SLIS Student News
Information Access - Talk at SLIS 10/14/09
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SLIS professor Debora Shaw, the faculty liaison to the Chi Chapter of Beta Phi Mu, sent the talk announcement below. Beta Phi Mu is the "international library and information studies honor society." Shannon Oltmann is a SLIS doctoral student.
Announcement:
Shannon Oltmann, recipient of the 2008/2009 Award for Student Scholarship from the Chi Chapter of Beta Phi Mu, will present her award-winning paper on Information Access.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
1:30 p.m. - SLIS Room 031
As one of the jury members said, "It's nice to see the focus on coming to grips with theory versus what is going on in the real world."
Abstract:
Information access is an important research concern of information ethics, within library and information science (LIS), but it is underdeveloped conceptually, methodologically, and theoretically. This paper reviews the current state of the literature. The two predominant conceptualizations of information access are examined and synthesized. The place of information access in LIS--both as an a priori research focus and as a foundation of other research areas--is demonstrated. Reviewing the state of the methodology in this area reveals that information access has not been
studied with a great deal of empirical rigor; normative and advocative writings dominate the literature. Theoretically, information access is frequently linked to jurisprudential theories of freedom of speech. This paper illuminates this linkage, as well as explaining how the three predominant jurisprudential theories of free speech: the marketplace of ideas/ search for truth, democracy, and individual empowerment relate to information access. In addition, the theory of normative behavior, originating from LIS, is applied to information access. Finally, this review concludes with a critical assessment of the conceptual, methodological, and theoretical state of affairs and suggests some future directions for additional research.
The Chi Chapter of Beta Phi Mu hosts an annual Fall Career Exploration Forum at SLIS. This year they held events on two days. The panel on Wednesday, September 23 focused on careers in Academic Libraries, School Libraries, and Information Science. And, on Wednesday, September 30, the focus was on Public Libraries and Special Libraries.
Posted Oct. 8, 2009
