• News magazines and journalism
• Research papers, dissertations and other
scholar publications

31. In reality:
what materials libraries collect
and facilitate access to
reveal the dominance of a particular
culture.

32. Effect of selection of library
materials and publications
If persons don’t feel that the materials in the
databases/libraries represent their culture,
they will not want to use them or learn to use
them.
Byrne (2003 p. 31)

33. Libraries in the Global South have
been seen as colonial legacy
Personal observations by Plumbe (1987) revealed that
Some people in developing countries
regarded
“libraries as a colonial legacy” and the
“infiltration of ever more books in
English” as “neo-colonialism” (p. x).

34. Libraries in the Global South
could be seen as propaganda
threats “to traditional culture,
vernacular languages, national identity.”
Plumbe (1987, p. x)

35. Cautionary views on ICTs
Western countries of the Global North
predominantly produce ICT infrastructure and
technology…
Ashcroft and Watts (2004 p. 155-156)

36. Cautionary views on ICTs
“potentially marginalizes the knowledge of the
Global South that must adopt Western
technologies to participate in the global
networks”
Ashcroft and Watts (2004 p. 155-156)

37. It becomes particularly
important not simply to adjust
to the technologies, but seek
ways of adjusting the
technologies themselves to our
[local] needs.
Dunn, Hopeton S. “Policy
issues in communications
technology use: Challenges
and options.”
Hopeton S. Dunn (Ed.).
Globalization,
communications and
Caribbean identity, I. Randle,
Kingston, Jamaica, 1995, pp.
18–39.
(Dunn 35)

38. This is especially vital in regions
like the Caribbean and Africa,
where a strong tradition of oral
communication could be
augmented by the use of
modern electronic systems.
Dunn, Hopeton S. “Policy
issues in communications
technology use: Challenges
and options.”
Hopeton S. Dunn (Ed.).
Globalization,
communications and
Caribbean identity, I. Randle,
Kingston, Jamaica, 1995, pp.
18–39.
(Dunn 35)

39. Solution
Ensure that MIL education does not just come from Global North standards and
cultural dominance, but…

40. Solution
teaching and promoting media information literacy, notably through
the development of the library profession and international exchanges,
should reflect both Global North and South perspectives and
backgrounds.