Abstract

All librarians and libraries have information policies, and so do most people. The big issues, like censorship or intellectual property ownership and use, crowd our minds but the process of decision making is the same at every level and in every context, whether we are concerned with government secrets, advertising standards, or our children's reading and viewing habits. This book examines the issues from varying standpoints, including the human rights approach, the commercial approach, and the states-interest approach. These are all placed within the context of arguments about the public sphere. The working librarian has to be in a position to justify every stock purchase and information access decision, and in the strategies they follow to legitimate the library. The form and construction of arguments and the discussion of issues in this book will give librarians the context and arguments they need to identify and apply appropriate information policies and strategies. Key areas addressed in the book include: the information policy problem; policy sectors; information regimes; and, policies and strategies: models and cases. This book is essential reading for library students, researchers and policy makers as well as for all LIS practitioners wishing to widen their awareness of the important issues surrounding information policy.
"I would recommend the book to most of the academic libraries as long as they have any programme in political, social science or humanities." - Information Research
Ian Cornelius BA MLitt PhD is a Senior Lecturer and former Head of School for University College Dublin’s School of Information and Library Studies. He has held academic posts in Australia and in Columbia University, New York, and has been a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Social and Political Science at the European University Institute in Florence. He is also an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Information Studies, University College London.