WSIS: Libraries Seek the Freedom to Inform

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Clive Freeman

BERLIN, Aug 20 2003 (IPS) - Libraries around the world could provide a relatively simple answer to bridging the ‘digital divide’, the world’s leading association of libraries has proposed.

Paris-based librarian Christine Deschamps, who has just stepped down as president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), called on the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva this December to recognise the key role of libraries in tackling the growing ‘digital divide.’

Deschamps made the proposal on behalf of IFLA at the recent World Library and Information Congress in Berlin. The conference was attended by more than 4,560 librarians from 133 countries.

World leaders should avoid "re-inventing the wheel," Deschamps said in a paper circulated at the meeting. "Instead, a relatively modest investment in technology, training and content would work wonders in making knowledge available to the information poor."

The proposal is now being taken forward by Kay Raseroka, head of library services at the University of Botswana who succeeded Deschamps as IFLA’s new president.

IFLA calls for the WSIS summit to commit member states to connect all their public libraries to the Internet by 2006, to support the skills development of librarians, and to ensure that intellectual property laws for electronic publications do not stand in the way of public access.

IFLA plans to send a strong delegation to the WSIS to put across its case.

IFLA is also pushing for public investment in information and telecommunication technologies. It is necessary to ensure that libraries have the resources to provide affordable connections, it said in its proposals.

Raseroka is now campaigning for a greater role for libraries in furthering freedom of information. She has chosen "Libraries for Lifelong Literacy" as her presidential theme for the next two years.

There is a need to reinterpret the idea of "bridging the digital divide," she told the meeting. She wants it to mean the creation of an environment within libraries and information centres that enables individuals from diverse communities to enjoy easy access to information.

To achieve this goal, attention has to be focussed on developing and maintaining lifelong information literacy in its broadest sense, not only among information users but also among librarians and other information workers, she said.

Several delegates at the library congress pointed out that the information literacy divide, not the digital divide, is the critical issue of the information age.

Raseroka expressed concern that new legislation to counter terrorism was coming in the way of efforts to promote freedom of information. She was particularly critical of the Patriot Act, which she says is destroying democracy. Delegates said in a resolution that this Act "violates fundamental human rights to privacy and unhampered access to information in the name of national security."

Raseroka plans an early visit to the United States to take up such concerns. "It’s important because the American Library Association is one of our strongest members," she said. With 491 delegates at the congress, the U.S. had the second largest delegation after Germany with 947 participants.

Issues related to freedom of information were explored at length at a plenary session at the library congress on ‘The World Summit – a First Step Towards a Society of Commonly Shared Expertise and Knowledge’. The session was chaired by Adama Samassekou, a former education minister from Mali, who has been named to head the WSIS prepatory committee.

The world is experiencing "unprecedented and radical change due to the new information and communication technologies," Samassekou said in a paper at the summit. "A new society full of promise is emerging. But there is enormous risk of seeing the onset of an unbalanced information society, one that takes no account of the cultural wealth and the linguistic diversity of our planet."

The first phase of the WSIS will take place in Geneva December 10-12. The second phase is due in Tunis in 2005.