Don't Worry, Be Sneaky

I have, indeed, been creating the aforementioned wiki about book travel throughout the world.  I have just gotten a little bit paranoid and so I'm not publishing it on my blog.  Isn't that silly?  Well, I'm doing it all the same.  So if you are going somewhere and want to know its book history, drop me a line and I will hopefully have some information about that region's book history by then. 

I just wanted to tell you, internet persons, that I have not faulted in my attempts to get motivated. 

My latest discovery is the Rock Drawings in Valcamonica, northern Italy.  In this most norther region of the Lombardy you can find one of the largest and best collections of prehistoric petroglyphs.  I'm trying to steer our summer stopover in Italy to the north so that we can see these caves.   

Brooke's World Book Tour!

Sometimes I use the blog to motivate myself to do things I will love, but might otherwise not accomplish due to my ability to piddle away time doing other things that I like, but don't love. 

I am officially compiling a list/wiki/database of all of the awesome places/objects relating to Books and the History of Libraries throughout the world.  Consider it a travel guide for book nerds.  When I get it up and running ( more than one entry) I will post the link on this blog.  Hopefully I'll post tidbits I learn about along the way too. 

I've wanted a "Master List" like this for some time, so I've gotten out some of my old text books, emailed some teachers, and I'm going to put it together. 

What I Am

"Librarians are centered on the human record that vast assemblage of texts, moving and still images, symbolic representations, recorded sound, and other fruits of the human mind. They select, acquire, organise, give access to, and preserve sub-sets of that human record and give advice and instruction on its use. They share core values stewardship, intellectual freedom, service, etc. and work cooperatively with other librarians locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally through such methods as inter-library lending, cataloguing standards, etc., to ensure coordination of library efforts and strive for total access to the human record. These words apply to the librarians of yesterday and tomorrow as much as to the librarians of today. They also, in my view, apply to librarians of all kinds in all countries. There is a golden thread that connects a school librarian in California to an academic librarian in Mumbai and a public librarian in Nairobi to a government librarian in Sydney."
Exciting, grand and inspiring scope part

"That being so, it follows that there are subjects in which all librarians should be educated and a core of such subjects that apply to all librarians and that should be included in the curricula of all library education programs. I have proposed elsewhere that we should work internationally on identifying that global core and work nationally and within linguistic groups to expand on that core as it applies in a particular country or grouping of countries". 
Practical, more nerdy librarian part

Michael Gorman, past president of ALA at the Forum on International Library Education

Capitalism: The Double Edged Sword of Information

As much as capitalism has helped develop nations like India (and I know it has, I've read 'The World is Flat') it holds an interesting consequence when it comes to information access. I was reading this article today about the enormous "access to information" gap in developing nations. What I mean by that specifically in this case is access to journals related to health, medicine, science, technology - you name it. Credible, reliable, researched, and peer reviewed information that, if we believe the School House Rock adage "knowledge is power" (and I truly do) must be accessible to underdeveloped nations.

Anyway, there are many organizations like HINARI and AGORA, both mentioned in the quote below, that purchase journal subscriptions from large companies in order to distribute them to developing nations for free of a very low fee. The author points out an interesting problem when "commercial interest" comes into play:

"Also, in a few countries, publishers withhold some journals because the sales of these journals are significant in these countries.

Indeed, this is the case for India, which is excluded from HINARI and AGORA even though India’s per capita GDP is less than half of US$1,000, the threshold accepted by the publishers for these programs, simply because there are many institutional subscribers in India for many journals included in HINARI and AGORA. University and research institute libraries in various regions of India also belong to different consortia who sign different licensing agreements with different publishers that allow them access to some titles that are also available through HINARI and AGORA. So offering these programs to India would substantially undercut the subscription revenue publishers currently enjoy. It appears that profit motive prevails over the principle of true equity.”

I don't really know that I have a 'solution' to this issue, because truly, we ought to be valuing information and it ought to be expensive - it changes the world (we hope). I understand why they wouldn't want to give away what they are already selling. Companies have to be able to make a profit so they can continue to collect, publish, and disseminate good products...but groups like HINARI and AGORA are willing to pay...so why not just make a little less AND help the world?

Chan, Leslie, & Costa, Sely. (2005). Participation in the global knowledge commons: Challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries. New Library World, 106(3/4), 141-163.