The Jeremiah Kaplan Institute on Libraries, the Information Society, and Social Policy

"The Right to Information Access"
October 30, 2009
Penn State University, University Park Campus
State College, PA
The Hub Auditorium

*UPDATE*

This event will be available via a live web stream and remain freely accessible after October 30.

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/kaplan.html

The United States Constitution codifies the right to free expression. But what rights have we to access the results of free expression?

"Libraries," states the American Library Association, "help ensure that Americans can access the information they need - regardless of age, education, ethnicity, language, income, physical limitations or geographic barriers - as the digital world continues to evolve." But two decades of rapid developments in information technologies have revealed a contradiction: it is easier than ever to disseminate information and to receive it, but it is also easier to control and monitor access to that information.

The first Jeremiah Kaplan Institute on Libraries, the Information Society, and Social Policy will address the "right" to knowledge and access to information, as well as the changing role that libraries and publishers play in supporting access in a networked environment. How must the missions of libraries and publishing adapt after the Internet? Who should have access to information and knowledge and how can it best be enabled? What economic, political, and regulatory factors impede that access, and how might they be overcome?

Four experts, representing the fields of education, libraries, information technology, and law and public policy, will explore these issues in a day-long symposium held at Penn State University's University Park campus on October 30, 2009.

Featuring:

• John Willinsky, (keynote speaker) Professor of Education, Stanford University, Founder of the Public Knowledge Project and author of The Access Principle: the Case for Open Access. (MIT, 2005).

• Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyright, US Copyright Office. Author of The General Guide to the Copyright Act of 1976.

• John Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School . Co-author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Basic Books, 2008) and Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008).

• Clifford Lynch, Director, Coalition of Networked Information, and member of the National Digital Strategy Advisory Board of the Library of Congress , Microsoft's Technical Computing Science Advisory Board , the board of the New Media Consortium , and the Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access.

About the Institute
The Jeremiah Kaplan Institute is sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries and the Penn State Rock Ethics Institute with financial support from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy. The Institute addresses the topic of information technologies and their impact on libraries and associated professional ethics and social policies. The Institute will hold one day conferences at Penn State University Park in 2009, 2010, and 2011 that will bring together recognized experts to explore these topics.

The Institute is held in honor of Jeremiah Kaplan (1926-1993), a co-founder of The Free Press (1947), an important publishing house devoted to sociology and religion titles. Mr. Kaplan was later president of Macmillan Publishing Company and Simon & Schuster Inc.

About the Sponsors
The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy was established in 1997 as a not-for-profit organization to support the advancement of research and understanding in the major fieldsof the social sciences. Specifically the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, urban affairs, area studies, political science, and other disciplines. The Foundation was created by Irving L. Horowitz, the founder of Transaction Publishers.

The Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State promotes ethical awareness and inquiry across the University, and in the public and professional sectors, through a three-fold emphasis on teaching, research, and outreach.

The American University in Kosovo (AUK) is seeking a Senior Librarian for a (renewable) three year contract beginning in November 2009.

The person selected will have proven experience in building Libraries in new institutions, an international background, and will have a minimum of a Masters degree in Library Science or similar qualifications that command respect in a rigorous academic environment. The ideal candidate would also have the experience and background to teach undergraduate courses in research, IT, or computing disciplines. Depending on experience and ability to teach, the salary range will be US $65,000 to $85,000 plus housing and travel allowances.

The Senior Librarian will be responsible for building the Irwin Metzger Memorial Library at AUK, a new Library dedicated in 2009. The Library will support AUK's undergraduate and Master's level degree courses, and over time should be expected to be built into an academic library capable of supporting research and advanced studies in management, public policy, information technology and South-East European regional studies. The AUK Library currently has a full time staff of one junior librarian and a number of AUK student interns. AUK's academic programs are delivered under a partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) whose on-line library resources are available to the AUK community. The working language of AUK and its Library is English.
 
In addition, the Senior Librarian would oversee the development of a new Library at the Assembly (national parliament) of Kosovo. With Kosovo's independence in 2008, a need exists for a Library of law and public policy to support the activities of the Assembly. The work of the Assembly is supported by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of the United States, under a grant from USAID. AUK will be a subcontractor to NDI in assisting to build the Assembly's Library, specifically in hiring and training staff and establishing systems and policies. The working languages of the Assembly and its Library are Albanian, Serbian and English.

Please send resumes to PresidentsOffice@aukonline.org with references and recent salary history, by August 31, 2009.

Greetings,
 
This memorandum is to notify you that the ABA-UNDP International Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has received a request from UNDP/Sudan for a  Law Library Designer/Documentalist.  The law library will serve as a resource and data base information centre where all the relevant laws can be easily accessed and researched by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development (MoLACD) staff and the general public.  The MoLACD was officially established after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the establishment of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) in 2005.  The permanent two-story facility is set to be completed by the end of March 2009.  Among other responsibilities, the expert will be expect to design of lay-out of library facility, review of existing classification system for cataloguing of all laws, legal materials, books, journals, magazines, assist in the preparation of bibliographic summaries, train MOLACD library staff on how to administer and manage the library, and draft library usage policy for review by MoLACD leadership.  The expert will be based in Juba, Southern Sudan and will report to the UNDP MoLACD Project Manager in consultation with the Under Secretary of MoLACD.  The expected duration for this assignment is 6 months and will commence once a candidate is selected in April 2009.
 
S/he must have a) a university degree in information management, library science or related subjects, or an equivalent combination of education and related work experience b) at least three years of progressively responsible professional experience in library management or information network administration c) experience in documenting and cataloging laws, legal materials and related documents, human rights, information management, journalism or other related area are an asset d) domain knowledge in the areas of legal documentation, development or humanitarian assistance is essential e) the ability to communicate and establish effective working relationships in a multi cultural, multi ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity f) the ability to draft/edit a variety of written reports, plan, and meet deadlines g) fluency in oral and written English h) exposure to electronic information management system is an advantage.
 
Please find as an attachment, a more in-depth summary of the request.  We would be most appreciative if you would review the TOR and determine whether you, anyone you know or any organization with which you are affiliated may have any knowledge of experts who might be good candidates for the position. If you or members of your organization are interested in working as a Law Library Designer/Documentalist, please email a cover letter* and recent CV (each attached as word documents) by COB March 30, 2009.  As always, we appreciate your assistance and please do not hesitate to contact us for more information or if you have any questions.
 
            *Cover letters should express your interest in the position and outline why your background is suitable for the position. 

RESPOND TO GICHINGJ@STAFF.ABANET.ORG! 

Recently I had occasion to read "This Benevolent Hand Gives You Soap: Reflections on Global Handwashing Day from an International Development Perspective" by Anna Plyushteva.  (available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1323043)  The author states her aim to be "to uncover the political and cultural meanings of a seemingly incontestable and apolitical project...."

The paper gave me quite a bit to think about, and seems to shed some light on some of the difficulties in the 'development' part of this blogs title.  Forgive the oversimplification about to come - do refer to the paper to get the full elaboration.

First, I do personally consider law libraries an incontestable social good.  Fully understanding how very political their contents can be, nevertheless I consider their existence to be an incontestable and apolitical good.  Much as it is difficult to see how promoting handwashing could be a bad thing, I have a hard time seeing how law libraries can be considered a bad thing.  The key of course, as she very effectively demonstrates, is how any such project is implemented.

Second, her two main critiques of the Global Handwashing Day -- 1. that it was a market driven public/private partnership, and 2. that it very poorly disguised a basic attitude of Western superiority -- are critiques that can very easily applied to many legal development initiatives.

My two opportunities to work in law library development projects have been government funded.  Truthfully, there was so much irritating, bureaucratic, red-tape nonsense involved; that I have some strong reservations about the ability of government funded library development initiatives to be effective over the long-term.  I've considered the possibilities of trying to get the major legal publishers to see law libraries in various areas of the world as a potential market.  While in Iraq one of the major online databases refused even to SELL us accounts for the law libraries we were working with.  But perhaps the downside risks of market-based development are not worth the access to the slickly packaged commercially available legal information.  Indeed, in the US we are having such a difficult time with our legal information vendors, perhaps I was crazy in thinking about that in the first place.

Attitude.  I think this is one that at least most law librarians interested or involved in legal development initiatives think about a lot.  Actually, in our concern that we not force English language, US focused materials on the law libraries we worked with in Iraq, we probably undersupplied them with such materials.  But the concern remains in any kind of law library development program that solicits materials from the US, that it NOT devolve into mass shipment of items that we're discarding from our own shelves.  That's why I was happy to see on the Rwanda public library page some Paypal links for direct contributions.  And it would be cool to see a desiderata list with links to Amazon or what have you, so that interested fundraisers can work toward specific requested titles.

Tying this to the first critique -- maybe the best way to move forward is to further the various open law initiatives, and partnerships between institutions. The need for creative thinking and persuasiveness in the current economy is to find ways to convince both partners that the required investment is money well spent. 

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Have gotten the definitive word, that by using the Penn State blog platform, I cannot enable non-Penn State folks to make entries.  You can make comments.  You all can email me things and I will post them as entries.  But you can't make entries.

Which kind of scuttles a large part of what I wanted this site to be.  So, eventually this will be moving.  I've purchased the server space and gotten the domain name.  I'm going to set up a community site based on Drupal.  (an example of a drupal site is http://www.diyplanner.com)  Once set up, that will allow threaded discussions, document bases, and all kind of other goodies.  It will eventually be at http://www.bibliofiles.org

But first I have to remember / learn Drupal.  details details.

In the interim, I'll keep this going.  And I'm going to make some placeholder entries that folks can then comment on.  Once the bibliofiles site is ready, I'll move the content and let everybody know.

The following is submitted by Zachary D. Kaufman:
The Kigali Public Library (www.kigalilibrary.org) will be Rwanda's first-ever public library.  The Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga and the American Friends of the Kigali Public Library have been working together for the past several years to make this dream a reality.  In 1994, Rwanda experienced a genocide in which approximately 1 million Rwandans were killed. The library will be a sanctuary for knowledge and a forum for the free exchange of ideas, contributing to the reconstruction of Rwandan society.  Successful completion of this monumental effort will mark a watershed in Rwanda's history, finally providing unfettered access to a treasure trove of knowledge that has so far been unavailable to a population of over eight million people. The library will also be a monument to serve as a permanent reminder to all Rwandans and the rest of the world that the atrocities committed in 1994 will never be forgotten.

We invite any and all individuals to become involved in the effort to build the Kigali Public Library .  To discuss how you can contribute, please feel free to contact Zachary D. Kaufman, the Founder, President, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Friends of the Kigali Public Library and an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, at: zachary.kaufman@aya.yale.edu.