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Book part
Publication date: 10 November 2017

Claire Petri

This chapter analyzes the ways national, international, and library professional policies address Internet access as a human right. This includes documenting the ways rural…

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the ways national, international, and library professional policies address Internet access as a human right. This includes documenting the ways rural libraries fulfill their patrons’ human right to the Internet and demonstrating how Mathiesen’s (2014) framework can be used by library professionals and policymakers to ensure that people have physical, intellectual, and social access to the Web. The author’s intention is to help facilitate a more meaningful definition of access that goes beyond just providing hardware access to bridge the digital divide, but instead asserts the need for librarian assistance and technology training if we wish to allow all members of a society, without exception, to fully enjoy their human rights.

The author analyzes existing national and international policies pertaining to providing information and Internet access in rural and otherwise underserved areas, as well as precedents involving the deployment of previous information and communication technologies (ICTs) in rural areas. This segues into an analysis of barriers to rural Internet access using facets and determinants developed by Mathiesen, leading to the argument that rural librarians’ ability to help underserved populations use the Internet is essential to making Web access meaningful.

  • The United Nations (UN) has supported arguments that people have a right to information access and the technologies that support this, suggesting that Internet access is a human right.

  • The U.S. government has a history of facilitating access to ICTs in rural areas that dates back to 1934 and continues through the present.

  • Funding mechanisms that facilitate Web access in the United States focus primarily on making broadband connections, hardware, and software accessible, leaving out the essential training and assistance components that are essential to making many rural residents and other underserved persons able to actually use the Internet.

The United Nations (UN) has supported arguments that people have a right to information access and the technologies that support this, suggesting that Internet access is a human right.

The U.S. government has a history of facilitating access to ICTs in rural areas that dates back to 1934 and continues through the present.

Funding mechanisms that facilitate Web access in the United States focus primarily on making broadband connections, hardware, and software accessible, leaving out the essential training and assistance components that are essential to making many rural residents and other underserved persons able to actually use the Internet.

Scholarship on rural libraries, including some of the research in this volume, has argued that rural public libraries provide an invaluable service by offering both access to and guidance in using the Internet. While these publications commonly discuss the socioeconomic benefits of providing this access, they often treat the motivation for providing such services as self-evident. This chapter analyzes policies and legal precedents to argue that Internet access for rural residents, through public libraries and other means, is not merely a privilege that will benefit people if funded, but instead a human right that cannot be ignored.

Details

Rural and Small Public Libraries: Challenges and Opportunities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-112-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2015

Paul T. Jaeger, Brian Wentz and John Carlo Bertot

This chapter explores the historical and evolving relationship between human rights, social justice, and library support of these efforts through physical and digital access, as…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter explores the historical and evolving relationship between human rights, social justice, and library support of these efforts through physical and digital access, as well as relevant legal frameworks.

Methodology/approach

We explore the connection between libraries, technology, human rights, and social justice. The human rights and social justice functions of libraries are descriptive of what libraries have become in the age of the Internet. Many aspects of the information and communication capabilities that are provided through Internet access have been leveraged to promote human rights and social justice throughout the world.

Findings

There is practical evidence through case studies and survey results that libraries have primarily embraced this direction through offering many individuals without Internet access or technology experience a place of physical access, education, and an ongoing atmosphere of inclusion and accessibility as society embraces an increasingly digital future. This focus on rights and justice exists within varying legal structures related to people with disabilities and to values of rights and justice. Many libraries have also created programs and services that are targeted toward online equity for people with disabilities. This proactive response regarding digital accessibility is indicative of the likelihood that there is an inclusive future for libraries and their services to the broadest of their communities.

Social implications

Highlighting this role and a motto of access for all will enable libraries to expand their significant contributions to human rights and social justice that extend beyond the traditional physical infrastructure and space of libraries.

Details

Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities and the Inclusive Future of Libraries
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-652-6

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Advances in Librarianship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-12024-617-5

Book part
Publication date: 20 April 2021

Conrad Pegues

Information is the most valuable commodity in the world, but everyone does not have equal access to information. Lack of equal digital access is an information access desert…

Abstract

Information is the most valuable commodity in the world, but everyone does not have equal access to information. Lack of equal digital access is an information access desert. Libraries should be public spaces to meet the digital needs of the community. Due to socio-political neglect, urban and rural public libraries cannot always meet patron needs. There is a pattern where urban libraries are either closed or cannot meet the demands for digital access until gentrification when upper class people move in and demand new libraries with sufficient digital access. Rural libraries suffer a similar fate with insufficient digital access to meet the economic and educational needs of their communities. Information access deserts identify a crucial issue for equal access to all regardless of economic status.

Details

Hope and a Future: Perspectives on the Impact that Librarians and Libraries Have on Our World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-642-1

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 September 2023

Mapheto J. Mamabolo and Oluwole Olumide Durodolu

This study aims to determine the requirements and find out the challenges for the use of digital library services for rural areas of Capricorn District Municipality, Limpopo…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to determine the requirements and find out the challenges for the use of digital library services for rural areas of Capricorn District Municipality, Limpopo province. The research questions of the study are: What are the requirements for the use of digital library services in rural areas of Capricorn District Municipality? What are the challenges of accessing digital library services in rural areas?

Design/methodology/approach

Data was analysed thematically and deductively in this study, as researcher required to accomplish the purpose of the study through consistent structure (Zalaghi and Khazaei, 2016). In deductive analysis, the researcher starts with a set of categories, which are then used to categorize and organize data (Bertram and Christiansen, 2020). The researcher got familiar with data from the interviewing process and when transcribing data from audio tape. The transcription process was done for the coding purposes. Coding allows the researcher to simplify and focus on specific characteristics of data.

Findings

The study findings advocate for the establishment of digital libraries in rural areas. The library authorities are challenged to adapt digital ways of information provision. Since librarians have been providing digital content in libraries for use on users’ laptops and other gadgets, this implies that the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has been lagging behind in finding innovative ways to provide information, especially in rural areas. To successfully keep libraries as sources of information, transformative measures have to be taken, and where possible, revisit the policies and keep drifting with the societal changes. The library authorities have to delve into new ways of providing LIS to the communities. Unquestionably, information and communication technologies have penetrated our societies and became a way of life. In addition, there are unlimited benefits which can be derived from digital technologies, especially given the lack of physical libraries in rural areas.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the academic research is original and has not been published anywhere before.

Details

Digital Library Perspectives, vol. 39 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5816

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1995

Wendy P. Lougee

Libraries have generally made the conceptual shift from collections based on “ownership” to more expansive models which incorporate “access” to information. A new set of…

Abstract

Libraries have generally made the conceptual shift from collections based on “ownership” to more expansive models which incorporate “access” to information. A new set of challenges is emerging as the capabilities of information technology create new potentials for publishing and new models for access. Coupled with significant changes in the scholarly communication arena, research libraries are now challenged to reconceive the prevailing notions of collection development activity and the closely related strategies of providing access. Describes critical technical, cultural, and economic factors in the 1990s, and details an emerging series of tensions which build on the ownership‐access dichotomy of the past.

Details

Collection Building, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2023

Alex I. Nyagango, Alfred S. Sife and Isaac Kazungu

Factors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural market information access remain a mixed debate, and there are contradictive views among studies. This…

Abstract

Purpose

Factors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural market information access remain a mixed debate, and there are contradictive views among studies. This study examined factors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural marketing information access. The study is anchored on the technological acceptance model (TAM).

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted with a sample size of 400 grape smallholder farmers. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to gather data. Descriptive, ordinal logistic regression and thematic approaches were used in data analysis.

Findings

The study confirmed grape smallholder farmers generally considered mobile phone technologies as an appropriate communication channel to stay informed about agricultural marketing information. It was found that reliable electricity supply, relevance, timeliness, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of mobile phone technologies influenced the level of agricultural marketing information access.

Research limitations/implications

This research is limited to a selected number of grape smallholder farmers in Dodoma, Tanzania, and leaves out those without mobile phones. Also, the study was cross-sectional in nature, so it may not be necessarily capable of consistently providing critical and consistent information about the same population over a series of times.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by integrating the use of mobile phone technologies to access marketing information in informing policy and decision-making processes to promote grape marketing.

Article
Publication date: 21 September 2012

Dan Wu and Daqing He

This paper seeks to examine the further integration of machine translation technologies with cross language information access in providing web users the capabilities of accessing

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to examine the further integration of machine translation technologies with cross language information access in providing web users the capabilities of accessing information beyond language barriers. Machine translation and cross language information access are related technologies, and yet they have their own unique contributions in handling information in multiple languages. This paper aims to demonstrate that there are many opportunities to further integrate machine translation with cross language information access, and the combination can greatly empower web users in their information access.

Design/methodology/approach

Using English and Chinese as the language pair for studying, this paper looks at machine translation in query translation‐based cross language information access at multiple important aspects, which include query translation, relevance feedback, interactive cross language information access, out‐of‐vocabulary term translation, and data fusion. The goal is to obtain more insights about the wide range usages of machine translation in cross language information access, and to help the community to identify promising future directions for both machine translation and cross language access.

Findings

Machine translation can be applied effectively in many places in the whole cross language information access process. Queries translated by a machine translation system are high quality and are more robust in handling potential untranslated terms. Translation enhancement, a relevance feedback method using machine translation generated returned documents, is not only a valid technique by itself, but also helps to generate more robust cross language information access performance when combined with other relevance feedback techniques. Machine translation is also found to play a significant role in resolving untranslated terms and in data fusion.

Originality/value

This set of comparative empirical studies on integrating machine translation and cross language information access was performed on a common evaluation framework, and examined integration at multiple points of the cross language access process. The experimental results demonstrate the value of further integrating machine translation in cross language information access, and identify interesting future directions for both machine translation and cross language information access research.

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Stuart Hamilton and Niels Ole Pors

This paper explores how the relationship between freedom of access to information and freedom of expression is expressed across the international library community. Specifically…

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Abstract

This paper explores how the relationship between freedom of access to information and freedom of expression is expressed across the international library community. Specifically, it analyses this relationship in the setting of Internet access in libraries where the Internet has been seen as a tool for fostering democracy and furthering social inclusion. Using preliminary analysis of data collected from a global survey of Internet access issues within the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) member countries (2003), and by comparing this data with a survey of European library institutions carried out in 2002, the paper shows the extent to which libraries – from the point of view of national associations and national libraries – are able to use the Internet to promote freedom of access to information and freedom of expression despite the existence of barriers to this task.

Details

Library Management, vol. 24 no. 8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-5124

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 October 2018

Nicholaus Mwalukasa, Malongo R.S. Mlozi and Camilius A. Sanga

The purpose of this study was to examine socio-demographic factors influencing the use of mobile phones in accessing rice information on climate change adaptation by rain-fed…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine socio-demographic factors influencing the use of mobile phones in accessing rice information on climate change adaptation by rain-fed farmers in Tanzania with reference to Morogoro region.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional research design was used to collect data from 400 randomly selected rain-fed rice farmers owning mobile phones. Semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection in eight selected wards in two districts of Kilombero and Kilosa districts in Morogoro Region, Tanzania.

Findings

The findings of the study showed that the use of mobile phones to access rice information on climate change adaptation was statistically significantly influenced by respondents’ sex, age, education level, marital status, farm size, farming experience, radio ownership and off-farm incomes. Furthermore, the use of mobile phones in accessing rice information on climate change adaptation among the study districts was not statistically significant.

Practical implications

This paper provides practical recommendations on how to improve accessibility of rice information through mobile phones on climate change adaptation. Implementation of information delivery system to farmers using mobile phones without ascertaining farmers’ socio-demographic characteristics leads to resource underutilization.

Originality/value

The paper provides appropriate knowledge that is needed in improving access to information through mobile phones by Tanzanian farmers and in other communities in developing countries with the aid of the additional theoretical moderators of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology as the research findings suggest. Moderators’ variables have high influence on farmers’ use of mobile phones on accessing rice information on climate change adaptation.

Details

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, vol. 67 no. 8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

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