The Social Nature of Information

Library Trends, Wntr, 2001 by Mark Alvino, Linda Pierce

ABSTRACT

THIS ARTICLE SHOWS HOW A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS of the moral value of information can help librarians rethink some aspects of their professional values, especially their commitment to neutrality. A historical discussion of the "fiction problem" shows how changes in collection practices partly account for the current emphasis on neutrality. This historical example shows the importance of using an analysis of the moral value of information as a guide to future changes in professional mission, especially those that result from new technologies. We argue that information is indirectly but crucially important to a person becoming a morally autonomous individual and to a community's ability to self-govern. The social nature of information has direct consequences for the professional mission of librarians.

INTRODUCTION

As librarians enter the new millennium, they are going to be increasingly challenged by the technical and social changes that are altering our world. The advent of the Internet and its consequent challenges to reference service, collection development, and patron expectations, as well as the constantly changing moral character of the United States, must cause librarians to reexamine some of their core values and principles.

This reexamination has led to an increasing number of articles dealing with values and trying to define the core values of the profession (Rogers, 1998; Gorman, 1999). Not surprisingly, the American Library Association has determined that there is a need for a "Core Values" statement to articulate what the role of the profession is in this time of change.

A key ethical component in all of the core value statements that have been written is the concept of the neutrality of the librarian and the profession. Little discussion has taken place asking whether or not neutrality is still a valid professional position or asking the broader question, is information itself a neutral commodity that allows the librarian or information professional to proclaim themselves neutral in its use or application?

If this discussion is to go forward with any legitimacy, it is essential that even traditional core values be reassessed so that it may be determined whether they remain a help or have become a hindrance to the future of professional librarianship. The concept of neutrality itself was not developed in a vacuum. It evolved as a result of interaction between the library profession and the culture over time. In these new times and changed culture, it is now necessary for us, while learning from the past, to cast a vision for the future that seeks to maintain both the existence and integrity of our profession. While the role of visionary is not one that comes easily to the rational fact-based profession of librarianship or to newly empowered "information scientists," it is necessary to project and reflect on what the profession and libraries will be in the future.

In reflecting on the future, inspiration can be found in Peter Drucker's (1999) article "Beyond the Information Revolution." Drucker asks the reader to think beyond the typical view of the industrial revolution and look not at the primary technology involved, the steam engine, but at the more profound changes in the interactions of people, the production and distribution of goods, and how the world was viewed. Technology made these changes possible, but it was the technologies' engendering of social change that became the true legacy of the steam engine.

The "future problem" for Drucker is that people often try to predict the future by focusing on inventions without thinking first about how new technology enables or forces social change. The first steam engines were not initially designed to pull passenger trains, but the genuine social revolution of the steam engine was the way it altered commercial and social relationships. For most information professionals, it is a given that the information revolution will have profound effects on how libraries operate and how librarians will do their jobs. The traditional card catalog and the dependence on traditional paper information sources are not coming back, but the adoption of their electronic equivalents did not really change the essence of what the catalog or the index was, only the format and the ability of librarians and patrons to access the same information more quickly and easily.

As the steam engine changed factories in the eighteeenth century, the computer will change libraries in the twenty-first century, but the real challenge is to determine how its use will change librarians, especially how they think about information and interact with library patrons. In all of the excitement about the immediate, though less profound, changes that computers have brought, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are not merely passive observers but rather have the ability to shape the discussion and influence the decisions that must be made. In order to take part in this discussion and reach an informed decision, it is helpful to look first at our shared history.