A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Information Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / This study investigated the nature and level of information ethics education in Library and Information Science Departments in South Africa. The study was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative methods through a survey and content analysis. All 12 LIS Departments in South Africa were targeted. Within these departments, the departments’ Heads, lecturers teaching the module, and the course outlines/study guides of information ethics modules formed the target population. Data was collected via questionnaires that were emailed to the Heads of the various LIS Departments, who were also requested to forward a separate set of questionnaires to the lecturers teaching information ethics modules. Departments that offered information ethics modules were also requested to forward the study materials of their modules (i.e. their study guides) for content analysis. Of the twelve LIS Departments, responses were received from only seven. These were departments from the Universities of Zululand, Pretoria, Cape Town, South Africa, KwaZulu Natal, the Western Cape, and the Durban University of Technology. Study guides for content analyses were received from the three LIS Departments that offered information ethics as a full stand-alone module. These were the LIS Departments at the Universities of Zululand, Pretoria and South Africa. The results of the study indicate that in most LIS Departments, information ethics was taught in the content of other modules and not as a stand-alone module. In the LIS Departments that offered a stand-alone information ethics module, the module was only first offered in 2nd year, the rationale being that at this level, students are senior enough to appreciate information ethics. It was also found that the stand-alone information ethics modules were only offered by LIS Departments. Furthermore, only one lecturer from the University of South Africa had a background in both Library and Information Science and Philosophy; the rest of the lecturers in the LIS Departments had backgrounds only in Library and Information Science. The study also found that in terms of the units covered in information ethics modules, there was quite a bit of diversity, with each LIS Department offering its own version of information ethics. However, issues of intellectual property, copyright and privacy were covered across the board. The study acknowledges the ethical dilemmas facing information professionals and recommends that information ethics be made a major component of LIS education and training, in which case it would be offered as a full standalone module.

The digital divide refers to inequalities in access to information technology. Those people who do not have access to information technology are at a significant economic and social disadvantage. As with any other policy decision, in order to evaluate policies for dealing with the digital divide, we need to know exactly what our goal should be. Since the principal value of access to information technology is that it leads to knowledge, work in epistemology can help us to clarify our goal in the context of the digital divide. In this paper, I argue that epistemic value theory can help us to determine which distribution of knowledge to aim for. Epistemic value theory cannot specify a particular distribution to aim for, but it can significantly narrow down the range of possibilities. Additionally, I indicate how the exercise of applying epistemic value theory to the case of the digital divide furthers work in epistemology.

While librarians are concerned about copyright and intellectual property, the extent of their compliance with ethical guidelines and copyright laws is unclear. This study examines, through content analysis, librariesâ approaches toward copyright concerns in three countries (Israel, Russia, and the United States), and suggests a model of library response to social responsibility issues.

While librarians are concerned about copyright and intellectual property, the extent of their compliance with ethical guidelines and copyright laws is unclear. This study examines, through content analysis, librariesâ approaches toward copyright concerns in three countries (Israel, Russia, and the United States), and suggests a model of library response to social responsibility issues.

An important issue for information ethics is how much control people should have over the dissemination of information that they have created. Since intellectual property policies have an impact on our welfare primarily because they have a huge impact on our ability to acquire knowledge, there is an important role for epistemology in resolving this issue. This paper discusses the various ways in which intellectual property policies can impact knowledge acquisition both positively and negatively. In particular, it looks at how intellectual property policies can affect the amount of information that people create, the quality of that information, the accessibility of that information, the diversity of that information, and the locatability of that information.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-137).

Three of the major issues in information ethics—intellectual property, speech regulation, and privacy—concern the morality of restricting people’s access to certain information. Consequently, policies in these areas have a significant impact on the amount and types of knowledge that people acquire. As a result, epistemic considerations are critical to the ethics of information policy decisions (cf. Mill 1978 [1859]). The fact that information ethics is a part of the philosophy of information highlights this important connection with epistemology. In this paper, I illustrate how a value-theoretic approach to epistemology can help to clarify these major issues in information ethics. However, I also identify several open questions about epistemic values that need to be answered before we will be able to evaluate the epistemic consequences of many information policies.

Purpose: To show how e-readiness indicators, specifically the Networked Readiness Index, participate in the work of defining policy problems. Methodology/Approach: The article critically examines the Networked Readiness Index is terms of its presentation and its underlying model. It relies on an approach to policy analysis that views policy problems as socially constructed. Findings: E-readiness assessment tools purport to show how ready the nations of the world are to exploit the potential of new information and communication technologies. Yet they do more than that; being actively engaged in constructing policy problems. In the case of the NRI, the problem of the international digital divide is defined in a particular way that privileges certain interests while at the same time legitimatising its inclusion on the agenda of international organizations as a problem worthy of sustained attention. Practical Implications: The findings of the article suggest a need for alternative indicators that register the voices of a wider range of groups and could therefore create a more inclusive digital divide policy problem. Originality/value: Little critical (as opposed to technical) analysis of e-readiness indicators exits in the literature. By focusing on these tools, the article contributes to the debate surrounding the issue of the digital divide.

Open source methodologies used in software are interrogated and then compared to the methods used in farmersâ rights groups. The use of open source methods in other contexts illustrates increasing interest in grassroots democratic movements participating in the continuing process of balance between public and private interests. These efforts provide a possible alternate framework for policy decisions concerning intellectual property.

Libraries have been involved in technological transformation for several decades, and are now increasingly associated with discourses surrounding the development of a global information society. The information society, however, remains a contested terrain, with a major focus on connectivity to ICTs, and is often linked with technological determinist and technocratic agendas. The library profession and field do not adequately theorize technology in a way that offers a progressive alternative to this dominant information society vision. In light of this context, this dissertation argues for the relevance of critical theory as a framework for guiding and analyzing library technology actions. This confluence of critical theory and library technology studies is named a “critical theory of library technology.” The framework is both a conceptual tool for re-envisioning the roles of libraries in relation to technology, as well as an analytical tool for exploring library technology decisions at various levels of impact. The open source software movement in libraries serves as test case in the application of this framework as a mode of analysis. Prominent library open source projects are discussed, and an in-depth, qualitative case study of Simon Fraser University Library in Canada, a library developing open source software for electronic resource management and electronic journal publishing, is undertaken. Interviews and documentary research are the main sources of data. Findings indicate that while the software projects are nominally open source, the co-developer communities remain limited. Best practices research will have to address areas related to the on-going community development and sustainability of these projects. However, in relation to the critical framework, the library emerges as a model of high investment in the technological skills of systems staff. The case presents a regional example of cooperation that is benefiting smaller client libraries in the regional consortia. Open source ideology, however, appears as just one of a variety of factors behind the deployment of these projects. In the case of the electronic journal publishing software project, an open source/open access ideological orientation is prominent, and the project presents a potentially new model for academic libraries in the support of electronic publishing services.