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Our Specialties in Advocacy in Information Professions

Censorship

Traditionally, censorship is used to describe the conscious efforts by external organizations and individuals to ban, remove, or restrict materials or parts of information resources. In addition to these persistent efforts and information institutions' responses, we investigate the often subtle, and sometimes unconscious practices of censorship within the library.

Faculty Expert

Dr. Belinda Boon

The Digital Divide

The field of information science recognizes that the Internet and supporting technologies are essential access points to the information that impacts lives: healthcare information, government resources, education, job postings, and more. The digital divide refers to the reality that many communities and individuals with certain demographics are much more likely to lack access than others. Research examines barriers to access and searches for real solutions to address these inequities and foster thriving communities.

Faculty Experts

Dr. Katie Campana   Dr. Lala Hajibayova   Dr. Marianne Martens

Explore our faculty’s work in the Digital Divide

• Martens, M., Hajibayova, L., Campana, K., Rinnert, G., Caniglia, J. Isa, G., Kamiyama, T., Liman, A., Mupinga, D., & Oh, J. (2020, October). Being on the wrong side of the digital divide: Seeking technological interventions for education in Northeast Nigeria. Aslib Journal of Information Management.

Information Ethics

Research and advocacy in information ethics is centered on questions of access and ownership. These questions warrant constant review as both old and new 21st century complications and perspectives are unearthed. Of special concern to the LIS field is information professionals’ and institutions’ roles and practices of creating, upholding, promoting, and contradicting ethical policies and practices for the dissemination and reuse of information.

Faculty Experts

Dr. Lala Hajibayova  Dr. Athena Salaba

Explore our faculty’s work in Information Ethics

• Zhitomirsky-Geffet, M., & Hajibayova, L. (2020). A new framework for ethical creation and evaluation of multi-perspective knowledge organization systems. Journal of Documentation, 76(6), 1459-1471.
• Matsuda, S-H., Hajibayova, L., Quiroga, L., Buente, W., & Long, K. (2017). Decolonizing Knowledge Organization Systems: Hawaiian Epistemology, Representation and Organization. Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), SIG/CR Workshop, Crystal City, VA, USA. October, 2017.

Information Literacy

Information Literacy is a collection of knowledge and abilities around recognizing a need for information, discovering and evaluating information, incorporating information into new knowledge, understanding how information is produced, and the ethical engagement with information in various settings.

Faculty Experts

Dr. Meghan Harper   Dr. Miriam Matteson

Explore our faculty’s work in Information Literacy

• Harper, M. (2019, November). Using online resources to teach information literacy. School Library Connection.
• Harper, M. (2013). Savvy school library design to facilitate 21st century literacy skills and the common core. Ohio Media Spectrum – Journal of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA), 65(1), 34-43.
• Lin, Z., Zhang, Y., & Matteson, M. L., Li, X., Tu, X., Zhou, Y., & Wang, J. (2020). Older adults’ eHealth literacy and the role libraries can play. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.
• Matteson, M. L., & Gersch, B. (2020, November). Information literacy instruction in public libraries. Journal of Information Literacy.
• Smith, C. L., & Matteson, M. L. (2018). Information literacy in the age of machines that learn: Desiderata for machines that teach. Libri International Journal of Libraries and Information Studies, 68(2), 71-84.

Intellectual Freedom

Drawing on the , the (IFLA) interprets intellectual freedom as the inalienable right to seek, consume, and share information from any and all perspectives. Research and advocacy in the field investigates challenges to intellectual freedom in the information ecology and information institutions' and professionals’ supporting and conflicting policies and practices.

Faculty Experts

Dr. Belinda Boon   Dr. Marianne Martens

Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is the principle that internet providers should grant the same speed of access to every online resource regardless of the provider's financial affiliations with the company or individual publisher. LIS Research examines this principle and related legislation in relation to information institutional and professional commitments to promoting equitable access to information.

Faculty Expert

Dr. Lala Hajibayova

Explore our faculty’s work in Net Neutrality

• Novak, A., & Hajibayova, L. (2019). Net neutrality in the context of provision of fair and equitable access to information sources and services. Public Library Quarterly, 38(1), 19-33.