Information privilege

Last updated November 09, 2023

Information privilege is the ability to access information others cannot; this usually includes the most credible, scholarly, and peer-reviewed information.^[1] The barriers to access include a person's geographical location, access to technology, access to education/higher education, status, financial situation, among other things.^[2] This creates a power dynamic where portions of a society benefit from having access to the highest quality information, those who benefit from selling/gatekeeping this information, and those who are marginalized by their lack of access to said information.^[3] Students attending higher education institutions with access to databases are advised to share that information while they have it since when they graduate, they lose access to it.^[4] The price for database access on average is over $1000/year for one database, which will prevent access for many. Open access is where scientists, journalists, and scholars in general are encouraged to publish their work on their platform so anybody with an internet connection can get access to it. This allows the scholar to publish their work elsewhere afterwards, so the scholar gets paid by a publisher and gets academic praise without restricting access to the public.^[4]

National and international statements

Below is a list of national and international statements declaring access to information as a basic human right that should be upheld:

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Article 19 states that an individual has the right to hold their opinion and their opinion should be held "without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of any frontiers".^[5]
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions' (IFLA) Beacons of the Information Society: The Alexandria Proclamation for Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning states information literacy is a "basic human right in a digital world" and advocates "institutions to meet technological, economic and social challenges, to redress disadvantage and to advance the well-being of all".^[6]
The Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report from the Association of College and Research Libraries recognized the problems associated with lack of access to credible information. It states, "problems are more difficult to solve when people lack access to meaningful information vital to good decision making."^[7]^[8]
The American Library Association Bill of Rights states "all libraries are forums for information and ideas"^[9] and in the published follow up, Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights states, "Libraries and librarians protect and promote these rights by selecting, producing, providing access to, identifying, retrieving, organizing, providing instruction in the use of, and preserving recorded expression regardless of the format or technology."^[10]

ACRL framework

The Association of College and Research Libraries developed the Framework for Information Literacy which is meant to guide the instruction of information literacy to college students.^[11] The ACRL Framework first mentions the term "information privilege" in the frame titled Information Has Value.^[12] It discusses the legal and socioeconomic circumstances that can influence the production of, and access to, information. It encourages learners to recognize their own information privilege and acknowledge that some individuals and groups are underrepresented especially in academic publishing. Some argue that the ACRL Framework does not go far enough to teach learners of information literacy about the social injustice issue of lack of access. It is advised that more explicit instructions be included on how learners can combat the injustice in access to information.^[13]

Barriers to access

Researcher and educator Laura Saunders defines three barriers to access as physical, social, and cognitive/intellectual barriers.^[14] Physical barriers to access include not only geographical barriers but also access to the technology that will allow a person access to particular sources. As the internet became more popular and information became more readily available online, companies developed database subscription services that allowed individuals to access only the most reliable and well researched information. However access to this information was hidden behind a paywall where only a person with financial means or an affiliation with an education institution could have access.^[15] These paywalls still exist today. The notion of “reputable” information sources places value on information coming from certain news outlets or journals, but access to this knowledge is not open and people without financial liberty or educational privilege cannot access what information is seen as “quality” or “reputable”.

Saunders' idea of social barriers to access implies there is a barrier to information based on a cultural or socioeconomic circle of communication.^[14] Marginalized groups may not participate in a society they are distrusting of and therefore the information sources they trust may not be as vast or diverse. Access is limited because they only receive information from a small circle of people they trust. They may also not ask for help as readily as more privileged groups do.^[14] James Piccininni has stated that this social exclusion of groups of people in "social, economic, and political spheres" creates a power dynamic that dictates how information is created, distributed, and accessed.^[13] The third barrier to access is cognitive/intellectual access and ties in best with information literacy. Without learning the skills to locate, evaluate, and use information, a person may be susceptible to misinformation, propaganda, fake news, and general false statements, leaving them at a disadvantage and an inability to find reliable information.^[14] Looking within this barrier, it is important to ask where one can learn these skills. These skills are often taught in schools, but different circumstances may make it so that one has less access to quality education.^[16] This inequity in access if also often correlated with race and ethnicity, making it so that there are unique consequences regarding people belonging to marginalized groups. They not only live in a society that they are distrusting of where they do not feel comfortable looking outside of their group for resources and information, but they also live in a society that disallows them access to information because of structural barriers such as education and geography. Therefore, these people have less access to quality information for reasons that are out of their control, and the absence of that access makes it so that there are real-life, tangible consequences.^[17] People who do not have intellectual access to information may fall victim to propaganda rooted in false information or things alike. The lack of access makes them more likely to be victims instead of critically engaging with information and content that exists in online spaces. An advantage to providing access to information within a community is that it allows the voices of the most brilliant within a demographic to be heard when they might otherwise have been discounted or marginalized.^[15]

Open access

Much of the most reliable and current information in a particular field is found behind a paywall where only persons associated with an educational institution or professional organization, or the monetary means to purchase journal subscriptions has access to this information.^[18] The inherent issues of academic publishing created a growing advocacy for the open access movement.

Related Research Articles

Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. It can mean any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling, encompassing basic literacy to personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner, and to ensure the fulfillment of an individual.

A nontraditional student is a term originating in North America, that refers to a category of students at colleges and universities.

The Association of College and Research Libraries defines information literacy as a "set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning". In the United Kingdom, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals' definition also makes reference to knowing both "when" and "why" information is needed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in South Africa</span> Overview of education in South Africa

Education in South Africa is governed by two national departments, namely the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for primary and secondary schools, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training. Prior to 2009, both departments were represented in a single Department of Education. Among sub-Saharan African countries, South Africa has one of the highest literacy rates. According to The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency as of 2019, 95% of the population age 15 and over can read and write in South Africa were respectively literate.

Digital literacy is an individual's ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information by utilizing typing or digital media platforms. It is a combination of both technical and cognitive abilities in using information and communication technologies to create, evaluate, and share information.

An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic libraries there are worldwide. An academic and research portal maintained by UNESCO links to 3,785 libraries. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an estimated 3,700 academic libraries in the United States. In the past, the material for class readings, intended to supplement lectures as prescribed by the instructor, has been called reserves. Previously before the electronic appliances became available, the reserves were supplied as actual books or as photocopies of appropriate journal articles. Modern academic libraries generally also provide access to electronic resources.

Library instruction, also called bibliographic instruction, user education and library orientation, consists of "instructional programs designed to teach library users how to locate the information they need quickly and effectively. [It] usually covers the library's system of organizing materials, the structure of the literature of the field, research methodologies appropriate to the academic discipline, and specific resources and finding tools " It prepares individuals to make immediate and lifelong use of information effectively by teaching the concepts and logic of information access and evaluation, and by fostering information independence and critical thinking. Above all they are aimed at equipping library users with skills to locate library sources and use them effectively to satisfy their information needs.

Scholarly communication involves the creation, publication, dissemination and discovery of academic research, primarily in peer-reviewed journals and books. It is “the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use." This primarily involves the publication of peer-reviewed academic journals, books and conference papers.

Information and media literacy (IML) enables people to show and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages. IML is a combination of information literacy and media literacy. The transformative nature of IML includes creative works and creating new knowledge; to publish and collaborate responsibly requires ethical, cultural and social understanding.

Open education is an educational movement founded on openness, with connections to other educational movements such as critical pedagogy, and with an educational stance which favours widening participation and inclusiveness in society. Open education broadens access to the learning and training traditionally offered through formal education systems and is typically offered through online and distance education. The qualifier "open" refers to the elimination of barriers that can preclude both opportunities and recognition for participation in institution-based learning. One aspect of openness or "opening up" education is the development and adoption of open educational resources in support of open educational practices.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of academic librarians and other interested individuals. It is dedicated to enhancing the ability of academic library and information professionals to serve the information needs of the higher education community and to improving learning, teaching, and research. The association serves librarians in all types of academic libraries at the community college, college, and university level and also serves librarians that work in comprehensive and specialized research libraries.

Threshold knowledge is a term in the study of higher education used to describe core concepts—or threshold concepts—which, once understood, transform perception of a given subject, phenomenon, or experience.

A distance education librarian or distance learning librarian is a specialized academic librarian whose primary duties involve serving the information needs of distance education students, faculty, and staff. This position typically involves coordinating the duties of many librarians and library staff to ensure adequate access to library resources for those who enroll in and teach distance education courses.

Librarianship and human rights in the U.S. are linked by the philosophy and practice of library and information professionals supporting the rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), particularly the established rights to information, knowledge and free expression.

Legal awareness, sometimes called public legal education or legal literacy, is the empowerment of individuals regarding issues involving the law. Legal awareness helps to promote consciousness of legal culture, participation in the formation of laws and the rule of law.

Qatar National Library (QNL) is a non-profit organization under the umbrella of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. The plans for the new national library were announced by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, on 19 November 2012, during a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Dar Al Kutub Library, in Doha, Qatar, one of the first public libraries in the Persian Gulf region, which had until then been regarded as the national library of Qatar.

Trevor A. Dawes is a Jamaican-born American librarian and educator. He is the vice provost for libraries and museums and May Morris University Librarian at the University of Delaware. Dawes served as the 76th president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

Project Information Literacy (PIL) is a research institute that conducts national, ongoing scholarly studies on how early adults find and use information as they progress through, and beyond, their higher education years.

Metaliteracy is the ability to evaluate information for its bias, reliability, and credibility and apply them in the context of production and sharing of knowledge. It is especially useful in the context of the internet and social media. A formal concept of it was developed as an expanded information literacy framework by State University of New York academics Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson. It has been used to prepare people to be informed consumers and responsible producers of information in a variety of social communities.

Michèle V. Cloonan is an American library and information science educator. She is a professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University, in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dean Emerita of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons. She is an advocate for the preservation of cultural heritage.

References

↑ Hare, Sarah; Evanson, Cara (2018). "Information Privilege Outreach for Undergraduate Students". College & Research Libraries. 79 (6): 726–736. doi: 10.5860/crl.79.6.726 . Retrieved May 1, 2022.
↑ "Information Privilege – Library 101 Toolkit" . Retrieved 2021-10-29.
↑ "Information Privilege and First-year Students: A Case Study from a First-year Seminar Course Using Access to Information as a Lens for Exploring Privilege – In the Library with the Lead Pipe" . Retrieved 2021-10-29.
1 2 "Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto" . Retrieved 2021-10-29.
↑ "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". www.un.org. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
↑ "Beacons of the Information Society: The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning". IFLA. November 9, 2005.
↑ admin (2006-07-24). "Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report". Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). Retrieved 2017-11-28.
↑ Bivens-Tatum, Wayne (February 26, 2015). "Privilege in the Framework | Peer to Peer Review". Library Journal. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
↑ admin (2006-06-30). "Library Bill of Rights". Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
↑ admin (2007-07-30). "Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights". Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
↑ DMUELLER (2015-02-09). "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education-Introduction". Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). Retrieved 2017-12-06.
↑ DMUELLER (2015-02-09). "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education-Information Has Value". Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). Retrieved 2017-11-28.
1 2 Battista, Andrew; Ellenwood, Dave; Gregory, Lua; Higgins, Shana; Lilburn, Jeff; Harker, Yasmin Sokkar; Sweet, Christopher (2015). "Seeking Social Justice in the ACRL Framework". Communications in Information Literacy. 9 (2): 111–125. doi: 10.15760/comminfolit.2015.9.2.188 .
1 2 3 4 Saunders, Laura (2017). "Connecting Information Literacy and Social Justice: Why and How". Communications in Information Literacy . 11 (1): 55–75. doi: 10.15760/comminfolit.2017.11.1.47 .
1 2 Piccininni, James (Spring 1997). "Current Issues: Information Access: A Right or Privilege?". Journal of Information Ethics. 6 (1): 5–7 – via Proquest.
↑ Wei, Yehua Dennis; Xiao, Weiye; Simon, Christopher A.; Liu, Baodong; Ni, Yongmei (2018-03-01). "Neighborhood, race and educational inequality". Cities. 73: 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2017.09.013. ISSN 0264-2751.
↑ Jarman, Jennifer (2016-07-02). "Social inequality and its consequences in the twenty-first century". Contemporary Social Science. 11 (2–3): 103–112. doi:10.1080/21582041.2016.1254277. ISSN 2158-2041. S2CID 157929628.
↑ Booth, Char (2014-12-01). "on information privilege". info-mational. Retrieved 2017-12-13.