Information for Social Change

John Pateman (UK) - Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group
email: johnpateman9hotmail.com
http://cubanlibrariessolidaritygroup.org.uk

John Pateman has worked in public libraries for 28 years in six local authorities. He has been Head of Libraries in Hackney, Merton and Lincolnshire. He is particularly interested in social exclusion, internationalism and libraries as an agent of social change. He was a founding member of The Network- tackling social exclusion in libraries, museums, archives and galleries. He was a founding member of the Quality Leaders Programme for Black Library Workers. He was a founder of Information for Social Change and is part of its editorial collective; he was also the founder of the Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group. He is International Officer for the Lincolnshire branch of UNISON and he is secretary of the Lincolnshire Cuba Solidarity Campaign. He is a Fellow of CILIP and of the Institute of Public Sector Management. He has been an active member of the Branch & Mobile Libraries Group, the International Group, the Diversity Group and LINK: a network for North-South library development.

John was Head of Libraries in Merton when it won the Libraries Change Lives Award (2001) for services to asylum seekers and refugees. In 2002 he received the National Culture Award from the Cuban government for his services to Cuban libraries. He was Head of Libraries in Lincolnshire when it won the CILIP Diversity Award for Organisational Change (2005) and the CLIP/LiS Libraries Change Lives Award for services to guest workers (2006).

In June 2003 John shared a platform with Fidel Castro at the International Congress of Culture and Development in Havana. In December 2004 he attended the World Gathering of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity which was held in Caracas, Venezuela. In May 2005 he gave two key note addresses at the Vancouver Public Library staff conference: Developing a Needs Based Library Service; and Public Libraries and Social Exclusion. In September 2005 he presented a paper at the Public Libraries and Social Exclusion conference in Medellin, Colombia. In June 2006 he attended the Canadian Library Association conference in Ottowa and presented a paper on the Systemic Barriers to Library Use: Libraries Engage the Socially Excluded.

John has written many articles on aspects of social exclusion – especially social class – community development, internationalism and libraries in Cuba. He was a member of the government working group which produced Libraries for all: social inclusion in public libraries (1999) and of the research team which produced Open to All? The Public Library and Social Exclusion (2000). He was a member of the CILIP Policy Action Group on Social Exclusion which produced Making a Difference - Innovation and Diversity (2002). He has written a publication on Developing a Needs Based Library Service (2003) as part of the NIACE Lifelines in adult learning series. In 2006 he co-authored with John Vincent two chapters in the British Librarianship and Information Work series: ‘From Equal Opportunities to Social Exclusion’ (1991-2000) and ‘From Social Inclusion to Community Cohesion’ (2001-2005).

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Ruth Rikowski (UK) - London South Bank University and Commissioning Editor for Chandos Series for Information Professionals
email: rikowski75yahoo.co.uk

Ruth Rikowski has been an information professional for some 25 years and has worked in a variety of organisations, in both the public and the private sector. She began her professional career in public libraries, working in the London Borough of Newham. Having gained an MSc in Information Science (Computerised Systems) from University College London in 1994, she then worked on the Support Desk of a library software company (Dynix). Following on from this, she implemented library management computer systems at Clifford Chance London Ltd, an international law company, (implementing Unicorn) and Havering College of Further and Higher Education (implementing Dynix). She also took the Tate Gallery through a large upgrade of its Unicorn library management computer system. Ruth is particularly interested in the gender/I.T. issue – the inequalities between the sexes appear to be increasing rather than decreasing in this regard.

Her first article was published in April 2000, in Managing Information (the monthly Aslib magazine), which was about the relationship between library and I.T. departments. Following on from this, she became the Book Reviews Editor for Managing Information, from 2001-2004. She has written several articles and book reviews for Managing Information.

Ruth now has over 50 published articles and reviews, in a variety of journals, largely on the topics of globalisation, knowledge management and computers/information technology. She is developing a whole body of theory around these topics - an Open Marxist theoretical perspective – see, for example, her article On the impossibility of determining the length of the working-day for intellectual labour, in Information for Social Change, Issue 19.

Her book Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements was published in February 2005, with Chandos publishers. The book builds on her many published articles on the topic, which have been published in a variety of journals, including the IFLA Journal, Managing Information, Business Information Review and The Commoner. A paper of hers on Globalisation and Libraries was also published in the UK House of Lords Report on Globalisation, in 2002.

Ruth has given many talks around her subject interests to a variety of audiences, including students and staff in universities, various left-wing organisations and library and information conferences and shows. She has also been on radio programmes.

Ruth has also edited a book on Knowledge Management published by Chandos Publishing in 2007. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer at London South Bank University and the University of Greenwich, and is the Commissioning Editor for the Chandos Series for Information Professionals. Also see the website of Ruth and Glenn Rikowski, The Flow of Ideas and see Ruth's Web log (blog).

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Gill Harris (UK) - LINK
email: gillianharrisbtinternet.com

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Martyn Lowe (UK) - Founder, Librarians Within the Peace Movement
email: martynloweusa.net

Also see Martyn's paper - The working politics of a Pragmatic Anarchist.

Born November 3rd 1949. Martyn has been working in libraries since April 1972 and has been a pacifist activist since 1968. Martyn was initially active within Peace Pledge Union (the British Section of WRI - War Resisters International) and campaigned against the French *nukiller bomb tests in the pacific and nukiller power within Greenpeace (London) 1974-1985; you can view the Mcspotlight website, which gives a brief history of Greenpeace (London group) in which Martyn was involved from 1973 to 1985.

Martyn has also been a volunteer within the WRI International Secretariate from 1985 up to the present day (see Martyn's WRI news page). Martyn is also a regular contributor to Peace News and the Housmans Peace Diary & directory.

Martyn as been a vegetarian since Jan 26th 1970, & has a particular interest in vegetarian information resouces, he also has an interest in the circa 9,000 clandestine publications which existed throughout Europe during the Nazi occupation and dictatorship. Martyn was also involved in Anti-Fakland War activities.

You can read about Martyn's experiences as an activist within the peace movement on the Danish Peace Academy Web site. For information on the Euston Road Peace Walk, contact Housemans bookshop via their web site. Also see Martyn's ISC and LWPM archives, held at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.

You can also see an alternative picture of Martyn...

* slang - Nuclear.

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John Vincent (UK) - The Network: tackling social exclusion in libraries, museums, archives and galleries
email: johnnadder.org.uk
http://www.seapn.org.uk
http://www.welcometoyourlibrary.org.uk

John Vincent has worked in the public sector (primarily in public libraries) since the 1960s. He worked for Hertfordshire and Lambeth library services, and, most recently, for Enfield library service.

Since 1999, John has been the Networker for "The Network - tackling social exclusion in libraries, museums, archives and galleries", running training courses and conferences, producing a monthly newsletter, and working on specific projects (such as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded project to advocate the role that libraries play in supporting children and young people in care; and Phase 2 of "Welcome to Your Library").

John contributes regularly to Public Library Journals and to CILIP Update, and also leads workshops and gives talks at a number of events.

In 2006 he co-authored with John Pateman two chapters in the British Librarianship and Information Work series: ‘From Equal Opportunities to Social Exclusion’ (1991-2000) and ‘From Social Inclusion to Community Cohesion’ (2001-2005).

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Kingsley Oghojafor (Nigeria)
email: kingsleyoghojafortrustyahoo.co.uk

Kingsley Oghojafor, a graduate of mass communication, lives in Nigeria. Kingsley is a freelance writer and an author who has written several articles and books including topics such as self-publishing, regional issues and IT. He can be reached at kingsleyoghojafortrustyahoo.co.uk

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Mikael Böök (Finland)
email: bookkaapeli.fi
http://www.kaapeli.fi/book

I'm not a librarian by profession. As a young man I studied at the university (of Helsinki) to become a Magister of Philosophy, Sociology and History. Later in life, I became an internet service provider and a web-publisher.

My second name, "Böök", probably means "book", but not exactly the thing you read. Rather, it has to do with the European beech (fagus sylvatica).

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Toni Samek (Canada) - Chair, Canadian Library Association's Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom
email: Toni.Samekualberta.ca
http://www.ualberta.ca/~asamek/toni.htm

I have been working as an educator and scholar at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta since 1994. Prior to that, my library and other work experience comes from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A. and the following all in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Halifax City Regional Library, Saint Mary University's International Education Centre, Nova Scotia's Department of Solicitor General, ForceTen Computer Services Limited, and Sight & Sound Productions Limited.

My education includes a Doctor of Philosophy (Library and Information Studies) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto.

My teaching, research, and service interests include critical librarianship, intercultural information ethics, global information justice, human rights, intellectual freedom, social responsibility, library history, and library education.

In January 2001, I developed and introduced a graduate course at the University of Alberta titled “Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in Librarianship”. The course runs annually. Of the approximately 15 (a disappointing number) stand-alone intellectual freedom courses currently offered in North American library and information schools, this is the only course that provides a direct and upfront link between the concepts of social responsibility and intellectual freedom. Indeed, the course begins with discussion and exploration of intellectual freedom as a “contested” concept.

I am the author of the 2001 book Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974, published by McFarland & Company Inc, Publishers, U.S.A. (In 2003, the book was published in Japanese translation by the Kyoto University Library and Information Science Study Group.) The historical work examines the American Library Association’s profound and contentious professional identity crisis during the Vietnam conflict. The book’s present day relevance is most notable in its treatment of library neutrality and librarianship in time of war, revolution, and social change.

In March 2007, I published a new book for Chandos (Oxford) Publishing titled Librarianship and Human Rights: A Twenty-first century guide. The book will be coming out of Buenos Aires in 2008 in a special Latin American adaptation in Spanish translation.

• Information Ethics Fellow, 2006-07, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Chair, Canadian Library Association's Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom
• Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee Member, Canadian Association of University Teachers
• Editorial Advisory Board Member, International Review of Information Ethics
• Advisory Board Member, Information for Social Change

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Helen Raduntz (Austraila) - Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work, University of South Australia, Adelaide
email: helen.raduntzunisa.edu.au

Helen Raduntz is an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Centre of Research in Education, Equity and Work, University of South Australia, whose career has involved working in industry and secondary education, education union activism, and academic teaching and research. Subsequent to her doctoral research she has continued her interests in the development of a Marxian critique for contemporary capitalism, in the continuing impact of marketisation on education and education for social change, and in mounting a critique on the subject of intellectual property and the work of information professionals. Among her publications is a chapter entitled ‘The Marketisation of Education within the Global Capitalist Economy’ published in 2005 in the book Globalising Public Education: Policies, Pedagogy and Politics, edited by Michael W. Apple, Jane Kenway and Michael Singh, and published by Peter Lang Publishing, New York.

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Anders Ericson (Norway) - Journalist and librarian
email: frilandersgmail.com

I’m a librarian by profession, but since 1999 a freelance journalist and consultant, on library issues and for library journals mainly. For the time being I’m the editor of the news column of the web site of the Norwegian Library Association. I have been chief librarian of a small public library and librarian at two university colleges, in pedagogy and engineering; I was also a consultant at the Norwegian State Directorate for Public Libraries in Oslo for 17 years.

The democratic potential of public libraries made me choose library education in 1973, and I’ve been engaged in democracy issues since then; I published a book on ‘the Independent Public Library’ in 2001 ( in Norwegian only), but I wrote a short version in English for ISC.

I’m member of the City Council of my home town, Moss (28 000 inhabitants), very nicely situated by the Oslo Fjord, 60 km south east of Oslo. My party is a small, but rather lively radical (ex-)Maoist party, the Red Electoral Alliance (RV).

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Edgardo Civallero (Argentina) - Librarian and Activist
email: edgardo_civalleroyahoo.com.ar
http://www.thelogofalibrarian.blogspot.com/

I started working in LIS social issues in 2001, developing libraries in indigenous and rural communities in northern Argentina. I became involved with the IFLA and UDC editorial board, and with Open Access Initiatives in Latin America, and with several LIS Journals' editorial boards here in my continent, so I have a leg inside the "official, academic" land and the other one in my beloved radical, activist, anarchist land. My feelings and my beliefs belong to the latter feld. I keep a weblog (bitacora de un bibliotecario, with an English version named The log of a librarian). I also give classes, conferences and workshops on LIS social activism and the social role of librarians.

The points of view I have are an outcome of my direct experience working in my country.
I have managed really difficult situations (including threats to my life) while working as a librarian, as well as hard situations (human rights violations, death, disease and suffering of library users), so my outlook may appear a little "radical", but I am convinved of the power of the library for changing realities. I have witnessed the power of information, the power of the book, the power of the journal and I think that this is the point we must encourage: the fair use of information in order to give tools and voices to the silenced and disadvantaged.

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Rory Litwin (USA) - Library Juice Press
email: rlitwinearthlink.net
http://www.libraryjuicepress.com

Rory Litwin is a reference librarian at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, where he has collection development responsibilities in the arts and humanities. Previous work as a librarian includes stints in Northern California public libraries, at a small Latino college, and at the California Research Bureau of the California State Library.

From 1998 to 2005 he published Library Juice, an electronic zine that collected and recorded selections from the discourse of the Library Left during that period, and included his original writings on libraries and society. In 2006 Library Juice re-emerged as a blog and a small book publishing company, which publishes books on the same subjects. Among those books are two edited by Litwin: Library Juice Concentrate, which is a collection of the best material from the e-zine, and Library Daylight: Tracings of Modern Librarianship, 1874-1922, which is a collection of essays and other brief items from the early days of librarianship as a profession in the United States.

Litwin presently serves on the Council of the American Library Association (ALA) and as a member of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table's Action Council. He has also served as a member of the editorial board of Progressive Librarian and on the Coordinating Committee of the Progressive Librarians Guild.

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Paul Catherall (Wales, UK) - Career Development Group Wales / ISC Webmaster
email: p.catherallnewi.ac.uk

Paul has helped to re-design the ISC Web pages for World Wide Web Convention (W3C) Web standards and accessibility compliance and contributes articles for the ISC journal, he is also a committee member of the Career Development Group Wales, which seeks to support and develop the skills of library and information workers.

A qualified librarian and Chartered member of CILIP, Paul has worked for the past nine years in library related roles, as a library assistant and currently as a Web developer in an academic library (North East Wales Institute of Higher Education). Paul has also worked in Further Education as a lecturer of IT and is an Associate of the Higher Education Academy; additionally, Paul is a UNISON steward and Safety Representative for the NEWI UNISON branch.

Paul's current research includes educational applications of the World Wide Web, e-learning and Web accessibility. Paul also maintains an E-learning Information Portal and has written a text on this subject entitled Delivering e-learning for Information Services in Higher Education, available from Chandos Publishing.

Paul's initial degree reflected his personal interest in the history of the Nineteenth Century radical movement, including the influence of revolutionary writers on the Romantic school of poetry, the Radical works of the poet Shelley and the prophetic writings and art of William Blake. Paul also dabbles in illustration seen in his illustrated book of poems Foibles, Frolics and Phantasms - Illustrated Poems 1995 - 2005.

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