Course Description: The advent of the "virtual library" has sparked controversy amongst librarians and the publics they serve. Debates rage over the merits of the book versus the computer; the deskilling or reskilling effects of new technologies on work; the gender bias of digital technologies; the commodification of virtual resources; the technological intensification of divisions between information rich and information poor; the role of libraries and librarians in the structuring of the so called information highway; and concerns over filtering, surveillance, and digital property rights. This course examines such issues in the context of wider conflicts over the desirability and direction of a high-technology information society. Is the librarian of the future a neo-Luddite or a cyborg?

Time: 1999 Summer Semester, Thursday, 1:30-4:20, MC15a.

Office hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 3:30-4:30.

1. To introduce students to the debates and controversies about the social consequences of information technology.
2. To explore these debates and controversies in the context of librarianship and related professional fields.
3. To develop the capacity to take and articulate positions within these debates.
4. To learn to understand and appreciate points of view different from one’s own on these issues.

Reading: There will be one set text, Matthew Friedman’s Fuzzy Logic: Dispatches from the Information Revolution (Montreal: Vehicule Press, 1997). In addition, set articles are on file in the Graduate Resource Centre. Students will be expected to read 3 to 4 chapters or articles a week. Presentations and papers will require further research.

Pedagogy: The course will be taught by lecture, group discussion, and student collective presentations and/or debates. For each week there is a discussion point—presented in the form of a (hopefully) provocative and controversial statement. These statements do not represent the personal opinions of the instructor, nor are students required to agree with them: they are presented only for the purpose of constructive debate.

Evaluation: Evaluation will be based on two short papers (15% and 20%); two in-class tests (20% and 20%); a group presentation (15%); and general participation in discussions (10%).

Papers: There will be two papers.

Paper 1 (15%) will be 6-8 pages long (printed, double-spaced, 12pt type, standard margins, etc.). It will support, refute or qualify any one of the listed discussion statements, excluding the one on which you do your presentation. Due in class July 8.

Paper 2 (20%) will be 8-10 pages long (printed, double-spaced, 12pt type, standard margins, etc.). It will support, refute or qualify any one of the listed discussion statements, excluding those on which you do your presentation and your first paper. Due noon Aug. 16.

Papers will be marked for argument, research, organization and literacy (yes, spelling and grammar do count!). Late papers should be put in the drop box at the FIMS office. 1% of the total course mark will be subtracted for each day late (including Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, etc.) according the office date-stamp. Papers also submitted for other courses will not be accepted. If the content of your paper overlaps significantly with work done for other LIS projects, consult the instructor.

Tests: There will be two tests, each worth 20%, one on June 24, covering the lecture, reading and discussion material from May 13 to June 17 (inclusive), and one on Aug 12, covering material from July 8 to Aug 5 (inclusive). Each test will require brief definition and discussion of key terms, concepts or figures. On each test there will be a selection of questions.

Presentations: Everyone will participate in one collective presentation arguing the case for or against one of the discussion points, with two people on each side of the issue. The aim is not to ‘win’ the debate but to clarify for the class the issues at stake by a strong statement of contrasting views. You are therefore encouraged to collaborate not only with your ‘partner’ but also with your ‘opponents’ in constructing your presentation. Each side will have an absolute maximum of 20 min–no more than 10 min per person. 5% of the mark is for the collective result—in terms of how lively and well-balanced a coverage of the issue is provided: 10% for individual contributions, marked according to research, organization (including keeping time limits!) and verbal presentation. After your presentation, give the instructor some brief written record of what you said (this can just be in the form of notes).

Participation: 10% of the mark is for participation in general class discussion including asking questions, answering questions, stating opinions, providing illustrative material from your experience and reading, and doing so in a way that is respectful and supportive of other students. Attendance is mandatory: sign in.

Feedback: There will be several structured opportunities to give the instructor feedback about the progress of the course (see below).

Week 1. May 13: Introduction

Discussion topic: "An electronic library is not a library."

Readings: Michael H. Harris and Stan A. Hannah, Into the Future: The Foundations of Library and Information Services in the Post-Industrial Era, Second Ed. (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1998) Chap. 1, "The Information Age," & Chap. 2, "Librarians Confront the Post-Industrial Era." Robert C. Berring, "Future Librarians." In Future Libraries. Eds. R.H. Bloch & C.Hesse. Berkeley (University of California Press, 1995) 94-115. Matthew Friedman, Fuzzy Logic, Chap. 1.

Week 2. May 20: The Death of Books?

Discussion topic: "The book, though not yet dead, is dying: librarians should say get over it and move on."

Readings: Raymond Kurzweil, "The Future of Libraries," Library Journal, Jan., Feb., March 1992: Sven Birketts, "Into the Electronic Millennium, " from his The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (New York: Faber and Faber, 1994).Walt Crawford,. "Paper Persists: Why Physical Library Collections Still Matter," Online, Jan/Feb 1998, 42-48. Matthew Friedman, Fuzzy Logic, Chap. 2.

Week 3. May 27: Bricks or Bytes?

Discussion topic: "Whatever anyone says about ‘virtual communities,’ as far as a library goes, cyberspace is no substitute for physical place."

Readings: Michael Gorman, "The Treason of the Learned: The Real Agenda of Those Who Would Destroy Libraries and Books." Library Journal, Feb 15 1994, 130-131. Michael Harris, Hannah. "’The Treason of the Librarians’: Core Communication Technologies and Opportunity Costs in the Information Era." Journal of the Academic Librarianship. Jan 1996, 3-8. Matthew Friedman, Fuzzy Logic, Chap. 3 & 9.

Week 4. June 3: Librarians: Deskilled , Reskilled or Wiped Out?

Feedback session.

Discussion topic: "Despite fashionable talk about professional empowerment through technology , the basic tendency of computerization is to de-skill librarians."

Readings: Michael H. Harris and Stan A. Hannah, Into the Future: The Foundations of Library and Information Services in the Post-Industrial Era (Second Ed. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1998), Chap. 4, "Neutrality, Objectivity, Information Professionals, and Librarians," and Chap 5, "Work in the Post-Industrial Era." Michael F. Winter, "Librarianship, Technology and the Labor Process: Theoretical Perspectives," in Critical Approaches to Information Technology in Librarianship: Foundations and Applications, ed. John Buschman (Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 1993) 173-196. Matthew Friedman, Fuzzy Logic, Chap. 7 See also (for this week or next) Roma Harris, "Information Technology and the Deskilling of Librarians." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science 53, Supplement 16, 1994. 182-201.

Week 5: June 10. Gendered Technology: Female Workers versus Male Machines?

Discussion topic: "Though feminist criticism of the male bias in high-technology library systems may once have had something to it, women’s increasing familiarity with computers is rapidly making such arguments irrelevant."

Readings: Roma Harris. Chapter 7, "Technology and the Deskilling of Women's Work," from her Librarianship: The Erosion of a Woman's Profession (New Jersey: Ablex, 1992). Patricia Lengerman, Jill Niebregge-Brantley, and Jane Kirkpatrick. "Democracy, Technology, and the Public Library: A Feminist Sociological Analysis," in Women Transforming Communications: Global Intersections (London: Sage, 1996) 83-94. Roxanne Missingham, "Cyberspace: no women need apply? Librarians and the Internet." Australian Library Journal, 45.2 (1996) 102-119.

Week 6: June 17. End-User Searching: Professional Doom as Popular Democracy?

Discussion topic: "Ever improving end-user search engines are driving reference librarians to extinction—and a good thing, too, since the demise of such intermediaries represents a massive democratization in information access."

Readings: Ronald Heckart, "Machine Help and Human Help in the Emerging Digital Library,." College and Research Libraries 59.3 (1998) 250-259. Keith Ewing, and Robert Hauptman, "Is Traditional Reference Service Obsolete?," Journal of Academic Librarianship 21 (1995) 3-6. Cheryl LaGuardia, "Desk Set Revisited: Reference Librarians, Reality and Research Systems’ Design," Journal of Academic Librarianship 21 (1995) 7-9. David Lewis, "Traditional Reference is Dead, Now Let’s Move on to Important Questions," Journal of Academic Librarianship 21 (1995) 10-12.

Week 7: June 24. Mid-Term Test & Feedback Session.

Week 8: July 1. Holiday!

Week 9: July 8. The Information Commodity: Microsoft World?

Paper 1 due in class.

Discussion topic: "Bill Gates is the librarian’s best friend: the future of the profession lies in developing alliances with digital capitalism."

Readings: Michael H. Harris and Stan A. Hannah, Into the Future: The Foundations of Library and Information Services in the Post-Industrial Era (Second Ed. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1998), Chap. 3, "State, Capital, and National Information Policy." Richard De Gennaro, "Technology and Access in an Enterprise Society" Library Journal, Oct. 1 (1989) 40-43. Henry T Blanke, "Librarianship and Public Culture in the Age of Information Capitalism," Journal of Information Ethics 5 (1996), 54-69.

Week 10: July 15. Digital Divide: Information Rich versus Information Poor?

Discussion topic: "The public library has a responsibility to provide free access to the Internet."

Readings: Nancy Kranitch, "The Selling of Cyberspace: Can Libraries Protect Public Access?" Library Journal, Nov 15, 1993, 35-37. Clifford Lynch, "The Role of Libraries in Access to Networked Information: Cautionary Tales from the Era of Broadcasting," In Emerging Communities: Integrating Networked Information into Library Services, ed. A. Bishop (Urbana: University of Illinois, 94) 120-133. Matthew Friedman, Fuzzy Logic, Chaps. 4 & 8.

Week 11: July 22. Intellectual Property: The Librarian as Hacker?

Discussion point: "Librarians’ commitment to ‘fair use’ requires that they oppose the creation of ‘strong’ electronic intellectual property rights."

Reading: Laura N Gasaway, "Copyright in the Electronic Era," Serials Librarian 24: 3/4 (1994) 153-162. Carol Risher, "Libraries, copyright and the electronic environment," Electronic Library 14.5 (1996) 449-452; Jessica Litman, "Copyright Law and Electronic Access to Information" http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4/litman/.

Week 12: July 29. Privacy and Surveillance: The Library as Panopticon?

Discussion point: "Only paranoids worry about what digital librarians do with patron information."

Reading: Bruce Shuman, "Keeping Track of People," in his Beyond the Library of the Future (Englewood, Col: Libraries Unlimited, 1997) 119-136. Kathleen G.Fouty, "Online Patron Records and Privacy: Service vs Security," Journal of Academic Librarianship. 19.5 (1993) 289-293: Rhoda Caroogian, "Librarian/Patron Confidentiality: An Ethical Challenge, " Library Trends 40.2 (1991) 216-33. Matthew Friedman, Fuzzy Logic, Chaps. 5 & 6.

Week 13: Aug 5. Digital Filters: Paternalistic Censorship or Responsible Protection?

Discussion point: "Whatever librarians’ inhibitions about censorship, in an electronic environment they must adopt digital filters or become unwitting collaborators with pornographers and pedophiles."

Week 14: August 12. Test & Course Evaluation

Final Lecture: The Contest for General Intellect: Librarians in Complex Capitalism

Paper 2 due Monday, August 16, noon..