Ruth Rikowski News Updates Resurrection

Ruth Rikowski's 27th News Update

2009-03-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.27

To begin with I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. It is some while since I have sent round an Update; finally, I have found a window of opportunity. There are now quite a few important news items that I would like to share with you! In particular, I have written a long piece which was inspired by me hearing Michéle Roberts speaking at CILIP Members’ Day on 16th October 2008, and this is now on our website. I have not, as yet, got another blog sorted out, but hope to do that in the not-too-distant future.

1. PIECE INSPIRED BY MICHÈLE ROBERTS - WRITTEN BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
Firstly, then, I went to hear Michéle Roberts (author of 12 novels) speaking at CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Members’ Day on 16th October 2008, and really loved it. In fact, I was so inspired that I decided to write a very long piece about it, relating it to some of my own experiences (as I surprisingly found that I quite had a lot in common with her!). This long article is now available on our website, and is entitled ‘Michéle Roberts: novelist and radical feminist – Comparisons with Michéle Roberts and Ruth Rikowski: writers, book lovers, feminists, radicals, librarians and pro-activists’. It is available at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Michele%20Roberts

Shorter versions will also be published in CILIP London News and in Managing Information in Spring 2009.

2. THE VICKERYS
A year or so ago, I met up with some second cousins of mine, on my mother’s side, for the first time. We got talking about the Vickery’s – our great grandparents. Some information about the Vickery’s is included in the piece that I have just written (see item 1 above). But I think readers might well be interested to have a little more information included separately in this Update – so here goes.

My great grandmother, Emma Sophia Vickery (neé Michael), was one of the first, if not the first woman to obtain the formal teaching certificate in England (as opposed to just being a teaching helper). Apologies for being just slightly vague here, but I have yet to check out the official historical records (and I have no idea, at this stage, how easy or difficult that will prove to be). A second cousin of mine, Deborah Dawes, informed me that her parents did a lot of research on the family, which included going to Cornwall, where the Vickery’s lived for a period. Whilst some bright women were teacher helpers in the 19th century, to go and study and obtain the actual certificate took a lot of courage, determination, as well as intelligence, of course. So, obviously, I am very proud of all of this.

What I do know for an absolute fact is that both my great grandparents, Charles Palmer Vickery and Emma Sophia Vickery ran a school in Cornwall at the end of the 19th century (which obviously led on from the 1870 Education Act). Indeed, they can be found listed in the Cornwall Online Census Statistics 1881
http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:TF8w-d59XWoJ:freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kayhin/82320.html+Cornwall+Census+Stats+1881+Emma+and+Charles+Vickery&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8 (item 78). When I was a child I remember my mother, Mabel Elsie Turney (neé Vickery), proudly showing me a photograph of them both, outside their school. Rather amusingly, my great grandfather was standing on a box, because he was shorter than my great grandmother, but did not want to appear shorter in the photograph! Later, incidentally, my great grandmother ran a shop, and then my grandmother, Elsie May Vickery, also ran a shop.

Whilst my grandfather (my mother’s father), Clement Augustine Vickery, was a Captain in the Merchant Navy, and wrote 2 books on nautical matters, and later taught nautical studies. One of the books he wrote is entitled ‘Stability of Ships – mates, masters and extra masters’, published by Imray Laurie, Norie and Wilson, I believe. Unfortunately, I have never seen the books, but I know that a cousin of mine (Christopher Littler), who lives in Spain and France has copies of the books. My grandfather is also listed in the ‘Index to the Captains Registers of Lloyd’s of London (Guildhall Library Ms 18567)’. See:
http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:A_-Xe2xHwmsJ:www.history.ac.uk/gh/capsV.pdf+Clement+Vickery&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8

In the entry it states: VICKERY, Clement Augustine b. Falmouth 1883 002376 South Shields 1907 & London,1908. Steamships Extra Steam 1908, Vol.86 1907-1911

My mother’s eldest sister, Sophia Levice Olivia White (neé Vickery) was also a junior school teacher all her working life in Wanstead, Essex, following on from winning a scholarship and attending Cheltenham Teacher Training College, around 1930 (she was born in 1910). Furthermore, my second cousin, Deborah Dawes, was a foreign languages teacher in an independent school, all of her working life, following on from obtaining a languages degree from Oxford. Also, another cousin of mine, Nigel Leaney, (who is roughly the same age as me) writes a column for a dog magazine.

So, my family has a lot to be proud of in many ways. The Vickerys, in general, really valued books, education and music. Whilst I came from the East End of London, my mother’s family was more middle class than my father’s, in terms of culture and education, rather than material possessions.

3. REVIEW ESSAY BY RUTH RIKOWSKI OF PAULA ALLMAN’S BOOK ‘ON MARX’ IN ‘POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION’
A review essay of mine (of some 4,000 words) on Paula Allman’s book ‘On Marx’, Sense Publishers, 2007, has just been published in Policy Futures in Education, Vol. 6, No. 5, 2008. See: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_5.asp

4. COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES IN LONDON BOROUGH OF NEWHAM LIBRARY SERVICE, FOLLOWING ON FROM REVIEW AND RESTRUCTURING
I was very shocked to find out from former colleagues that some 20 people are being made compulsory redundant in the London Borough of Newham Library Service (and that these redundancies will all have taken place by the end of March 2009). The plan, apparently, is to merge Libraries with Local Service Centres.

This is the third review that has taken place in Newham Library Service since 1993. I was still working for Newham when the first review took effect. Half the posts were deleted and we had to apply for jobs in the new structure. I obtained the post of ‘Training Officer’, which was subsequently deleted. I decided that enough was enough, and sought employment elsewhere – I obtained the post of ‘Support Librarian’ at Dynix, a library software company that has now merged with Unicorn.

However, this latest review is on a completely different scale (with many qualified and experienced staff being lost), and I cannot envisage what type of library service will be left as a result of all of this.

Anyway, I wish my former colleagues all the very best with all their future endeavours – whatever they might be.

5. REVIEWS OF GLOBALISATION AND LIBRARY BOOKS IN ‘PROGRESSIVE LIBRARY JOURNAL’
Given this latest news in regard to Newham library service (in item 4 above), now seems to be an appropriate time to refer to 2 book reviews about books which examine the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and libraries – GATS being the World Trade Organisation Agreement that threatens state-funded services, including libraries. These were published in Progressive Librarian: a journal for Critical Studies and Progressive Politics in Librarianship, Summer 2007, Issue 29. Reviewing and restructuring library services can be a way of introducing the commercialisation and marketisation of services, of course.

The first is a book review by me of Samuel E. Trosow and Kirsti Nilsen’s book, Constraining Public Libraries: the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services, Metuchen NJ, Scarecrow Press, 2006 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Constraining-Public-Libraries-Organizations-Agreement/dp/0810852373/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1231362425&sr=8-1) (on pp.79-81).

The second is a review by Samuel E. Trosow of my book, Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements, Chandos Publishing: Oxford, 2005 (on pp.82-84)

Trosow concludes his review saying that my book “…should be read by anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the global processes that are at work in promoting the commercialisation and privatisation of public services” (Trosow, 2007, p. 81).

I conclude my review by recommending Trosow and Nilsen’s book, and saying that “…hopefully, together, we can start to “blow the lid” on this global capitalist agenda and, indeed, uncover the hidden (and not so hidden) global capitalist trade agenda for libraries and information” (Rikowski, 2007, p. 84)

6. LIZ TAYLOR – KM CONSULTANT
Liz Taylor, a former Knowledge Management (KM) masters’ student of mine at London South Bank University, now runs a KM consultancy business. She also has 2 books published with Chandos Publishing (one of which I commissioned). She has just sent me some further information about all this, for inclusion in these Updates, and this is below.

“INTRODUCTION TO TKM
Liz Taylor has recently started a consultancy business, Tkm Consulting, focusing on a number of knowledge and information management areas, as well as practical advice on complying with information-related legislation across the UK.
Liz’s expertise is in the evaluation of processes from a knowledge and information perspective. Most of her work has the key aim of producing tangible benefits for organisations through the enhanced management of information and knowledge assets associated with core business processes. The main areas that Liz deals with include:

• Knowledge and information management
o identification of key information and knowledge sources and strategies
o engineering of processes to maximise the potential of intangible assets
o mapping knowledge and information flows which can help improve the effectiveness of communication and security
o identifying opportunities to capture and re-use knowledge and information
• Practical management of information-related legislation
o review and development of practical procedures to facilitate compliance, including freedom of information and data protection
o practical guidance to achieve practical compliance on a case by case basis
• Training
o Offers a variety of training in information and knowledge management and on how to become compliant with information-related legislation.

Liz has worked on a wide range of projects in across both the public and private sector. One of the most recent initiatives was working in partnership with Sitekit, a specialist web content management company. The project focused on web solutions to assist public sector organisations comply with publication scheme requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. The resulting product significantly reduces the resource implications of compliance with the legislation through the automation of legal requirements for organisations, which won an International Award in Content Management.

LIZ TAYLOR’S BOOKS – ‘Freedom of Information: towards compliance’ and ‘Knowledge, Information and the Business Process’
Liz has written two books covering the areas she works in and they both take the format of a practical guide for organisations. The first book, ‘Freedom of information: working towards compliance’, was published in 2004 by Chandos Publishing, Oxford. It was a guide towards achieving compliance prior to the legislation coming into force across the UK and it can still provide a useful tool to evaluate or re-evaluate procedures for compliance.

Liz Taylor’s second book, ‘Knowledge, information and the business process: revolutionary thinking or common sense?’ was published in 2007, by Chandos Publishing, Oxford, and has enjoyed very good international reviews. Aimed at the practitioner, the key focus of this book is to integrate elements of information and knowledge management, with the business process and intellectual capital. The book questions some of the fundamental concepts and principles used to manage information that can be associated with business processes. Specifically, it addresses the argument to more effectively evaluate the contributions of human and systems capital (which are defined) to a process, highlighting the need to make more conscious decisions about what role each will perform in the developed process.

The book begins by discussing practical definitions of each of the terms used and then covers the integration of the intellectual capital with business processes; provides a practical guide on analysis of the complete business process (including products and customers) from a human and systems capital perspective and provides practical frameworks that enable readers to implement the suggested strategies regarding the development of intellectual capital round business processes, which are explained throughout the book.

The book is set out in a way to help the reader follow the practical advice and activities, with the chapters including the following:
• Introduction - the current environment; practical opportunities to expand the concepts; the way forward?
• Intellectual capital - definitions in context; capital relationships; introduction to the business process
• Human capital - the organisational perspective; relationship with corporate learning and development; tacit knowledge and the individual; contributions and collaboration; knowledge transfer
• Systems capital - information and communication; tools and enablers
• Examining the process (I) - the process jigsaw; inputs, outputs and by-products
• Examining the process (II) - creation of knowledge; influencing factors
• The future? – the information and knowledge management vision; next steps

For further information on either Liz Taylor’s consultancy business or her books, please see her website http://www.tkmconsulting.co.uk.

If you wish to get in contact, her e-mail address is liz@tkmconsulting.co.uk. “

7. MIKE NEARY’S INAUGURAL PROFESSIORIAL LECTURE
Glenn Rikowski and I went to Mike Neary’s Inaugural Lecture for his Professorship at the University of Lincoln on 2nd December 2008. Mike is Dean of Teaching and Learning and the Director of the Centre for Educational Research and Development at Lincoln. See:
http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/lincolnacademy/index.htm
Mike Neary considered both in breadth and depth how academics can critically engage with the issues around the marketisation and commercialisation of higher education, through their teaching practice. He is particularly enthusiastic about encouraging undergraduates to undertake their own research, and through this won a large ESRC grant and went on to establish the Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research at the University of Warwick.

It was a very inspirational talk and we went out for a nice meal afterwards as well, with several others that were there.

We wish Mike all the very best in his new position.

8. ESSAYS BY THREE OF GLENN RIKOWSKI’S EDUCATION STUDENTS ON OUR WEBSITE
We have a ‘Contributions’ section on our website (see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=contributions) which invites other to submit articles and short pieces to us, for inclusion on our website. Some of Glenn Rikowski’s students have sent him pieces, and 3 of these are now available on our website. Further details are listed below.

a. ‘New Labour and Variable Tuition Fees in Higher Education: a Critical Review of New Labour’s Policy towards Variable Tuition Fees in Higher Education’ by Alison Tuffs,
Education Studies Student, School of Education, University College Northampton, February 2004. Available at

http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=contributions&sub=New%20Labour%20and%20Variable%20Tuition%20Fees

b. ‘Paul Willis and Learning to Labour’ by James Thomson
An essay written for EDU3004 ‘Education, Culture & Society’, Education Studies, School of Education, University of Northampton, 3rd December 2007
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=contributions&sub=Paul%20Willis%20and%20Learning%20to%20Labour%20-%20James%20Thomson

James Thomson wrote this essay when he was a final year Education Studies student at the University of Northampton. The original title was: ‘Briefly outline the key features of Paul Willis’ (1977) study, Learning to Labour. Why did the Lads reject schooling? What is the relevance of Willis’ study for schools today?’

c. ‘The Role of Business in Education’ by Sharon Illiff
This piece examines the arguments for and against the role of business/private enterprise in education using relevant policy statements from at least two political articles, downloaded from the internet
An Essay by Sharon Illiff, a First Year Education Studies Student, School of Education, University of Northampton, April 2007
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=contributions&sub=The%20Role%20of%20Business%20in%20Education%20-%20Sharon%20Illiff

If anyone is interested in submitting material for inclusion in this ‘Contributions’ section, then do get in touch with us.

9. PROGRESS OF CILIP NETWORK OF EXPERTISE AND INTEREST
On CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Members’ Day on 16th October 2008, the formal launch of the CILIP Network of Expertise and Interests also took place and I attended this. There were quite a few people there, and a lot of interest. The Network has been set up by Gwenda Sippings and Lyndsay Rees-Jones. There are now some 100 people that have joined the network (of which I was one of the founding members) and I hope that others of you will join – see www.cilip.org.uk/network. The only condition is that you have to be a CILIP member!

10. PAUL CATHERALL HAS A NEW JOB AS ’E-LEARNING SUPPORT LIBRARIAN (LAUREATE),’ AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
Many congratulations to Paul Catherall who recently obtained a new post as ‘E-Learning Support Librarian (Laureate) at the University of Liverpool.
Paul worked at Glyndŵr University, (formerly North East Wales Institute for Higher Education) as the ‘Web Developer for Information and Student Services’ for quite a number of years prior to this. He has also written a book for Chandos Publishing (which I commissioned him to write), and is the webmaster for Information for Social Change and for the Career Development Group, Wales (a CILIP Special Interest Group).

I feel sure that this new position will enable Paul to utilise his breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise more effectively, and I wish him all the very best in his new post.

Many thanks to Liz Taylor for providing the information for item 6.

8th January 2009

Ruth Rikowski's 26th News Update

2009-03-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.26

I am gradually starting to recover following on from studying for the teaching certificate and the huge amount of work that I seemed to have, in general, over the last academic year. I have, indeed, been getting some rest over the last few weeks, but am still trying to catch up! Anyway, I have now officially passed the teaching course, I am very pleased to say, and can now add ‘CLTHE’ (for Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education) to the many letters after my name!

However, I thought it was important to send out an Update now, as my blog will be closing down as of 31st October 2008. This is not my doing at all – AOL are closing down all their journals and blogs, and we have just been alerted to this, with no reasons given, no clear replacement offered etc. Oh well – such is life. I guess there is now a need for an alternative blog – WordPress seems to be the obvious choice. I will keep you informed of any decision, of course.

Meanwhile, a selection of news items are outlined below, which I hope you will enjoy.

1. GENDER/ICT ARTICLE BY RUTH RIKOWSKI NOW OUT IN ‘POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION’
A long article of mine, on the topic of gender and ICT has just been published, in Policy Futures in Education (Vo. 6, No. 4, 2008). It is entitled ‘Computers/Information and Communications Technology, the Information Profession and the Gender Divide: where are we going?’ and is an issue on theme of ‘Commercialisation, Internationalisation and the Internet’, guest edited by Chris Armbruster. My article considers a variety of inequalities that females suffer from within the computing, information and communications technology field. See: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_4.asp#10

2. VICTOR VERNE RIKOWSKI NOW STUDYING AT BANGOR UNIVERSITY
Our middle son, Victor Rikowski, has just started studying for a degree in Music and Creative Writing at Bangor University, North Wales. It is in a beautiful, idyllic location, beside both the sea and the mountains, and Victor is really loving it.

3. LIZ TAYLOR
Liz Taylor was a masters’ student of mine at London South Bank University (2001-02). I subsequently commissioned her to write a book for Chandos Publishing on the broad topic of her dissertation (which she got a distinction for). She also wrote a report on Freedom of Information for Chandos. Here is more information about the 2 Chandos Publications:

‘Freedom of Information: towards a compliance’, 2004 – see http://www.chandospublishing.com/chandos_publishing_catalogue_search_booklist_results.php?ID=29

‘Knowledge, Information and the Business Process: revolutionary thinking or common sense?’, 2007 – see
http://www.chandospublishing.com/chandos_publishing_catalogue_search_booklist_results.php?ID=34

Liz Taylor now has her own Knowledge Management Consultancy Business – see http://www.tkmconsulting.co.uk'

As it says on the website:
“Tkm specialises in unleashing the value of intangible assets within your organization…”

I wish Liz every success with both her business and her books!

4. INFORMATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE – ‘RADICAL BOOKSHOPS’ ISSUE IS NOW OUT
The latest issue of Information for Social Change is now out. It is edited by Martyn Lowe, and is on the theme of ‘Radical Bookshops’
See: http://www.libr.org/isc/toc.html

5. ‘CRITICAL PEDAGOGY: IN SEARCH OF DEMOCRACY, LIBERATION AND SOCIALISM’ – FORTHCOMING BOOK EDITED BY SHEILA MACRINE, PETER MCLAREN AND DAVE HILL, ROUTLEDGE, 2009
An article that first appeared in the summer 2006 issue of Information for Social Change, (which was a special issue on the theme ‘Education for Social Change’, edited by Glenn Rikowski) is now to be published in an edited collection. The article is by Dave Hill and is entitled ’Class, Capital and Education in this Neoliberal and Neoconservatism period’
http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/B1%20Dave%20Hill.pdf

It will be appearing in the book:
‘Critical Pedagogy: In Search of Democracy, Liberation and Socialism’, edited by Sheila Macrine, Peter McLaren and Dave Hill, Routledge: London, 2009

6. REVIEWS OF MIKE COLE’S BOOK ‘MARXISM AND EDUCATIONAL THEORY: ORIGINS AND ISSUES’ IN ‘JOURNAL FOR EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES’
There are 2 reviews of Mike Cole’s book ‘Marxism and Educational Theory: origins and issues’, London: Routledge, 2008, in the ejournal ‘Journal for Education Policy Studies’. One review is by Julia Hall; the other by Kelvin McQueen. See
http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=127

7. VANESSA BEARD’S NEW WEBSITE
Vanessa Beard contacted me nearly a year ago, following on from her doing a google search on ‘John Bond’ (a dear, elderly friend of mine that sadly passed away last year). The google search took her to the article about my parents that is on our website, which includes something about John in it. The article is entitled: ‘Stanley and Mabel Turney and the Peace Pledge Union: experiences of being bought up in a family advocating peace’ and is available at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Turney[a]s%20and%20PPU

Vanessa and I subsequently met up, which was lovely. We discovered that John had been a powerful and positive influence on both of us.

Vanessa is very keen on photography and has recently launched her own website with some of her photographs (including one of John Bond) and her drawings. See www.vanessabeard.co.uk

8. GLENN RIKOWSKI’S NEW BLOG
Glenn Rikowski has already started up a new blog (leading on from closure announcement of AOL blogs). His blog is with WordPress and is called ‘All that is Solid’. See

http://rikowski.wordpress.com/

Best

Ruth
Ruth Rikowski, BA, DipLib, MSc, MA, MCLIP, CLTHE
20th October 2008

Ruth Rikowski's 25th News Update

2009-03-30T03:10:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Fifth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.25

At last, I have completed the second and final portfolio for my teaching certificate. I wanted to send out an Update post-haste after its completion (as another 2 months have already passed since the last one), so I am circulating one now, with a select few, but very important items. More will follow in due course.

The summer is proving to be a real ‘mixed bag’ for us. It started out with Glenn and I going to Rhodes, which was brilliant (see below); only shortly to be followed on our return by Glenn slipping on a wet floor in a chicken take-away, resulting in him getting 2 fractures in his left elbow! You can imagine how painful and distressful that has been!

1. GLENN RIKOWSKI AND RUTH RIKOWSKI PRESENTING PAPERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE AEGEAN, RHODES, GREECE
So, anyway, our summer break started off very wonderfully indeed, with Glenn and I flying out to Rhodes, one of the lovely Greek islands, of course. We were invited to speak at the University of the Aegean in Rhodes, by Dr. Dionyssios Gouvias, who is a Lecturer in Education Policy in the Department of Pre-School Education and Educational Design at the University there.

We spoke and facilitated 2 summer workshops (3 hours each), on 4th July 2008 for the new MA program at the university. The Post-Graduate Program is entitled ‘Gender and New Educational and Employment Environments in the Information Age’. For more information about this, see:

http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/genderstudies/postgrad/general-en.html

There were 4 main themes on the programme. Glenn presented his paper and facilitated the workshop ‘Special Issues on Gender and Employment – new forms of employment’ and I presented a paper and facilitated the workshop ‘Special Issues on Gender and New Technologies’. The other themes on the program were ‘Special Issues on Gender and Education – New Forms of Education’ and ‘Special Issues in Research Methodology’.

My paper was based on a subject that I have a lot of work experience in, as well as some published works; this is on the topic of gender and information technology. My talk at the University of the Aegean was actually based on a forthcoming article of mine, entitled:
‘Computers/Information Technology, the information profession and the gender divide: where are we going?’ This is to be published in
Policy Futures in Education, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2008. See:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_4.asp

This article builds on my previous work on this topic - see my Updates 21 and 23, for information about my system/IT work experience in libraries. An article of mine entitled ‘Females, Computers and Libraries’ was published in the July/August 2003 issue of Managing Information and I wrote a chapter for the book ‘Library Management Trends and Opportunities’, edited by R. Raina, D. Gupta and R. Gaur (New Delhi, Excel Books, 2005), about implementing the Unicorn Library Management Computer System at Clifford Chance, a large international law company.

The magazine Information Age (see www.informationage.com) has also been taking a lively interest in this topic of late. In particular, it published a very interesting article by Laurie Penny in the May 2008 issue, entitled ‘Gender Gap’ (pp. 23-26). Laurie Penny began by saying “Where have all the women gone? Despite a persistent IT skills shortage in the UK and regardless of concerted efforts by technology companies, support networks and the UK government, the proportion of female employees in the UK’s IT sector keeps falling.” (p. 23). Information Age has also been taking an active interest in my work in this area (but more about that on another occasion). The gender inequality in I.T. is, indeed, still very significant, which should be a real cause for concern, as we all become more and more embroiled in this I.T. age.

Meanwhile, Glenn Rikowski wrote a paper specifically for the Rhodes workshop, which he then posted on our website. The paper is entitled ‘Against What we are Worth’ - see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Against%20What%20We%20Are%20Worth.

This is a topic that Glenn and I first discussed and intended to write a paper on together, some 10 years ago now. But there never seemed to be the time – hopefully, there will be some time in the future to develop this further! The question that Glenn explored in this paper is ‘Why is it that men are paid more than women?’ He considered the fact that women are now doing much better in education than men overall, and yet, when it comes to the job market, they still lag behind, and overall earn a lot less than men. So, why does this apparent anomaly exist? This can be explained, objectively, by the fact that men have more value embedded in them than women, we would argue. This sounds quite horrific.

But the point it that the labour power within men is nurtured and developed to a far greater extent than it is in women, on the whole - particularly as women usually take ‘time out’ from labouring, and focus on nurturing the next lot of labour power, i.e. their children, rather than nurturing and developing their own labour power so much. Men tend to be at work longer as well, attend more training courses etc, and thus acquire more skills than women, over time. Interestingly, there is an article on this topic in The Guardian (6th August 2008) by John Carvel, reporting on research from Cambridge university about the difficulties that working women face, and how women still end up doing much more of the caring and the housework than men (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/aug/06/equality.gender). And so men become ‘worth’ more than women, in this way, in the job market in capitalism. This is because this value is turned into profit (as I have explained in much of my published material) and it is this process that sustains capitalism. This is not a pleasant fact to accept, but is one worth thinking further about, I would suggest.

The workshops consisted of mature students; the students asked many questions, contributed a lot and also spoke very good English (which was just as well, because we could not speak a word of Greek!). Glenn and I certainly enjoyed facilitating the two workshops with them.

After giving our talks, we had time to look around the island, particularly the Ancient City, which we loved; do lots of swimming. and have a relaxing, enjoyable and effectively free holiday, (preparing and giving the papers was obviously work, but enjoyable work!). Michael Peters and Tina Besley were also there, giving talks and facilitating workshops, so we were also able to meet up with them, and that was very nice.

Finally, Chyrssi Vitsilaki, the Director of Postgraduate Programme and Vice-Rector of Finance & Development, at the University of the Aegean, made us very welcome, took us all out for dinner one evening, and invited us back next year. We enthusiastically accepted, of course! So, many, many thanks Dionyssios for inviting us.

2. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT DIONYSSIOS GOUVIAS
In this section, I want to provide some more information about Dionyssios Gouvias, specifically. Dionyssios is doing some very important work, and in particular he demonstrates some of the ways in which the neo-liberal agenda is starting to take a hold. He explained to Glenn and I, for example, that university education is currently largely free for those studying for their first degrees, in Greece (this includes fees, accommodation, books etc). However, Greece looks to Britain as a beacon when it comes to education. So Greece is now following the British trend, and money and targets are starting to drive the agenda.

We first met Dionyssios at a Marxism and Education: renewing dialogues (MERD) seminar, that was held at the Institute of Education, University of London on 3rd May 2006 – this was MERD VIII on the theme ‘Universities plc?’ Dionyssios spoke at this MERD, and in time the plan is that his paper will be published in one of the books in the Palgrave Macmillan series. For more information about MERD VIII see:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=MERD

See also
http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:HyPI19MdYWkJ:www.ioe.ac.uk/mdu/thisweek/thisweek060410.pdf+dionyssios+gouvias&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8

Leading on from MERD VIII, at my suggestion, Dionyssios wrote an article for Information for Social Change. The details are:

‘Pay as you Learn!’: The ‘Learning Society’ Rhetoric in the EU-Sponsored Research Projects’, in Information for Social Change, Guest Edited by Glenn Rikowski, Summer 2006, No. 23
http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/B5%20Dionyssios%20Gouvias.pdf

Dionyssios also has a number of other published articles. These include:

‘Student employment and parental influences on educational and occupational aspirations of Greek adolescents’ by Dionyssios Gouvias and C. Vitsilakis-Soroniatis, in Journal of Education and Work, Vol. 18, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 421-449

‘The ‘Response’ of the Greek State to Global Trends of Educational Policy Making’, (pp. 25-38), in European Educational Policy Research Journal (another Symposium journal) Vol. 6, No. 1, 2007 http://www.wwwords.co.uk/eerj/content/pdfs/6/issue6_1.asp#3

‘The ‘Regulatory’ State and the Use of ‘Independent’ Agencies as Legitimasing Mechanisms of Educational Reform’, in Research in Comparative and International Education, (another Symposium journal), Vol. 2, No. 4, 2007
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/rcie/content/pdfs/2/issue2_4.asp#3

Dionyssios Gouvias teaches primary and pre-primary schoolteachers in the eastern and southern Aegean region. He oversaw a nationwide research project on educational and occupational aspirations of students in technical and vocational schools. He has also given papers at many Educational and Sociological Conferences at Greece and abroad. During his post-graduate studies he took part in various research projects concerning socio-economic transformations and recent demographic developments and links between school and work in Greece.

3. POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION USAGE STATISTICS CHARTS – RIKOWSKI’S NO. 1 AND NO. 2!
We are very pleased and excited to announce that Glenn and myself are suddenly No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the Policy Futures in Education (PFIE) charts. What does this mean, one might well ask? Well, PFIE has a usage statistics page for the most popular articles. This lists the articles in the journal in rank order by the number of downloads for each article (which are in PDF format). See: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/stats/popular.asp?j=pfie&view=total.

Glenn Rikowski with his article
‘Marx and the Education of the Future’, which was published in PFIE in 2004, Vol 2, No. 3 is currently No. 1 in this chart, with 4752 total downloads so far this year (as of 6th August 2008). His article can be viewed at:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=pfie&vol=2&issue=3&year=2004&article=10_Rikowski_PFEO_2_3-4_web&id=195.93.21.71

Ruth Rikowski with her article, ‘Value – the Life Blood of Capitalism: Knowledge is the Current Key’, which was published in PFIE in 2003, Vol. 1, No. 1 (in the very first issue of PFIE, in fact), is No. 2 in this chart, with 4028 total downloads so far this year (as of 6th August 2008). My article can be viewed at:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=pfie&vol=1&issue=1&year=2003&article=9_Rikowski_PFIE_1_1&id=195.93.21.68

There are some 250 articles altogether in this list, with a great variety of authors, so we think this is quite some achievement and I hope you agree!

4. ‘GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE CULTURES’, EDITED BY CUSHLA KAPITZKE AND MICHAEL A. PETERS IS NOW OUT.
It is good to see that this book is now out. I have a chapter in it, which is entitled ‘A Marxist analysis of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights’ (by Ruth Rikowski) (pp.65-82).

Full details of the book are: ‘Global Knowledge Cultures’, edited by Cushla Kapitzke and Michael A. Peters, Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2007.
ISBN 978 90 8790 218 6 (pbk); 978 90 8790 219 3 (hdbk).
The book is in the series ‘Educational Futures Rethinking Theory and Practice’, Vol 14, Series Editors Michael A. Peters and J. Freeman-Moir. See:
http://www.amazon.com/Global-Knowledge-Cultures-C-Kapitzke/dp/9087902182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213182201&sr=1-1

5. A MARXIST ANALYSIS OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION’S AGREEMENT ON TRADE-RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS BY RUTH RIKOWSKI - NOW FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE
This article of mine, which was published in Policy Futures in Education, Vol 4, No. 4, 2006 (Issue theme ‘Copyrights and Patents: issues and ethics for education’, Guest Edited by Cushla Kapitze) is now freely available online (as are all articles in Policy Futures in Education 18 months after publication). So, for all those that are interested in reading this article of mine for free, here is the link:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/4/issue4_4.asp#6

6. CHRIS FORD INVITING US TO CONTRIBUTE TO ‘SOLIDARITY’
Chris Ford kindly invited members of the Rikowski family to contribute on an occasional basis to ‘Solidarity’: Workers’ Liberty for International Working Class Solidarity and Socialism. See: http://www.workersliberty.org/solidaritynew

and
http://www.workersliberty.org/category/awl-labour-and-left/awl/who-we-are

Thanks for the offer Chris and we hope that we will be able to make a valuable contribution!

7. ‘ON MARX: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE REVOLUTIONARY INTELLECT OF KARL MARX’ BY PAULA ALLMAN, ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS: SENSE PUBLISHERS, 2007. PART OF THE ‘KEY CRITICAL THINKERS IN EDUCATION’ SERIES – SERIES EDITORS MICHAEL A. PETERS AND TINA (A.C.) BESLEY. ISBN 978 90 8790 192 9 (pbk); 978 90 8790 193 6 (hdbk), $19.95 –

REVIEW ARTICLE BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
I recently wrote a long review article (approximately 4500 words) on this all-important book, ‘On Marx’ by Paula Allman - I included information about this book in my Updates 19 and 20.

In my review article I aim to summarise some of the essence of ‘On Marx’, which was challenging, given the depth of the topic, and the fact that Paula gave herself an extremely difficult task of endeavouring to summarise Marx’s ‘Capital’ Vols I-III in just a few pages. As I point out at the end of my review article:

“The book is based directly on Marx’s work, rather than others reinterpretations (or indeed misinterpretations) of it! Allman’s indepth reading and understanding of the whole of Marx’s work, places her in a unique position to be able to write a book such as this…”

Furthermore, Paula Allman takes Marx’s work forward, demonstrating the relevance of Marx’s theory to education, and to her own revolutionary critical approach, in particular. I also emphasis the fact that, in my view, this provides the reader with an “…opportunity to enjoy the richness of a female mind such as Paula’s [which] should, in my decided view, be very much appreciated and celebrated. “

Professor Michael Peters is going to publish my review article in one of the journals that he edits.

8. ‘ON MARX’ BY PAULA ALLMAN REVIEWED BY VICTOR RIKOWSKI
Leading on from Chris Ford’s invitation (see point 6 above), Victor Rikowski wrote a review of Paula Allman’s book ‘On Marx’ (see point 7 above) for ‘Solidarity’. Victor also quoted from the book when he gave his guest lecture at Kingston University on ‘Problems in Education Today II’ earlier this year. He found Paula Allman’s book very helpful, inspiring and insightful and he learnt a lot more about Marx’s ideas from reading it. The review is also now on amazon.com – see http://www.amazon.com/Marx-Paula-Allman/dp/9087901925/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217483295&sr=8-2.

Michael Peters liked the review, and said that he would like to publish it in Policy Futures in Education as well, which of course very much pleased Victor.

6th August 2008

Best
Ruth

Ruth Rikowski's 24th News Update

2009-03-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.24

Well, I have decided that another Update from me is long overdue, even though, I still have not yet quite completed my teaching certificate. It is a long story, but all-being-well it will be completed fairly soon now. So, below is a selection of what have been, for me, some of the most important recent happenings and developments. Here goes…..

1. ‘THE OCKRESS’ BY VICTOR RIKOWSKI, IS NOW OUT
First of all, I am delighted to say that The Ockress is now out. Whatever is this, you might well ask? Victor Verne Rikowski, our middle son, has been working on this project for a couple of years or so now. Being a very creative person, with no shortage of ideas etc., he decided to turn his use of PowerPoint into an art form and designed a complex story on it, with lots of moving images, dialogue and action scenes etc. The result of all this, coupled with his vivid imagination, lead him to design and write The Ockress, which in many ways actually comes across as being somewhat film-like.

The Ockress is a mythological story about a young man named Perlone who is identified by circumstance as ‘The Chosen One’ of a religion that dedicates itself to a number of Gods, Indomnias being the most influential; a religion that is named quite simply as ‘the Faith’. Links to The Ockress are below:

HOME: http://www.theockress.com/ or http://www.theockress.co.uk/

SYNOPSIS: http://www.theockress.com/synopsis.html

THE PAGES: http://www.theockress.com/thepages.html

THE FOREWORD: http://www.theockress.com/foreword.html

The Ockress was written by Victor Rikowski

Designed by: http://www.wearedesigners.co.uk/

© The Ockress, 2007-08. All rights reserved.

Victor Rikowski's MySpace Profile, Victor, is at: http://www.myspace.com/theockress

Victor Rikowski's Online Publications are at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Victor%20Rikowski

If anyone would like to make any comments about this project and/or make contact with Victor about this, or any of his other work, then this can be done through ‘The Ockress’ website directly (http://www.theockress.co.uk/contact.html), or by contacting Victor at: victor-the-great@hotmail.co.uk. Or if all else fails, do make contact with him via rikowskigr@aol.com

2. VICTOR RIKOWSKI TALKING AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY ON ‘PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION TODAY - II’
Victor Rikowski also gave a talk at Kingston University on Tuesday, 8th April 2008, at the invitation of Dr Sarah Amsler, on the theme of ‘Problems in Education Today – II’. This built on an article of his that was published in Information for Social Change in Summer 2006, entitled ‘Problems in Education Today’ – see:
http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/B9d%20Victor%20Rikowski.pdf

This was Victor’s first university talk in terms of it being a guest lecture slot, and it seems that he engaged his audience well, and that there was a good discussion. Victor is now in the process of writing his talk up into an article.

There are important topics for young people today, as they grapple with student loans and debt; many students having to work whilst studying; often having to respond to pressures to conform and put jobs and careers above their own self-development; being faced with an increasing skills-based university agenda and not being encouraged enough to really think critically for themselves. All this, whilst at the same time, they are often being told that they are not motivated enough and cannot read and think for themselves adequately. The older generation that was educated in the 1960s and 1970s has a lot to answer for in regard to what is happening to this younger generation, I think. Glenn Rikowski addresses this very topic in a short article he wrote, entitled ‘The B Generation’, which is available on our website – see: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=B%20Generation.

I also look at some of these issues in a book review of mine that has been published recently in the May 2008 issue of Managing Information. The book is by Tara Brabazon and is entitled ‘The Google University’ (see news item 16 below). At one point, Brabazon says, for example that: “…students must…learn the skill of reading, chewing, spitting out and reingesting difficult writing and monographs” (p. 39). Whilst she also acknowledges that “Much of education teaches students that they are not good enough, that they do not belong and that they are not important” (p.54).

Victor Rikowski will be giving another talk at Kingston University on the same topic in June. This is part of the ‘1st Annual Student Conference: Student Speak; Research, Debate and Action in University Life’ that has been organised by Dr. Sarah Amsler, and will be taking place at Kingston University, in the C-SCAIPE Debating Chamber on 6th June 2008, from 10.00am – 4.30pm (Registration from 9.30am). The conference will include talks, panels, posters, creative performances and discussions. The day is free and includes lunch and snacks. See: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/aboutkingstonuniversity/events/all-events/lectures/events/
For more information and to register, contact Dr. Sarah Amsler at s.amsler@kingston.ac.uk.

3. ‘SOCIOLOGY: THEMES AND PERSPECTIVES’ EDITED BY MIKE HARALAMBOS AND MARTIN HOLBORN, 7th ED, LONDON: HARPERCOLLINS, 2008, ISBN 978-0007245956, £29.99 (pbk) WITH A FOCUS ON ‘CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES IN EDUCATION’
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sociology-Themes-Perspectives-Michael-Haralambos/dp/0007245955/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212144003&sr=8-2

We were delighted to discover that Glenn Rikowski is in the 7th edition of Haralambos and Holborn (he was also in the 6th edition). For those who do not already know, this amazing sociology textbook (which has greatly expanded over the years, and in this 7th edition there are 954 pages), was first published in 1980 “…with the aim of providing a systematic introduction to sociology for UK A level students, undergraduates and the general reader” (Haralambos and Holborn in ‘Preface to the 7th edition’).

Chapter 10 is on ‘Education’, and includes a section on ‘Conflict Perspectives’ (pp. 602-608). This section examines the work of Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Paul Willis and Glenn Rikowski. In regard to Glenn’s work, it focuses in particular on his work on ‘The Business Takeover of Schools’ and ‘Globalisation and Education’. Haralambos and Holborn say that “Over the last twenty-five years, Marxist sociology has become unfashionable. [But] Rikowski has given a new lease of life to Marxist perspectives on education”
(p. 608).

What heartened us, in particular, was the ‘Evaluation of Rikowski’ section, which focused on Richard Hatcher’s criticisms of Glenn’s work. Haralambos and Holborn say that “Critics argue that governments control education and will do so for the foreseeable future. Schools for profit are unlikely to appear as part of present or future educational policy in the UK (Hatcher, 2005)” (Haralambos and Holborn, p. 608). However, Glenn argues that there is no ‘safe zone’ in capitalism in the way that Hatcher seems to be suggesting. In referencing Hatcher, Haralambos and Holborn are referring to the original piece that he wrote, criticising Glenn’s work. This piece, entitled Business Sponsorship of Schools: For-profit takeover or agents of neoliberal change? A Reply to Glenn Rikowski’s ‘Habituation of the Nation: School Sponsors as Precursors to the Big Bang?’, revolves around a discussion of the Education White Paper (October 2005). Glenn posted piece this on his web-log, ‘The Volumizer’ on 7th November 2005 at: http://journals.aol.co.uk/rikowskigr/Volumizer/entries/651. Hatcher’s attack was in direct response to an article that Glenn inserted on his web-log, entitled Habituation of the Nation: School Sponsors as Precursors to the Big Bang? posted to the Volumizer 19th October, 2005 (see http://journals.aol.co.uk/rikowskigr/Volumizer/entries/566), where Glenn bravely attempts to make sense of the White Paper before it had even been released, basing his predictions on press leakages coupled with his in-depth and insightful theoretical Marxist analysis.

Directly following on from this piece Glenn participated in a debate on the Education White Paper on ‘The World Tonight’, BBC Radio 4 programme, which took place on the evening of the release of the White Paper. For more information about this see - A discussion on ‘The World Tonight’, BBC Radio 4 programme, 25th October 2005, 10.00pm, about the UK Government Education White Paper and links with the GATS, Library Services, Education Services and the extension of the commodification process by Ruth Rikowski, available at:http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Education%20White%20Paper.

Also, Discussion on the Education White Paper for England and extension of the commodification process in library and schools, by Ruth Rikowski and Glenn Rikowski, in Information for Social Change, No. 22, Winter 2005.
http://74.125.39.104/search?q=cache:6HL7_-MF_MQJ:libr.org/isc/issues/isc22/22-10.pdf+Ruth+and+Glenn+Rikowski+and+Education+White+Paper&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8
Furthermore, we transcribed the radio programme – see: http://libr.org/isc/media/glenn.html

Glenn inserted Hatcher’s attack (saying that Glenn’s analysis of the White Paper was incorrect, yet saying this whilst having the actual White Paper at his own disposal) on his web-log, so that interested people could follow the debate. Glenn wrote a very long reply to this piece by Hatcher (some 20,000 words), entitled ‘In the Dentist’s Chair’, which we then placed on our website:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=In%20the%20Dentist%5ba%5ds%20Chair, on 31st December 2005, and it is this piece that is also referenced in Haralambos and Holborn.

Other works of Glenn Rikowski that Haralambos and Holborn refer to include:

1. ‘Scorched earth: prelude to rebuilding Marxist educational theory, British Journal of Sociology of Education,1997, Vol. 18, No. 4

2. The Battle in Seattle: its significance for education, Tufnell Press, London, 2001

3. Globalisation and Education: a paper prepared for the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, Inquiry into the Global Economy, 2002
www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001941.htm

4. In the dentist’s chair: a response to Richard Hatcher’s critique of Habituation of the Nation, 2005, www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=147

It is wonderful that the originality of Glenn’s work is now really being recognised in this way (and there is more about the development of his Marxist theoretical analysis in the 6th edition of Haralambos and Holborn). History will prove the extent to which Glenn has pushed forward and developed Marxist educational theory. But given the horrors of capitalism, and the extent to which people suffer both individually and collectively within it, let us hope that people will be enlightened sooner rather than later, and that creative thinkers, with new ideas and theories, are able to effectively shine through and that their work can then be used constructively (rather than de-constructively), whereby many people can hopefully benefit.

4. ‘RENEWING DIALOGUES IN MARXISM AND EDUCATION: OPENINGS’ – EDITED BY ANTHONY GREEN, GLENN RIKOWSKI AND HELEN RADUNTZ,
NEW YORK: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN: LONDON, 2007,
ISBN 13 978 1 4039 7496 9; 10 1-4039-7496-9, $79.95
http://www.amazon.com/Renewing-Dialogues-Marxism-Education-Openings/dp/1403974969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211890612&sr=8-1
**RECENTLY PUBLISHED

Here is news about the recently published first ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues’ (MERD) book!!

Glenn Rikowski organised the twice-yearly ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues’ (MERDs) seminars, with Tony Green, at the Institute of Education, University of London, for 5 years, from 2002 to 2007 - see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=MERD
for further information about all these seminars.

Leading on from these very successful seminars, Glenn and Tony secured a book contract with Palgrave Macmillan for a Book Series on ‘Marxism and Education’, the aim being to include themes and papers from the seminars themselves, as well as having separate monographs.

MERD III, for example, was on the theme of ‘Pedagogy and Culture’. MERD III was held on the 22nd October 2003 and the speakers that participated in it included: Paula Allman, Carmel Borg, Helen Colley, David Guile, Peter Jones, Peter Mayo, and Victoria Perselli. The session was also reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Scott McLemee, 5th December 2003, in a piece entitled ‘Scenes for the Classroom Struggle’ – see http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i15/15a04001.htm

The first book in the series has now been published and it is based on the first 2 opening seminars (which were not theme-based). It is entitled “Renewing Dialogues in Marxism and Education: Openings” and is edited by Tony Green, Glenn Rikowski and Helen Raduntz. Chapters in the book include contributions from Tony Green, Geraldine Thorpe and Pat Brady, Helen Raduntz, Dave Hill, Mike Cole, Elizabeth Atkinson and Mike Cole, Jane Mulldering, Mark Olsen and Michael A. Peters, Rachel Gorman, Helen Colley, Paul Warmington, David Harvie, Gregory Martin and Paula Allman.

5. MARXISM AND EDUCATION: ONLINE RESOURCES

Mainly for the benefit of students (but perhaps useful for others), Glenn Rikowski has put together a document on Marxism and Education: Online Resources. This is to help people interested in applying the ideas of Karl Marx and Marxists to education. Glenn has indicated the main web sites and blogs relevant to this purpose. See:
http://journals.aol.co.uk/rikowskigr/Volumizer/entries/2008/05/23/marxism-and-education-online-resources/1756
Or:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=14758904&blogID=398306382&Mytoken=4E16640E-E743-40A7-ABD9A93909971CD339494272

6. HELEN RADUNTZ’S REVIEW OF MY BOOK
‘GLOBALISATION, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES’ IN ‘LIBRARY REVIEW’
It was good to see Helen Raduntz’s review of my book ‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements’, Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2005, finally published in Library Review (Vol. 56, No. 9, 2007, pp. 846-848). Helen is based at the Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work, at the University of South Australia and is currently writing a Chandos book of her own on intellectual property rights, from a Marxian perspective.

In regard to my book, Helen Raduntz says: “Without doubt Ruth Rikowski’s book is highly relevant, accessible, extremely informative and encyclopedic in scope backed by detailed research. It is a ‘must have’ text not only for those working within the information profession and libraries but also for those who are greatly concerned with the current turn of events in which the intellectual resources of the people of all nations are being brought to the world’s trading table” (p. 846). She outlines some of the main features of my book, but makes it clear that, for her, the most important section is Part 3, which focuses on part of her own particular area of interest (i.e. intellectual property rights) – the WTO’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). As she rightly says “The effect [of this agreement] is to transfer intellectual property rights from the political to the market arena where ownership is underpinned by private property rights” (p. 847). She concludes by saying that she highly recommends the book “…as an extremely important contribution towards clarifying a vital set of issues which we must sooner or later face and address” (p. 848).

7. LATEST ISSUE OF ‘INFORMATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE’ (WINTER 2007) ON THE TOPIC OF ‘LIBRARIES AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION’, EDITED BY JOHN PATEMAN AND JOHN VINCENT, NO. 26
The latest issue of Information for Social Change, on the topic of ‘Libraries and Social Exclusion’ and edited by John Vincent and John Pateman is now available at: http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC26/ISC%2026%20full%20issue.pdf

The contents include:

‘Social exclusion – where is it going?’ by John Vincent
‘Developing a needs based library service’ by John Pateman
‘He didn’t have to say he was gay’ by John Vincent
‘Public Libraries and the Digital Divide’ by John Pateman
‘Are we all being served’ by Andrew Hudson
‘Reading Orwell in Havana’ by John Pateman
‘Library Services for Newcomers to Canada: embracing cultural diversity’ by Kendra Bender

8. RUTH RIKOWSKI GIVING GUEST LECTURES AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH AND LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY ON GLOBALISATION AND KNOWLEDGE, SPRING 2008
I gave some more guest lectures this semester at Kingston University, London South Bank University and the University of Greenwich, which all seemed to be generally well-received. At Greenwich I spoke about ‘Globalisation’ as this topic forms quite an important part of the ‘Introduction to the Tourism Industry’ course that I teach there to first-year undergraduates. At Kingston I spoke on the topic of ‘Knowledge, Knowledge Management and the Knowledge Revolution’, to masters students, referring to my published works on the topic and as well as providing something of an overview. Directly leading on from this, I spoke very specifically on the topic of ‘Value and Knowledge’, demonstrating how important it is today, to extract value from knowledge in this knowledge revolution. At South Bank I gave some interactive lectures on ‘Globalisation and Knowledge’ to masters students, providing information, encouraging participation, and suggesting that students could benefit from thinking and reflecting further on these important topics.

9. THE LATEST ISSUE OF ‘POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION’ IS NOW OUT
(VOL. 6, NO. 2, 2008)
‘Policy Futures in Education’ starting from this year, is being published 6 times a year, and the 2nd issue of 2008 (Vol. 6, No. 2) is available at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_2.asp

Contents include:

The Wealth of Networks (Yochai Benkler) discussed by Philippe Aigrain, Leslie Chan, Jean-Claude Guédon, and John Willinsky, with a response by Yochai Benkler, pages 152-175
Roxana Bobulescu. Popularising the ‘New International Political Economy’: the ATTAC movement, pages 176-186

Christelle Garrouste. Language Skills and Economic Returns, pages 187-202

Jon Lauglo & Tormod Øia. Education and Civic Engagement among Norwegian Youth, pages 203-223

Beatriz Fainholc. Educational Technology in Crisis, pages 224-234

Keiko Yokoyama. Neo-liberalism and Change in Higher Education Policy: England and Japan, pages 235-256

Georg Spöttl. Autonomy of (Vocational) Schools as an Answer to Structural Changes, pages 257-264

Scott Graham. Staging the Performances of the Privileged Social Group (PSG): expanding the philosophical foundation of critical pedagogy, pages 265-279

Access to the issue is by personal or library subscription, but all articles become free-to-view 18 months after publication.

10. POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION (http://www.wwwords.co.uk/PFIE/)
- CONTRIBUTIONS
Following on from the fact that I am now on the Editorial Board of Policy Futures in Education if anyone is interested in contributing and writing an article for PFIE, and would like to make contact with me in regard to it, then do drop me an email.

You can also subscribe to the free Policy Futures in Education free newsletter – see http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/subscriptions/newsletter.asp

11. ‘EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY’ JOURNAL – EDITED BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL PETERS
As well as being the Chief Editor of Policy Futures in Education, Professor Michael Peters is also the Chief Editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory as well as editing the Symposium e-journal, E-Learning with Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear
Educational Philosophy and Theory is an international, blind refereed journal and is published 7 times a year, through Blackwell Publishing (available in both hard copy and electronically). It can be found at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0013-1857

It is published on behalf of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia and the first issue was published in 1969!
Print ISSN: 0013-1857; Online ISSN: 1469-5812

Details for subscribing to the journal are available at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=0013-1857&site=1

As it says on the website: “Educational Philosophy and Theory publishes articles concerned with all aspects of educational philosophy. It will also consider manuscripts from other areas of pure or applied educational research. In this latter category the journal has published manuscripts concerned with curriculum theory…the politics of education, educational history…and higher education.”

Recent special issues of EPAT have included topics such as ‘Critical Thinking and Learning’, ‘Philosophy of Early Childhood Education’ and ‘Philosophy of Education in the Nordic’.

12. ‘E-LEARNING’ JOURNAL
E-Learning, is another Symposium journal, and is edited by Michele Knobel (Montclair State University, USA), Colin Lankshear (University of Ballarat, Australia) and Michael A. Peters (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA).
It is available at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/
E-Learning is an online-only journal, and is published 4 times a year.
ISSN 1741 8887
Details for subscribing to the journal can be found at:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/subscriptions/subscriptions.asp

As it says on the website: “E-Learning is a peer-reviewed international journal directed towards the study and research of e-learning in its diverse aspects: pedagogical, curricular, sociological, economic, philosophical and political.”
Furthermore, it aims “…to serve as an international forum to facilitate current research, practice and development of e-learning in education.” It is particularly interested in articles that consider both theory and practice.

13. LAUNCH OF SPANISH EDITION OF THE COPY/SOUTH DOSSIER, APRIL 2008
The Copy/South Dossier (a 210-page document) has now been published in Spanish (release date 28th April 2008). The translation has been prepared by the Intellectual Property AutonomousService (Servicio Autonomo de la Propiedad Intelectual, SAPI), theintellectual property agency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

I reviewed this important document, which is available on our website – see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Copy/South%20Dossier

and also in Information for Social Change. See: http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/D4%20Ruth%20Rikowski%20reviewing%20Alan%20Storey%20et%20al.pdf

The actual English Press Release for the launch of this translation is below:

“Press Release 28 April 2008

ANNOUNCING THE SPANISH EDITION OF THE COPY/ SOUTH DOSSIER

Issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of copyright in the global South. Researched and published by the Copy/South Research Group May 2006 ISBN: 978-0-9553140-1-8 (printed first English edition).

Not restricted by copyright

THE 2008 SPANISH EDITION OF THE COPY/SOUTH DOSSIER:Edited by Rafael Carreño of the Servicio Autonomo de la Propiedad Intelectual (Intellectual Property Agency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)

Download the English 2006 first edition of the Copy/South Dossier here at the official site:http://www.copysouth.org/or here at E-LIS: E-prints in Library and Information Science: http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00006278/

Download the Spanish 2008 first edition of the Copy/South Dossier here atthe official site: http://www.copysouth.org/or here at E-LIS: E-prints in Library and Information Science:http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00013262/

In 2005, a group of scholars and activists, mostly from the global South, created the Copy/South Research Group to analyse, criticise, and confront the oppressive nature of current global copyright regimes, such as those defended by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and similar ones around the globe.

In May 2006, 22 of us, including 15 people from the global South, published THE COPY/SOUTH DOSSIER: Issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of copyright in the global South.The aim of the Dossier was to open up a critical and radical debate on the real impact of copyright laws and how they affect the daily lives of people living in more than 150 developing countries of the global South.

We also highlighted issues that are not unique to the Global South, but also affect both sides of the North-South divide. This publication of more than 50 articles was addressed to researchers, educators, librarians, musicians, activists, organizations concerned about access to knowledge, and all of those who want to learn more about the oppressive global role of copyright laws and, in particular, their largely negative role in the developing countries of the global South.Given the democratic objectives of the Copy/South Research Group, the Dossier was not restricted by copyright. Therefore, it has been accessed openly and freely in both electronic and paper formats by thousands of readers from around the world in English. But English is not spoken by all citizens in the global South. With this in mind, the entire 200-page Dossier was translated into Spanish in late 2007 by an enthusiastic team of voluntary translators from Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela.But what is still more extraordinary about the Spanish translation is that it was completely coordinated and edited by the Servicio Autonomo de la Propiedad Intelectual (SAPI) of the democratic government of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic.

The Dossier provides "useful material to introduce this topic to teachers and students" and does a good job of "summarizing a complex and conflicting situation" for developing countries, Jumersi La Rosa, SAPI's new director, said last week in announcing the release of the Spanish edition. She has written a special new introduction for the Spanish-language edition.The Copy South Research Group is very pleased that the radical message ofresistance found in the Dossier can now be read by thousands ofSpanish-language speakers who are questioning the current copyright regimeand who hopefully will be ignited by the ideas in the Dossier to take up the fight against oppressive regimes based on copyright.You can get a copy of the Dossier in Spanish and English by downloading it, free of charge, at http://www.copysouth.org/. We also still have a limited number of printed and bound copies of the English-language version of the Dossier. If you would to be mailed a copy of the English-language version, which contains eight posters, send us an e-mail (contact@copysouth.org) and include your full postal details.

FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS OF THE C/S RESEARCH GROUP:

1)The Open SocietyInstitute, Budapest, Hungary;

2) HIVOS,The Hague,The Netherlands;

3)TheResearch Fund of Kent Law School, Canterbury, Kent

UK.COPY/SOUTH RESEARCH GROUP 28 April 2008 http://www.copysouth.org/"

14. EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM (ESF) BEING HELD IN SOUTH SWEDEN IN SEPTEMBER 2008
The European Social Forum (ESF) is being held in Malmö, in the south of Sweden from 17th-21st September 2008. More than 20,000 people are expected to participate in the forum. ESF is a meeting place for social movements in Europe and works in conjunction with the aims of the World Social Forum (WSF). Throughout the five days seminars and workshops will be mixed with culture, music, activism and demonstrations.
See also: http://esf2008.org/home/another-europe-is-possible

15. ‘THE UNIVERSITY OF GOOGLE: EDUCATION IN THE [POST] INFORMATION AGE’ by TARA BRABAZON, HAMPSHIRE: ASHGATE PUBLISHING, 2007, ISBN 978 0 7546 7097 1, £30.00 (HDBK) – REVIEWED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
http://www.amazon.co.uk/University-Google-Education-Post-Information/dp/075467097X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211882958&sr=8-4

My review of ‘The University of Google’ was published in the May issue of Managing Information, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 22-23. This is an important book as it addresses some of the issues and difficulties that academics face today, particularly those of us that teach in the new universities. Brabazon says that “A problem has emerged in my teaching during the last few years that requires attention. As each semester progresses, a greater proportion of my students is reading less, referencing less and writing with less clarity and boldness.” (p. 15). However, although she titles the book ‘The University of Google’, she says that the problems are not actually caused by Google itself, but rather that Google encourages poor scholarship, lazy approaches and ‘compliant thinking’ (p. 15). She says that more and more of her time is being taken up with emailing, administrative procedures and answering student enquires etc. It is very commendable that Brabazon is drawing attention, in this way, to the reality of the workplace for many academics today. However, it would have been useful if she had also provided a deeper economic, social and political analysis and endeavoured to explain why she thinks all this is actually happening today.

16. SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SOCIAL TOOLS
A consideration of Brabazon’s book, leads us nicely on to the topic of ‘Social Networking’ and Web 2.0 tools and technologies. All these subjects are now very ‘hot topics’, which the library and information profession suddenly seems to have woken up to, realising their importance as information providers! This ‘bunch of tools’ is far-ranging, including MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Bebo, Flickr, blogs, wikkis, newsletters etc., etc.

Glenn Rikowski has been very much ahead of his time in this area as well. He started up his MySpace Profile at http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski quite some time ago now, and indeed, was one of the first academics to really make use of this particular tool. As I reported in previous Updates of mine (e.g. 21st News Update) his MySpace Profile was given as an example of academic’s using computing environments for ‘social space’ in Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler’s book Preparing for blended e-learning, Routledge: Oxon, 2007, ISBN 0 415 40360 X (pbk).

Here are further details about some of his other social networking tools (including his blogs), and some other related information.

Glenn Rikowski’s web log, the Volumizer.

Glenn's MySpace blog, Wavering on Ether, is at: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

For Glenn Rikowski at firgoa see: http://firgoa.usc.es/drupal/taxonomy/term/353 (here, his blogs are being picked up in Spain)

Glenn Rikowski on Technorati is at: http://technorati.com/tag/Glenn+Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s Online Publications are at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

So, as can be seen, he has been very active indeed, in these areas. Currently, through his blogs, he is evaluating the benefit of these tools for his students. This work is ongoing.
I have also been to a number of events recently on the topic. This included a Gurteen Knowledge Café on the topic of ‘What will be the impact of Social Tools on KM?’ held on 5th March 2008, and facilitated by David Gurteen himself - see http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/kcafe-km2.0.

This session discussed the value, impact and importance of various social tools today, and whether or not they are likely to eventually lead to Knowledge Management itself becoming a thing of the past. Also, Helen Nicoll’s talk at a Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) London meeting that was held on 9th January 2008, which I referred to in my 23rd News Update. Here Helen focused on KM and the National Health Service (NHS), and in particular the work that she has done on blogging, in this regard.

And finally, the talk that Lisa Goldman gave at Jewish Book Week, entitled ‘The Art of Blogging’, which was held on 29th February 2008 (Jewish Book Week lasted from 23rd February – 2nd March 2008). Lisa Goldman is one of the world’s most famous and successful bloggers and her blog is entitled ‘On the Face’ - see http://lisagoldman.net/. This was a fascinating talk, and Lisa’s enthusiasm for blogging really shone through. In fact, she said that blogging had changed her life! Lisa thinks that blogs are the ultimate in freedom of expression. Lisa Goldman became a successful blogger through her blogging of the Lebanon war of 2006, where she was getting 150,000 hits a day at one point. In fact, it was the first live-blogged war and it was the first-time that bloggers could really demonstrate some home truths during a war so clearly (showing pictures of what had and had not been bombed, for example) and exposing errors and misrepresentations that were made in the mainstream media. For more information about her talk, see http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2008/290208c.php
Then, of course, I have my own blog – ‘Ruth Rikowski Updates’.

The topic of Social Networking is also covered in the May 2008 (Vol. 15, No. 3) issue of Managing Information, including an article by David Lavenda entitled ‘The Social Revolution’ (pp. 4-8). Lavenda says that “Social networking tools are taking the world by storm” (p. 5) and that it “… is an irreversible mega-trend. As part of the “IT consumerization” wave, social networking is permeating organisational boundaries…” (p. 8). He notes the fact, for example, that MySpace logged 110 million unique visitors in January 2008 (an increase of 15% from the year before) and that Facebook logged over 100 million (an increase of 305%). There is also an interesting News item on the Managing Information website (http://www.managinginformation.com/),posted on 18th May 2008, entitled ‘Social Networks Research Receives Doctorate Award’, which highlights the fact that research funding is now being made available for social networking (in this instance, through the Arts and Humanities Research Council). It says that “Although self-evidently blogs and social networking are more tractable than current postal services, there is little or no research into just how much more tractable they really are and whether the deterioration of the latter is simply a consequence of the former.” And so, this research becomes important.

Matthew Mezey also had an interesting small column entitled ‘LIS blogwatch’ in the June issue (Vol. 7, No. 6) of Update (the monthly magazine of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) (on p.9). He refers, for example, to a presentation that took place at the Unicom Social Tools Conference in London that was entitled ‘Letting some light in: challenges and opportunities for mainstream enterprise social computing’.

Furthermore, there is an informative piece about social networking and social computing in the April 2008 issue of Information Age. This article is by Pete Swabey and is entitled ‘Power to the People: business use of social networking is fuelling a revolution in collaboration and knowledge sharing’ (pp. 18-20). Swabey notes the difference between these social tools, and more traditional knowledge management systems. The latter “…organise content around document definitions or business processes.” (p. 19). Whilst: “A system [i.e. a social network system]built around individuals with content supplied by them not only mirrors the way most people think about their organisations, but it provides users with an opportunity to define their personal and professional roles within the organisation. This provides a powerful psychological incentive to engage with the system” (p. 19). This does not mean that KM will become redundant though, as far as I am concerned (as was suggested at the Gurteen Knowledge Café). Instead, it just that knowledge will be managed in a different way, in the future. Subtle means are now required for the creation and extraction of value from knowledge. Swabey is of the opinion that "For the next generation of employees, the social network is the most accessible and practical way of systematising knowledge transfer..." (p. 19)

So, these are all important areas. However, we need to try to make sure that we are not fooling ourselves into thinking that tools and technologies such as these will solve all our problems. Issues about using time and resources productively; trust and related-health issues still very much exist. And, ultimately, of course, we must never lose sight of the fact that all this operates within global capitalism, where value, wealth creation and profits come before people.

Many thanks to Michael Peters for providing information for items 11 and 12, and to Zapopan Martín Muela Meza and Mikael Böök for providing information for items 14, 15 respectively.

Best
Ruth

31st May 2008

Ruth Rikowski's 23rd News Update

2009-03-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.23

The silence from me (nearly two months already I see) is not because I have not had much to impart to you all of late. Far from it, in fact – I am snowed under on that front as well! Rather, it is because this teaching certificate (Certificate of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education - CLTHE) that I am currently studying for is proving to be very demanding and at times seems to be taking over my life! Just as well it is only for a short duration – that is all I can say. On a practical level, what this means unfortunately, is that it is very unlikely that I will be sending out any more of my Updates until after Easter, at least.

However, there are a number of important items that I really did want to share with you all. These are listed below (and other items will have to wait – apologies to all those concerned here).

1. ‘DIGITAL LIBRARIES’ SPECIAL ISSUE OF POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION, EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI AND ISAAC HUNTER DUNLAP, IS NOW OUT.
The special issue of Policy Futures in Education (the refereed international ejournal) on ‘Digital Libraries’ which I have edited with Isaac Hunter Dunlap is now out. Further details are below:
Policy Futures in Education
Volume 6 Number 1 2008
Available at http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_1.asp

SPECIAL ISSUE ONDIGITAL LIBRARIES

Guest Editors: RUTH RIKOWSKI & ISAAC HUNTER DUNLAP

Isaac Hunter Dunlap & Ruth Rikowski: Introduction. A Library Revolution of Digital Proportions

Ruth Rikowski: Digital Libraries and Digitisation: an overview and critique

M. Paul Pandian: Digital Knowledge Resources

Heather Joseph: SPARC: creating innovative models and environments for scholarly research and communication

Tom Peters: Meeting and Serving Users in Their New Work (and Play) Spaces

Lori Bell, Mary-Carol Lindbloom, Tom Peters & Kitty Pope: Virtual Libraries and Education in Virtual Worlds: twenty-first century library services

Jia Liu: Digital Library and Digital Reference Service: integration and mutual complementarity

Mengxiong Liu & Peggy Cabrera: The New Generation of Citation Indexing in the Age of Digital Libraries

Susan Copeland: Electronic Theses and Dissertations: promoting 'hidden' research

Paul Catherall: Learning Systems in Post-Statutory Education

Tatiana Nikolova-Houston & Ron Houston: Building the Virtual Scriptorium

Yehuda E. Kalay: Impacts of New Media on Scholarly Publishing

Isaac Hunter Dunlap: Going Digital: the transformation of scholarly communication and academic libraries

BOOK REVIEWS

Building Knowledge Cultures: education and developments in the age of knowledge capitalism (Michael A. Peters, with A.C. (Tina) Besley), reviewed by Ruth Rikowski

Constraining Public Libraries: the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (Samuel E. Trosow & Kirsti Nilsen), reviewed by Ruth Rikowski

Libr@ries: changing information space and practice (Cushla Kapitzke & Bertam C. Bruce, Eds), reviewed by Ruth Rikowski

Open Source Database Driven Web Development: a guide for information professionals (Isaac Hunter Dunlap), reviewed by Ruth Rikowski

Access to the full texts of current articles is restricted to those who have a Personal subscription (at a very reasonable rate), or those whose institution has a Library subscription. However, all articles become free-to-view 18 months after publication.

Free-to-view articles in Policy Futures in Education by Ruth and Glenn Rikowski:

Rikowski, R. (2003) Value - the Life Blood of Capitalism: knowledge is the current key, Policy Futures in Education, Vol.1 No.1, pp.160-178: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=pfie&vol=1&issue=1&year=2003&article=9_Rikowski_PFIE_1_1&id=195.93.21.68

Rikowski, G. (2004) Marx and the Education of the Future, Policy Futures in Education, Vol.2 Nos. 3 & 4, pp.565-577, online at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=pfie&vol=2&issue=3&year=2004&article=10_Rikowski_PFEO_2_3-4_web&id=195.93.21.71%20

Subscriptions
PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION (single user access). Subscription to the 2008 issues (i.e. full access to the articles in Volume 6, Numbers 1-6) is available to individuals at a cost of US$44.00. Personal subscriptions automatically include free access to ALL PAST ISSUES. If you wish to subscribe you may do so immediately at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/subscribePFIE.asp

LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION (institution-wide access). If you are working within an institution that maintains a Library, please urge them to purchase a Library subscription so access is provided throughout your institution; full details for libraries can be found at: http://www.symposium-journals.co.uk/prices.html
For all editorial matters, including articles offered for publication, please contact Professor Michael A. Peters: mpet001@uiuc.edu

In the event of problems concerning a subscription, or difficulty in gaining access to the journal articles, please contact the publishers at: support@symposium-journals.co.uk

2. RUTH RIKOWSKI NOW ON EDITORIAL BOARD OF POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION
I am delighted to inform you that I am now (as from mid January 2008) on the Editorial Board of Policy Futures in Education. See:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/editorialboard.asp

3. 'ELECTRONIC THESES AND DISSERTATIONS: PRAGMATIC ISSUES AND PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS’ by SUSAN COPELAND, GAIL McMILLAN AND SIDDHARTHA SHAKYA, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2008, £57.00 ISBN 1 84334 342 8(hdbk); £39.95, ISBN 1 84334 341 X (pbk)
Susan Copeland, one of the contributors to the ‘Digital Libraries’ issue has a book coming out about e-theses, which she has co-authored with Gail McMillan and Siddhartha Shakya. This is to be published with Chandos Publishing. Susan has led various projects to promote the development of theses and dissertations in electronic format. This book provides a practical guide, as well as an overview of recent developments in the field. It covers many topics, including information about why it is useful to make this research output available on the Web, practical advice on how to include e-theses in institutional repositories and related training issues. I wish Susan, Gail and Siddhartha all the very best with their book.

4. E-THESES CONFERENCE AT THE ROBERT GORDON UNIVERSITY, ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND, 4th-7th JUNE 2008
Susan Copeland also informed me about an E-Theses Conference, which is taking place this summer where she works, that she is involved with. This is the:
11th International Symposium on ‘Electronic Theses and Dissertations’, to be held at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, 4th-7th June 2008.
For further details see: http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/library_edocs/etd08/home.htm .
As it says on the website,
“The purpose of "ETD 2008: Spreading the Light" will not only be to present research outcomes and demonstrate new developments and initiatives in the field of electronic theses and dissertations, but also to encourage even more universities around the world to become a part of the NDLTD [The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations]and to promote free, open and long-term access to online scholarship.”

If anyone would like to submit a proposal to speak or would like to attend, I am sure that the organisers would be more than pleased to hear from you.

5. LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY (LSBU) STRATEGY: A CRITIQUE by RUTH RIKOWSKI
As part of the portfolio for my teaching certificate (CLTHE) I had to read and consider some of the London South Bank University (LSBU) strategies and write a critique of them. I examined the following strategies: the Faculty of Business, Computing and Information Management Learning and Teaching Plan (2005/6 – 08/09); the LSBU Learning and Teaching Strategy (2005/06 – 2007/08); the LSBU Centre for Learning Support and Development – Development Plan (2006/07 – 2008/9) and the LSBU People Development Strategy and Corporate Learning and Development Plan (2006/07 – 2008/09).

This was not something that immediately appealed to me, but the deeper I got into the subject, the more fascinating it became! Alison Britton, the leader of the CLTHE course, thought it was an important and neglected topic, I think, which is one of the reasons why she asked us to look at it all. The result of which was that I wrote a detailed piece, which I think could prove to be useful to others! So, for this reason, I decided to make it available on our website, and it is now at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=LSBU%20Strategy.
If any of you have any thoughts and comments in regard to it, then I would be very interested to hear from you!

6. ‘COMPUTERS/INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THE INFORMATION PROFESSION AND THE GENDER DIVIDE: WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ by RUTH RIKOWSKI, TO BE PUBLISHED IN POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION, MID 2008
This article of mine, which considers the topic of females and computing, with a particular focus on the information profession, is to be published in Policy Futures in Education, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2008, in a special issue on the theme of ‘Commercialisation, Internationalisation and the Internet’, edited by Chris Armbruster.

Females suffer much discrimination in this I.T. age, and this is a very important topic, which urgently needs to be considered further and addressed, in my view. I became acutely aware of this when I worked in the I.T. field (working closely with computer programmers, I.T. technicians etc and implementing and upgrading systems) and felt very impassioned about it and driven to write this long piece. Issues covered include topics such as the isolation which females can suffer from when working alongside male computer experts; the undermining of female confidence in computing; gender socialisation processes; women in computing academia; computer software, screen designs and layouts (which is largely designed by men) and the type of I.T. work (which tends to be more passive) that often falls to females. As we all largely have no option other than to move into this fast-changing, all-be-it exciting I.T. age, I would suggest that females need to be taking a much more pro-active role in it.
This issue of PFIE is currently in production. See:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_4.asp

7. FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT MY I.T. WORK EXPERIENCE
In my News Update No. 21, I included a section about my I.T./library work. However, I omitted to refer to the period when I worked for a library software supplier (Dynix) in 1995-6. I worked on the support desk there, and had to deal with many complicated problems from Dynix clients (mainly by telephone). I learnt a lot from it, and it was a very interesting and useful experience – working alongside computer programmers, technicians, librarians and information professionals.

8. 2008 CHANDOS PUBLISHING CATALOGUE – HARD AND ELECTRONIC COPIES NOW AVAILABLE
I now have copies of the 2008 Chandos Catalogue – both in hard copy and electronic copy. If any of you would like copies, then do let me know. The catalogue now contains a wealth of titles on a wide-range of different topics, including the Internet, libraries and information management; knowledge management; information literacy; publishing; intellectual property and management and business.

9. ‘EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT’ BY PAUL PANDIAN AND C.R. KARISIDDAPPA, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2008
Dr Paul Pandian and Dr. C.R. Karisiddappa’s book, which I commissioned and referred to in a previous Update, is now out.
The book “examines various factors that contribute to an enabled environment foroptimum utilisation of information resources”. The contents of the book are very varied, including areas such as: digital knowledge resources; emerging technologies for sharing electronic resources in a distributed environment; emerging technologies in authentication and unified portal models for sharing electronic information resources. I wish Dr Pandian and Dr Karisdappa all the very best with their book.

Full bibliographic details are:‘Emerging Technologies for Knowledge Resource Management’by Dr.M. Paul Pandian and Dr. C.R. Karisiddappa. Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2007Pages: 212p ISBN 1 84334 370 3, £39.95 (pbk); 1 84334 371 1, £57.00 (hdbk) http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=187
10. CHANDOS AUTHOR WINNING AN AWARD FROM THE INDIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
Dr M P Satija, Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science at the Guru Nanak Development University, Amritsar and a Chandos author of ‘Theory and practice of the Dewey decimal classification scheme’, 2007 - see http://www.chandospublishing.com/chandos_publishing_catalogue_search_booklist_results.php?ID=121), recently received the prestigious Indian Library Association (ILA) Life Time Achievement Award 2007. Dr Satija has authored 20 books published in India, UK, USA, and 150 papers published in National and International journals. He is associated with many national and international library organizations and has served visiting professor in India, Holland and Sri Lanka.

11. HELEN NICOLL’S TALK, ‘THE BUSINESS OF KNOWING’ (WITH A FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND THE NHS) AT A CILIP LONDON MEETING, ON 9th JANUARY 2008
Helen Nicoll, from NHS ‘Connecting for Health’ (Capacity and Capability Programme Manager), gave a very interesting talk at a CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) London meeting on 9th January 2008, which I went along to. The talk was entitled ‘Web 2.0, Knowledge Management and the corporate librarian’.

Helen discussed many issues such as how do people learn; the importance of blogs and how to access good blogs (such as through Technorati); communities of practice; the transferability and interchangability of skills, information and knowledge (particularly between librarians and educators); the value of technology and related online environments for effective knowledge sharing; video conferencing, tele-conferencing and Web 2.0 as well as the value and importance of knowledge sharing in general.

Some of the key points raised and later discussed were the value of KM (and IM) in general, and Web 2.0 in particular; the need for educationalists and librarians to work closer together and the value of using technologies alongside face-to-face contact.

Helen also recently achieved a distinction for her M.Ed dissertation in Training & Development, which included interviewing Project Managers about blogs and related topics.

Helen, indeed, is very keen on blogs, in particular, (and they certainly can be an effective part of KM!) and following on from the meeting she inserted an item about this meeting on her blog. See:
http://thebusinessofknowing.blogspot.com/2008/01/cilip-event-web-20-knowledge-management.html

In this blog item, she also referred to the book that I have edited on knowledge management, so thanks Helen for that!

Helen said that she usually gives talks with all the I.T. itinerary at her disposal (PowerPoint etc), and was a bit shocked at first to discover that there was none at the CILIP London meeting, as the meetings are held in a room above a pub (the Seckforde Arms). She said that she was not quite sure how she was going to handle it, but that she was very pleasantly surprised. Here is what she actually said on her blog in regard to this:

“I felt incredibly comfortable with just sitting there, talking to people, without thinking about what my slides said, without worrying about whether I'd missed bits, whether the videos would work...all that distracting stuff you get with technology. I could listen to what I was saying, listen properly to questions, watch the group for non-verbal cues (like nodding off, head shaking, frowning) which I'd probably have missed had I been concentrating on the technology I was using to present with. I felt like, almost anyway, a storyteller. I'm going to try to avoid PowerPoint in future...

Wow – I thought that was really something, especially as I had the same feeling when I gave a talk at a London CILIP meeting about one year ago now, on my work on globalisation and libraries. In fact, I felt, and still do feel, that it was one of the best talks that I had ever given! Like Helen I found that I was able to establish a really good rapport with my audience and there was a very good discussion. I always aim to invite contributions, discussions and interjections from the audience, but sometimes that works, and at other times it does not work so well. After all, one of my aims is to try to change the world in some small way, so finding out what other people think on the matter is important! The audience themselves at my talk at the CILIP London meeting were very receptive, wanted to participate and had clear views of their own, which obviously helped! I think that Ralph Adam, who organises all these talks, should be congratulated for obtaining this very successful formula for talks and presentations and perhaps others might want to follow his lead!

I am also incidentally developing the idea of the ‘interactive lecture’ further in my teaching practice, particularly through my teaching observations at London South Bank University (as part of the CLTHE course). This can be seen, in one sense, to be an attempt to bring the lecture and seminar together. Obviously, there are limitations – space, numbers etc, but I think it is a useful direction for lecturers to be moving in. Students are given some information in the lecture, and whilst it is still fresh in their mind, they can then discuss it further in a structured way. This can also be followed up with further lectures, seminars, tutorials and interactive lectures (whatever seems most appropriate), as and when. This should help to overcome dry lectures and non-participatory seminars. Tariq Tahar (2008) speaks enthusiastically about the interactive lecture in this months’ Times Higher Education saying that:

“The interactive lecture is now seen as the future, the students no longer merely the passive recipients of information.” (Tahar, 2008, p 39, in ‘Are You Reaching Those at the Back?: some academics routinely lecture to hundreds of students, but is this still the best way to teach?’, Times Higher Education, 10th January, pg37-39)

It is an interesting idea anyway, I think, and is something that I intend to develop further.

12. REVIEW OF MY ‘GLOBALISATION’ BOOK IN ‘LIBRARY HI TECH’ BY IAN FOURIE, VOL 25, ISS NO. 4, 2007, pp. 623-625
There was a good review of my book ‘Globalisation and Information’ by Ian Fourie, University of Pretoria, South Africa in Library Hi Tech, towards the end of last year. Fourie rightly says that I “…feel passionately about an Open Marxist theoretical analysis in considering…’global capitalism’…” (p. 623). Note though is made of the fact that there are rather a lot of introductions, conclusions and summaries. However, this was largely due to the fact that I was trying to make a very complex subject clear and easy to understand, as well as covering a very wide area (with the extensive international dimension that I explored) and doing all this in quite a short space of time. Never-the-less, the concluding comment is very heartening, with Fourie saying that it:

“… is an excellently researched publication written by an expert who is passionately against a TINA philosophy (There Is No Alternative – to capitalism). It should be read by all librarians and information professionals, and especially by decision makers in the field, as well as the leaders in professional associations.” (p. 625)

13. ‘KIZI TEBEŞIR’ – TRANSLATED BY EĢITHIM SŐYLEŞILERI RED CHALK : A TRANSLATION OF ‘RED CHALK’ BY PETER MCLAREN, GLENN RIKOWSKI, MIKE COLE AND DAVE HILL, IN TURKISH
Glenn was very pleased to receive a copy this month, of ‘Red Chalk’ in Turkish. The English version was published by the Institute for Education Policy Studies: Brighton, 2002 - see http://www.ieps.org.uk.cwc.net/redchalk.html - ‘Red Chalk: on schooling, capitalism and politics’ by Mike Cole, Dave Hill, Peter McLaren and Glenn Rikowski, ISBN 0 952204205, £7.00
It has now also been published in Turkish by Birinci Baski: Kasum, 2006,
ISBN 9944 5724 8 9. As well as 'Red Chalk' itself the book also includes a translation into Turkish of an e-dialogue between Glenn and Peter McLaren that first appeared in 'Cultural Logic' in 2001.

14. ‘RESISTANCE TO RESTRUCTURING?: POST-FORDISM IN BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS’ BY GLENN RIKOWSKI AND SHAUN FIELDING

In 1996, Glenn Rikowski wrote a paper with Shaun Fielding on: "Resistance to Restructuring? Post-Fordism in British Primary Schools". This article is now online on our website (as from 26/01/08). Fielding, S. & Rikowski, G. (1996) Resistance to Restructuring? Post-Fordism in British Primary Schools, School of Education, University of Birmingham, June: See http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Post-Fordism%20in%20Primary%20Schools

15 GLENN RIKOWSKI ALSO NOW ON EDITORIAL BOARD OF POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION
Glenn Rikowski is also now on the Editorial Board of Policy Futures in Education (late January) See: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/editorialboard.asp

16. ‘ROBERT OWEN: EDUCATION THE FUN WAY? BY NEIL SOUTHWELL

An article by Neil Southwell, from the School of Education, University of Northampton has recently been inserted on our website (on 9th January 2008), under the ‘Contributions’ section. See:

http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=contributions&sub=Robert%20Owen%20on%20Education
If anyone is interested in contributing to this section then do get in touch. It is an area that we would like to develop, but as always, there is the problem of time (or rather, the lack of it!)

17. POPULAR EDUCATION IN VENEZEULA: SHARED EXPERIENCES IN PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY: A ONE-DAY SEMINAR TO BE HELD AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY, ON 9TH FEBRARY 2008
Sarah Amsler has informed me about this interesting seminar which is taking place at Kingston University, from 11am-4pm on 9th February 2008, in the C-SCIAPE Debating Chamber. The seminar will discuss “… the politics and possibilities of popular education in Venezuela, widening participation and the transformation of higher learning.”

There will be talks and workshops with the following people:
Edenis Guilarte, Simon Rodriguez University, Caracas
Dr. Andy Higginbottom, Kingston University
Pablo Navarrete, Red Pepper ‘Venezuela’ blog
Dr. Sara Motta, Nottingham University
Thomas Muhr, University of Bristol

The event is sponsored by the Kinston University Institute of Social Science and Departments of Sociology and Criminology and International Politics and Human Rights
To book a free place or for more information, please contact Dr. Sarah Amsler at s.amsler@kingston.ac.uk

Many thanks to Susan Copeland, Glyn Jones and Sarah Amsler for providing information for items 4, 10 and 17 respectively.

Best
Ruth

24th January 2008

Ruth Rikowski's 22nd News Update

2009-03-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.22

This 22nd News Update contains a number of different information news items, including the CILIP Network of Expertise and Interests and Gwenda Sippings invitation for me to join it; the launch of Tony Ward’s Critical Education Newsletter; Toni Samek’s LJ Teaching Award and the Relaunch of the Feminist Library Newsletter.

1. GWENDA SIPPINGS INVITING ME TO JOIN A NEW CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS (CILIP) NETWORK OF EXPERTISE AND INTERESTS
It was very nice to hear from Gwenda Sippings this month. Gwenda was the Head of Information when I worked at Clifford Chance (London) Ltd (a global law company) in 1999-2000. I referred to my work at Clifford Chance in my previous News Update, No. 21, Section A, under heading ‘Information Technology Systems and Library Work Experience’. Incidentally, Clifford Chance (a very rich and successful company) was voted No. 1 in Project Finance International’s Annual Law Firm Survey this year – see http://www.cliffordchance.com/news/latest_news/details.aspx?LangID=UK&contentitemid=13002 (22/11/07)

Anyway, Gwenda is currently working with CILIP to pilot a new network of expertise and interests. She has invited me to join this network, and I have enthusiastically accepted her invitation. In her invitation letter she explains the objectives of the CILIP network saying that:

“The objectives…are primarily to enable members to share their expertise and interest with each other, and to assist colleagues who do not know where to start with a new project, or who have reached a sticking point. It is also to provide a group of known advocates to talk and advise CILIP staff on related issues of strategy and policy, or issues raised by the Media.”

I am very much looking forward to working with Gwenda on this new and exciting project and thanks Gwenda for the invitation! Hopefully, it will also provide me with the opportunity to connect with more of you library and information professionals out there and to make a positive contribution. Indeed, to build on the connections that I made whilst working as the book reviews editor for Managing Information.

2. FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT GWENDA SIPPINGS
I thought it might be useful to provide some further information about Gwenda Sippings, for those who do not know so much about her, so here goes! Gwenda’s experience at senior information management level is impressive! Her most recent appointment was in Central Government at HM Revenue and Customs, and as I say, prior to that she was Head of Information at Clifford Chance (London) Ltd.

Gwenda was featured as one of ‘the top ten leading librarians in Britain’ in ‘The Independent on Sunday’, 2002, along with others such as Sheila Corrall and Professor Charles Oppenheim – see http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2002/march2002/ALA_print_layout_1_22481_22481.cfm. She was also shortlisted for lnformation World’s Review ‘Information Professional of the Year’ award in 2005 – see

http://www.vnunet.com/information-world-review/news/2145655/iwr-professional-award. Furthermore, she was elected as the Cabinet Office’s first Head of Profession for Librarians and Information Managers in Government 2005.

Gwenda is now an independent consultant. She undertakes consultancy and project management work promoting knowledge and information management, to people such as Board members of organisations, and those setting up new knowledge and information management services. She also provides a mentoring and coaching service to people such as senior managers and senior knowledge managers, lecturers in Library and Information Schools and those entering the information profession with no information qualifications. In addition, Gwenda seeks to enhance professional development in various ways, such as by contributing to the development of new networks in the information industry and to the success of CILIP. For further information about her consultancy work see: http://www.gwendasippings.com/.
Gwenda spoke about her work at the Inland Revenue in an article that was published in CILIP’s Update in April 2004 – see http://www.cilip.org.uk/publications/updatemagazine/archive/archive2004/april/update0404b.htm.

She was appointed in September 2002 and was the first Director of Information Resources that the Inland Revenue had employed. When she was first appointed she had to conduct a review, and outline a strategic direction. The strategy was based on 3 principles, including the need to encourage “…everyone to work together to manage data information and knowledge as a shared corporate resource.” Gwenda then appointed a small team to carry the work forward, which she said had been very exciting and that she had enjoyed “…seeing activities start up which are making a real impact on people’s approach to information management.”
Gwenda Sippings web-log is at: http://gwendasippings.blogspot.com/

3. ‘KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES’ EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2007-NOW AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW IN MANAGING INFORMATION
The book that I have edited (further details in my signature below), ‘Knowledge Management: social, cultural and theoretical perspectives’, Chandos Publishing: Oxford, 2007, is now available for review in Managing Information (to subscribers to the magazine only).
See: http://www.managinginformation.com/news/newspage.php
(scroll down to news item of 21/11/07)

4. REVIEW BY JANICE GRANT OF ‘KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES’ EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI,
CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2007 IN SHINE (SCOTTISH HEALTH INFORMATION NETWORK)
Janice Grant has written a thought-provoking review of this KM book for the Scottish Health Information Network. She says that:

“Anyone planning to implement KM in their organisation will find plenty of food for thought. Although not a practical guide, the authors agree on the importance of capturing and disseminating ‘knowledge’ within the organisation.”

In noting that the book is more theoretical than practical, though, she intriguingly also asks the reader to be ‘warned’ about my Open Marxist analysis of KM in it. I was hoping that such an analysis would be an uplifting experience, rather than something to be scared of, or at least wary of, but still….!

She concludes her review very positively, saying that:

“…the ideas proposed by the authors are innovative, stimulating and thought-provoking. The book will surely encourage debate on concepts such as knowledge, wisdom, information, value, efficiency, progress and many others. I would recommend it to any librarian or information specialist interested in contributing to efficient capture, storage and dissemination of information within their organisation.”

5. FORUM/DISCUSSION AND BOOK REVIEWS FOR KM BOOK
Unfortunately, I have such a lot on that I am still not in a position to be able to hold the Forum/Event that I was hoping to, for this KM book. The teaching certificate has proved to be more demanding than I thought it would be, in all honesty! I do very much hope, though, that we will be able to start the discussion at some point, preferably in a face-to-face setting.

Meanwhile, Bob Bater, one of the contributors of the book, emailed me last week, saying that he was interested in sending me a short piece, outlining some further thoughts he has had in regard to the chapter that he co-authored with Isabelle Cabos, on intangible value and KM for possible inclusion in these Updates. I said that I would be more than happy to include such a piece. I started the debate myself actually anyway, with a critique which I wrote which is available on our website. This piece is entitled ‘KM critique: a reconsideration of ‘Knowledge Management: social, cultural and theoretical perspectives’ – it is available at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=KM%20Critique. In this article, I consider, in particular, some of the points raised by Bob and Isabelle.

If anyone is inspired to read this, and to give me any initial thoughts/comments that they might have, do feel free to do so! The more meaningful intellectual discussion we can have the better, I think. Indeed, perhaps, these Updates themselves could be the start of such a discussion! Watch this space! (alternatively, or in addition, the Forum on our website can be used – see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/forum.php).

Meanwhile, though, if anyone is interested in reviewing this KM book, do let me know, and/or contact my publisher directly – gjones@chandospublishing.com.

6. TONI SAMEK OBTAINS THE FIRST ANNUAL LJ TEACHING AWARD
Toni Samek, Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and someone who I commissioned to write a book for Chandos Publishing, has just won the first annual Library Journal (LJ) Teaching Award, which has been sponsored by ProQuest. The award “…recognizes excellence in educating the next generation of librarians.”

Toni will accept the award at a special reception to be held at the ALA (American Library Association)-midwinter in January 2008 in Philadelphia. The award is particularly in appreciation of Toni’s work on intellectual freedom and social responsibility. Along with the award, there is an LJ cover and feature, and a $5000 prize.

John Berry, who very much likes and admires Toni’s work, contacted and congratulated her personally about her award. John Berry is a very influential figure in the library and information profession. He worked for the Library Journal for 42 years. He semi-retired last year, but continues to write a column for Library Journal as well as giving talks and teaching at the University of Arizona, the Pratt Institute in New York, and Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

John Berry’s article about Toni winning this award is in Library Journal, 15th November, 2007 – see http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6497260.html
In his article Berry says that Toni’s work “…goes far beyond the three standard measures of academic performance: teaching, research, and service.” Furthermore, that she aims to bring theory and practice together in her teaching. Toni herself says that “It is very important for library educators to teach both the rhetoric and reality of our field. I like that part of the criteria for this award, about connecting to current issues.” Berry continues this theme saying that Toni’s “…students have studied in the “foundations course” the way homeless people use public libraries, with a focus on the housing crisis in Edmonton.”

Toni has also taught traditional courses in reference and information sources, collection management, electronic reference, and information retrieval. A few years ago, she developed a course called Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in Librarianship, which was unique in the way it linked the two core values, Berry says.

Berry says that Toni “… has integrated principles, values, and cases from it into her other courses. Her deeply moral, human-centered teaching always employs material from her research and professional service.”

Nominees for the award were judged according to a number of criteria. These included enhancing student-centered thinking in teaching; integrating theory, practice and research; forward thinking and communicating the core principles of librarianship, such as intellectual freedom and valuing the library service. Nominations were open to those that had taught a course at an American Library Association-accredited master’s program since September 2006.

The criteria for the nominations can be found at:
http://libraryjournal.firstlightera.com/EN/Microsites/1/Proquest/LJTeachingAwardCriteria.htm

Further information about the new award can be found at:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6497265.html

See also: http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/news.cfm?story=69213

The Library Journal (LJ) can be found at: http://www.libraryjournal.com/.

Further information about Toni Samek is in News Updates No. 6, Item 1.

Many congratulations to Toni!!

7. RELAUNCH OF THE FEMINIST LIBRARY NEWSLETTER
I was very interested to receive an email from the Feminist Library in London with the information that they have just re-launched the Feminist Library Newsletter. And they also attached a copy of the newsletter (Newsletter No. 1, October 2007). This is being done in another effort to help to preserve/save the library. The aim is to produce the newsletter quarterly by a volunteer editorial team and will “…include features on a wide range of women’s issues, interviews, book reviews, news of events and activities by women’s groups, and of course updates on the Feminist Library’s own work.”

The newsletter begins by explaining what the Feminist Library is and what the collection consists of. The collection contains approximately 10,000 books, 700 complete and partial sets of periodicals, 1,200 articles and over 2000 pamphlets and ephemera and it is “…recognised as the most significant collection of contemporary feminist material in England” and includes fiction as well as non-fiction material.

The newsletter then goes on to discuss the activities that have taken place in the Feminist Library this year. This includes information about the emergency meeting that I attended in February 2007. Also, how the library was reopened to the public in May 2007, after having been closed for years, only to find that they were then locked out by their landlord, Southwark Council, just two weeks later. But they hope to regain access to the library and to open it to the public again soon.

Other news items included information about the first meeting of a new independent libraries network.

If you would like to receive the newsletter, then please contact one of the Feminist Library Newsletter team requesting this, at feministlibraryappeal@gmail.com.

The new Feminist Library website has also just been launched – see http://www.feministlibrary.co.uk/

See Update No 1, Item 3; No 2, Item 3; No 4, Item 5 and Item 7, No 3. For further information about the Feminist Library in these News Updates.

8. TONY WARD LAUNCHING HIS CRITICAL EDUCATION NEWSLETTER – ‘KIA ORA FROM NEW ZEALAND’
Tony Ward has just started a Critical Education Newsletter, which will be very much welcomed by many, many people, I am sure. The need to think outside of the conformist education box can hardly ever have been greater! The increasing emphasis on skills and employability on many undergraduate courses today, for example, can be quite frightening, I think, and perhaps, in itself, is even helping to create an environment of plagiarism, as the value of real knowledge and research increasingly seems to be undervalued.

Anyway, to return - the popularity of Tony’s website (http://www.tonywardedu.com/) is increasing at an amazing pace – with the statistics showing an increase of about 40% every month, Tony says. And many of the free PDFs are being downloaded (60 of them in all at the moment and more are still being uploaded). Tony says that it has all “…been a wonderful journey!”

The first newsletter includes information about 3 new and extensive articles that have been added to the website recently, one of which is a critical analysis of institutional racism in New Zealand’s High Schools, focusing particularly on the attitudes of teachers to Maori students. There is also information about some new links that Tony has added to the webpage - and this includes a link to our website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’ (thanks very much Tony - and I have also put a link to your website from ours!) and a link to the Critical Pedagogies Working Group at the University of Kingston which I referred to in Update No 20 (Item 7) and Update No. 21 (Item 2). It also includes a number of interesting news items, such as a news item about the United League of Indigenous Nations. Tony Ward explains that: “The Treaty provides an opportunity for First Nations throughout the world to benefit from interaction and cooperation with Indigenous peoples everywhere. It focuses on cooperation amongst Indigenous leadership in the areas of environmental protection and international indigenous trade and commerce.” This sounds like a potential area of interest for me then, with clear links to the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), traditional knowledge and indigenous populations.

If you would like to subscribe to Tony’s newsletter, drop him an email –
tonyward.transform@xtra.co.nz

9. ‘FOR ACCREDITATION, SEE INDOCTRINATION’ BY FRANK FUREDI AND FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT FRANK FUREDI
Coming across this article the other day in the Times Higher Education Supplement
was interesting. It was published a couple of years ago (06/05/05) but some of what Frank Furedi said certainly struck a chord with me, as I continue to work towards obtaining this teaching certificate. The sub-title of the article reads ‘Courses in teaching have little to do with producing better lecturers and much to do with learning to conform’.

The article is about the teaching certificate – with the focus being on the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE). There are actually 2 levels of certificate now – the CLTHE and the PGCHE. I am currently studying for the CLTHE - the Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Frank Furedi’s opinion is that “…the PGCHE is almost exclusively about socialising academics into the ethos of the audit culture that dominates the campus.” (p.4) He also thinks it is about adopting a certain language – of benchmarking, summative assessments etc. Furthermore, he argues that whilst the courses “…continually go on about the need for reflection and critical thinking, what they offer are models of teaching based on standardisation and homogeneity.” (p.4) I would be interested to know the views of others taking the CLTHE and PGCHE courses! For me, I have found the teaching observations to be the most valuable part of the course. But never-the-less, he thinks that the courses do change us – we use different words and expressions, and more ‘template teaching’.

FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT FRANK FUREDI
Frank Furedi is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. He has published a number of books, and given many, many talks. His book ‘Where have all the intellectuals gone?: confronting 21st century philistinism’, Continuum: London, 2004, for example, is very good, I think. He argues in it that the intellectual is an endangered species, whilst the dumbed-down culture is becoming increasingly dominant.

Frank Furedi was in the Revolutionary Communist Party many years ago, and this was an organisation that also interested Glenn Rikowski and myself at the time. In particular, they published some very good articles with a clear Marxist analysis.

Frank Furedi also gave a keynote speech at the Discourse, Power and Resistance Conference 5 held at Manchester Metropolitan University, 21st-22nd April 2006 that Glenn and I attended. The conference was on the general theme of ‘Research as a Subversive Activity’ – see http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/dpr_06/index.php. Glenn and I also both gave papers at this conference. Glenn Rikowski gave a paper entitled Night Thoughts on the White Paper – details and abstract at:
http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/dpr_06/abstracts/abstract_profile.php?id=10. I gave a paper entitled The Transformation of Services and Intellectual Property Rights into International Tradable Commodities: a Marxist perspective on the GATS and TRIPS – details and abstract at: http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/dpr_06/abstracts/abstract_profile.php?id=70
We (Glenn Rikowski and Ruth Rikowski) also conducted a dialogue on The Business Takeover of Schools and Libraries – details and abstract at: http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/dpr_06/abstracts/abstract_profile.php?id=28

Frank Furedi’s talk at the conference was about ‘Vulnerability’ – which we found interesting and inspiring and found ourselves agreeing with much of it. That was an enlightening experience in itself – we have all moved on from RCP-type politics, in various ways, and yet something about our ways of thinking still seemed to resonate sharply. He was arguing that we are encouraged to feel vulnerable in society today in various ways, and that that was weakening us. Trade Unions traditionally in the past, on the other hand, encouraged workers to feel strong and proud of themselves, and with plenty of drive to ‘fight back’. But today, ordinary people are not encouraged to feel strong and confident in the same way – instead, when people face difficulties in life they are more encouraged to feel weak, vulnerable and dependent. I very much agreed with him, and I think this is quite unhealthy for society at large.

Frank Furedi is certainly a real and significant figure - both politically and academically. He is also someone that has very much a voice and a mind of his own and encourages others to ‘think outside the box’.

10. INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE THROUGH EDUCATION: MEDITERRANEAN COMPARATIVE EDUCATION (MESCE) CONFERENCE IN MALTA, 11TH-13 MAY 2008 - www.educ.um.edu.mt/mesce.
The Third Mediterranean Society of Comparative Education (MESCE) was formed in 2004 and it is having its 3rd Conference in Malta in 2008. Prior to this MESCE hosted the World Council of Comparative Education Societies conference, which was held at the University of Sarajevo in September 2007. And in 2006 the MESCE conference took place at Alexandrian Library in Alexandria, Egypt.

The organizers hope to attract papers from various parts of the Mediterranean, both North-South and East-West and “It is the intention of the organizers and the MESCE Executive Board to provide an important opportunity, through this meeting, for fostering dialogues among cultures and to firmly establish MESCE as an important regional society in the ever burgeoning Comparative Education field.”

Malta is described as “… an ideal location for an exchange of ideas and research concerning education issues that are making their presence felt in this region, although the conference will also welcome discussions of issues that emerge from beyond the Mediterranean basin.”
There will be two broad conference themes - intercultural dialogue within and across nations and education in the Mediterranean and the official language of the conference is English.

Thanks to Peter Mayo for informing me about this and if you are interested in participating in this conference, do have a look at the website!

11. WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY LATEST NEWS: THE THREAT DEEPENS!
The latest news about the threat posed to the William Morris Gallery and the Vestry House Local History Museum, in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, (which I referred to in News Updates No.7, Item 1 and No. 10, No 2) has been reported in the Green Party Trade Union Group Blog (29/11/07), which can be found at http://gptublog.blogspot.com/

In this news item it says that as from 6th December “…there will be no-one at the gallery with the knowledge or experience to safeguard the collection or to help visitors.” Recently, professional, experienced and knowledgeable members of staff have been lost – in particular, the curator. There will be a new team to join the gallery but they do not appear to have long term contracts. Furthermore, the whole collection has not been catalogued, thereby putting the collection at even further risk.

As from January 2008, the William Morris Gallery and Vestry House Museum will only be open part-time. The article makes the point that this is likely to decrease the chances of obtaining funding, as funding is assessed on access criteria. Staff have been told to do all they can to book up events on Sundays from January, in order to boost visitor numbers and encourage usage. But, the article says that these same people have suffered stress, through job insecurity, colleagues losing their jobs, others having to go part-time etc. In addition they do not now have the support and knowledge of more experienced and qualified staff.

There is a petition to protest about what is happening to the Gallery at www.petitiononline.com/savewmg, which I hope that you will feel able to sign. I have just signed it myself, and there are now over 11,000 signatures. As I say in my comment in my petition signature, perhaps George Orwell’s predictions in his novel ‘1984’ are proving to be more right than we have realised, as we continually face loses to our culture, our sense of history, and our historical documents and resources. On the other hand, perhaps, the ‘Nothing’ (in the film the ‘Never Ending Story’) is in danger of taking over and the group ‘Porcupine Tree’s’ ‘Fear of a Blank Planet’ (this being their latest album) are indeed real!
Those involved with the campaign think that the council’s stated aim to save £56,000 by this restructuring and part-time service will not be achieved. They make the point that the council have spent money employing outside consultants – money which could have been spent on trying to safeguard the gallery and museum and keeping the experienced staff in post. They suggest that the gallery could generate further income in other ways, such as by advertising the service more and having more special exhibitions. In their view, the collection is in “extreme danger”. They are firmly of the opinion that “The reduction in investment and opening-hours will run the service down further, and this will eventually lead to the redundancy of the gallery.”
The news item suggests other ways in which we can help. In particular, to write to the people on this page: www.keepourmuseumopen.org.up/?page_id=62. It suggests we call for the reinstatement of Peter Cormack, the Keeper and Curator, for example, and encourage Waltham Forest Council to open the galleries full-time again.

Finally, here is news of 2 musical events in London this week (apologies for the short notice):

12. RAM JAM REBETIKO CONCERT AT SOAS – REBEL MUSIC OF GREECE
There will be a concert by the SOAS Ad Hoc Rebetiko Band on:
Friday 7th December 2007 at 7.30pm, inSOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London,
Main Building, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1, in Room G2
[Nearest tubes: Russell Square or Goodge St]
REBETIKO is the rebel music of Greece – music of the underworld. It is the urban blues of the old port areas of Greece and it includes songs of prison, hashish, love, emigration and desperation. There is also more than a hint of Sufi in its modes and musics and there is Soul stuff in 9/8 rhythms.

The concert will be followed by a party/jam session afterwards in the Students Union Bar, at 8.30pm. Food and drinks at the bar.ADMISSION: Free. There will be a bucket collection for expenses.For further information see the Rebetiko website at www.geocities.com/rebetology

For further details contact: ed.emery@soas.ac.uk

13. SECOND CHANCE CHOIR, BLACKHEATH WINTER CONCERT, 6th DECEMBER
The Second Chance Choir, that I am a member of, will be holding its special Winter Concert at St Michaels Church, Blackheath, South London (on the corner of Blackheath Park and Pond Road) on Thursday 6th December 2007, at 8pm. Admission is free and there will be food and drink to follow. Everyone is welcome.

Many thanks to Gwenda Sippings, Toni Samek, Una Byrne, Tony Ward, Peter Mayo Philip Booth and Les Levidow for providing information for items 1, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 respectively.

Best
Ruth

4th December 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 21st News Update

2009-03-29T08:06:00.001-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.21

This 21st News Update begins with a focus on my publications, talks and work experience in the computing and information field.

It then goes on to include a number of other news items, including information about Tony Ward’s work on critical pedagogy; a talk given by Tom Palmer at a Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) London meeting on his forthcoming book ‘Long Overdue’ as well as some information about future CILIP London events and information about the refereed international symposium ejournal ‘Research in Comparative and International Education’.

A. RUTH RIKOWSKI’S PUBLICATIONS, TALKS AND WORK EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD OF COMPUTERS, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

RUTH RIKOWSKI’S PUBLICATIONS ON COMPUTERS, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

BOOK
Change management process: implementation of Unicorn Library Management Computer System at Clifford Chance Ltd, an International Law Company Chapter in Library Management Trends and Opportunities, Edited by Roshan L. Raina, Dinesh K. Gupta and Ramesh C. Gaur, Excel-Manlibnet, New Delhi, 2005. pp. 195-213

ARTICLES
The Essential Bridge: a new breed of professional? In Managing Information, April 2000, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 40-45
This article examines the relationship between the library and information department and the computer and I.T. department.Females, Computers and Libraries In Managing Information, July/August 2003, Vol. 10, No, 6, pp. 6-10 Computers/I.T., the Information Profession and the gender divide - where are we going? (unpublished paper – I will be seeking publication of this at a future date)

RUTH RIKOWSKI’S TALKS ON COMPUTERS, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

2001
Spoke at the Open University, to library and information staff. Talk entitled Looking ahead in the information world, on 27th September 2001. Talk focused on I.T. and Knowledge Managment issues for the library and information profession in the futureGave a talk to MSc students at University College London, in the Library, Archives and Information Department, based on my article The Essential Bridge.Talked about the relationship between I.T. departments and library departments

2003
Gave a talk at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Umbrella Conference, in Manchester on 4th July 2003.Talk entitled: Building the Essential Bridge: the relationship between library/information departments and computer/information technology departments. Talk based on my article The Essential Bridge.Invited to give talk by Multimedia Information and Technology Group of CILIP

RUTH RIKOWSKI’S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS AND LIBRARY WORK EXPERIENCE
I have implemented library management computer systems in two organisations – Clifford Chance London Ltd (a law company) and Havering College of Further and Higher Education. I took Clifford Chance through the initial implementation stages of the Unicorn library management computer system which had then been recently purchased (back in 1999-2000). Whilst at Havering College, I oversaw the complete implementation of the Dynix library management computer system that they had just purchased (back in 1996). The system had to be implemented in a very short space of time – before term started, so it proved to be a very challenging but exciting project. I also assisted with the implementation of Dynix in the London Borough of Newham public library service from 1993-1995.

Finally, I took the library and archive department at the Tate Gallery through a large upgrade of its Unicorn library management system in 1999. I also assisted with the conversion of the card catalogue on to their Unicorn computer system.

FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT MY WORK ON GLOBALISATION, KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
I am endeavouring to place my work, research, writing, publications and talks within the fields of information technology, knowledge management and globalisation into a coherent whole. They are all topics that are at the sharp edge of capitalism – where global capitalism is being driven to go. In my published work, I place all these topics within an Open Marxist theoretical framework and am continually developing my work on these areas. The gender/I.T. area is one that I would particularly like to develop, if time permits, given the serious discrimination that females suffer from in this new I.T. age – an age from which, whilst exciting, there is also really no escape. There is also serious discrimination against females within the whole writing and publishing field. I have found – although some might argue that this is partly of females own making. More accurately, though, I would say it is the socialisation processes which they have undergone, which sometimes undermines their confidence and their willingness to take the necessary risks. But if the necessary risks are taken, other problems still arise – discrimination rears its head in many different guises!

I am also keen to develop my Open Marxist theoretical analysis further in these areas, in general. Once again, though, there are never enough hours in the day!

On a final note if anyone wants any copies of my articles on the I.T. area and/or would like hard copies of selections of my other published works, then just get in contact with me.

B. OTHER NEWS ITEMS

1. TONY WARD FROM NEW ZEALAND AND CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
I received a lovely email from Dr. Tony Ward, Higher Education Facilitator, Academic Programme Developer and Urban Design Consultant in response to my previous Update (20th), which he saw on my blog. He began by saying how grateful he was for the blog item I wrote about the critical pedagogy group at Kingston University (Item 7) – also referred to in Item 2 below. I discovered Tony has over 40 years experience of teaching at top Universities on three continents (including UC, Berkeley in the US). Furthermore, that for 20 years he worked as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland, School of Architecture. He also ran a Community Design Studio programme, working mostly in the indigenous Maori community. He actually taught Community Architecture at Kingston University in 1966 as well.

Tony developed a specific form of Critical Pedagogy for his design studio for many years and students worked collectively on real-world design projects for clients who would not otherwise have been able to afford it. Tony has now retired and has developed a website as a free educational resource, and passes on the knowledge and experience that he has acquired from forty years of practicing Critical Pedagogy. The website comprises more than 60 free and fully-illustrated downloadable PDFs in a range of disciplines covering issues such as: critical theory, critical practice, critical pegagogy, cultural studies, colonisation, postcolonialism, postmodernism, hegemony/education, critical psychology, critical design, critical aesthetics, critical health, critical tourism, indigenous studies, critical education, critical rationality, critical urbanism, critical sustainability, sustainable community, critical space, ideology and design, ethical cleansing and urban design etc. etc.There are also several downloadable bibliographies and glossaries, as well as useful links. The URL is: http://www.tonywardedu.com/

His only request is that visitors to the site leave comments in the “Contact” page so that he can gauge its effectiveness and make regular improvements.

2. SARAH AMSLER AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY CONNECTING WITH VICTOR RIKOWSKI
I have had some fruitful email communication with Dr Sarah Amsler, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Kingston University, following on from my write-up about the critical pedagogy group at Kingston University, in News Update No. 20, Item 7. Sarah emphasised how important she thought critical pedagogy was.

Sarah said that she admired our website, and that it was the first time that she had ever seen the whole family involved with “critical thinking and action” in this way. I thanked her, and said that she was the first person to voice this view so clearly and that when I set the website up I had all this very much in mind, and also wanted to provide an outlet for us all. She said that her students will shortly be reading our son Victor’s piece on education, which is entitled ‘Problems in Education Today’, in Information for Social Change, Issue No. 23, Summer 2006 - see http://libr.org/isc/toc.html. She is also hoping to invite Victor Rikowski to go and talk to her students about some of the issues that he raises in his article, and some other related critical pedagogical issues. So, many thanks Sarah for these kind words and let us hope that it will lead to further development of critical pedagogy issues, and in particular, that it will encourage more young people to engage in a critically constructive way.

3 TOM PALMER’S TALK AT A CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS (CILIP) LONDON MEETING ON 13TH NOVEMBER, 2007
Victor and I attended a CILIP London meeting on Tuesday 13th November 2007, at ‘The Sekforde Arms’ in EC1, which proved to be very interesting. The speaker was Tom Palmer, and he was talking about a book which he is currently writing, entitled ‘Long Overdue’. He has travelled around the UK visiting various public libraries, talking to people and making extensive notes. The book is about these travels and his passion for the public library. He has travelled from Beleek to Lowestoft, and this included travelling in a mobile that visited farms. He also spent 4-days on his travels in Sheffield.

Tom was very keen to do this project, because libraries have transformed his life, he said, and he wanted to see whether they had benefited some other people in the same sort of way. Indeed, he wanted to explore the extent to which people wanted to celebrate their public libraries. He spoke to someone that had a passion for languages, for example. They used public libraries to develop this passion still further, and this finally resulted in them obtaining an academic job. He also went to Wakefield prison. An interesting discussion followed on from this, and the difficulties that prisoners who are keen on the library and reading can have. In particular, prisoners can usually only have visits from the library once a fortnight. Tom said that the Premier League Reading Star Scheme has been very successful in prisons.

Tom very much enjoyed all these travels and talking to people about the public library, but it proved costly – he actually spent approximately £5000 on it all. So, when he was offered a book contract to write children’s fiction stories, around football themes, he could not refuse! So, at the moment, this is taking priority over ‘Long Overdue’, but he hopes to return to ‘Long Overdue’ before long, and would like it to be published in about one years’ time, if possible. I think the meeting helped to reinforce the importance of his book for Tom. He said that he might even include something about the meeting in the book, especially as there were a lot of fruitful contributions from the audience.

Tom was asked a number of different questions from the audience. He was asked, for example, how he got the courage to go into libraries to begin with. He said he was frightened first of all, but that he liked the reference library, in particular. He was also asked for his views on ‘Ideas Stores’ in Tower Hamlets in London. Tom said what whilst the stock is good, he did not like the name. Also, that many professional librarians posts have been lost. It was noted that this trend was happening in libraries throughout the country, and that money and performance targets were increasingly driving everything. I made the point that this trend was pervading everywhere, and was not just confined to libraries either. Also, that new universities do not value writing enough as an activity but that instead, they are also too driven by performance targets and money, particularly with the ‘bums on seats’ mentality, re attracting students into the university. Reference was also made to the fact that Tom Coates spoke to the group about a year ago, and there was some discussion about Waterstone bookshops, and the possible impact that these bookshops can have on libraries – given the fact that Tom Coates thinks that public libraries should emulate these bookshops in various ways.

Tom said that if it was not for libraries he would not be in the job that he is in now. So, libraries transformed his life and gave him his professional career and also his writing career. He hated reading until he was 17 years old. He left school at 16 years old with few qualifications and became unemployed. A combination of his mother’s influence and football (he was a Leeds Utd. fan), led him to visit the local library. He particularly enjoyed using Leeds Central Reference library. He became quite obsessed with obscure writers and books by authors with foreign names.

However, as he was a Leeds Utd fan he also became involved with a group of hooligans, and a lot of these people subsequently went to prison. But because of books Tom went to night school instead and then went on to university. He feels that libraries very much ‘saved’ him in this way, and that he has ever such a lot to be thankful to libraries for.

So, one of Tom’s passions has been to get boys that hate reading to learn how to enjoy reading, through football. From my experience, this is a quite a common way for working-class boys to start to enjoy reading and studying – through football. ‘What does that complicated word in The Guardian football column mean?’ – asking such questions can start to lead boys to think about the value of reading and writing. On one occasion Madrid and Leeds were playing away and Tom went to see them, he said. Leading on from this a mainstream publisher gave him a contract to write a children’s fiction book around a football theme, and Leeds library then became involved. Tom never dreamed he would find himself becoming a children’s author but now he is writing these books enthusiastically.

Tom Palmer has now been working for libraries, which began in Bradford, for ten years. He is currently employed by the Reading Agency and the National Literacy Trust on the Reading Partners Project and the Premier League Reading Stars Scheme respectively.
‘Foul Play’ will be the next book of Tom’s to be published, in May 2008. It will be published with Puffin, and will be one of 8 books in a series on football fiction for children, all written by Tom. And then he has ‘Long Overdue’ to write, which will be published by Pomona. So, he is going to be busy!

All in all, this proved to be a very interesting and enjoyable evening. The meeting was also well-attended and there was a good discussion.

For more information about ‘Long Overdue’ see http://www.tompalmer.co.uk/index.php?page_id=29
For more information about Tom’s children’s fiction football books, see
http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2006/12/football-reading-and-tom-palmer.html

4 CILIP LONDON FUTURE EVENTS FOR 2008
CILIP London meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Forthcoming CILIP London events for 2008 can be viewed on the CILIP London website. See: http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/default.htm

In particular, the first meeting for 2008, will be held on Tuesday 8 January on the topic of ‘Using librarians' skills sets for knowledge management’ and the talk will be given by Helen Nicol. The next talk will be on Tuesday 12 February, on ‘Why Charter?’ and will be given by Caroline De Bruin.

5. RECENTLY REDESIGNED CHANDOS PUBLISHING WEBSITE
The Chandos Publishing website has recently been redesigned and is looking very good – see http://www.chandospublishing.com/.

6. ‘MARXIST EDUCATIONAL THEORY UNPLUGGED’ BY GLENN RIKOWSKI - PAPER PREPARED FOR THE 4th HISTORICAL MATERIALISM CONFERENCE, 2007
The paper that Glenn Rikowski gave at the 4th Historical Materialism Annual conference on 10th November 2007, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, which is entitled Marxist Educational Theory unplugged, is now available on our website – see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Marxist%20Educational%20Theory%20Unplugged

There were about a dozen people at the session, with some fruitful discussion. Glenn outlined the development of Marxist educational theory over the last 30 years or so in the first half of his talk. In the second half he demonstrated why he thinks the whole topic needs to be looked at afresh and then how he has begun to develop this, focusing particularly on his work on labour-power as a commodity. He says that labour-power is the weakest link in capitalism. This is very much work-in-progress.

7. ‘BLENDED E-LEARNING’ AND UNIVERSITY STAFF USE OF ‘SOCIAL SPACE’
We now have a copy of Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler’s book Preparing for blended e-learning,Routlege: Oxon, 2007, ISBN 0 415 40360 X (pbk), part of the ‘Connecting with E-Learning Series’ – see http://www.connecting-with-elearning.com/ (referred to in my News Update No 9, Item 4). This is a very useful book for all those interested in and involved with blended learning. There are chapters on a wide variety of topics, including different approaches to blended e-learning, devising blended e-learning activities, choosing e-tools for blended activities and sustainable blended e-learning designs.

On p. 66 there is reference to Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace profile, which is given as an example of academic’s using computing environments for ‘social space’. The screen dump in the book from Glenn’s MySpace profile is on one of the seminars that Glenn organised (with Tony Green) on ‘Education and Social Class’ – this being one of the ‘Marxism and Education: renewing dialogues’ seminars (IX). Littlejohn and Pegler say that:

“Here, Glenn Rikowski of the University of Northampton uses MySpace to formulate ideas on education and social class. In this example the online environment is being used to extend ideas generated during face-to-face seminar sessions.” (p. 66)

Furthermore that:

“Social computing environments have the potential to shift the locus of control in education. They support the idea of the ‘contributing student approach’…” (p.66)

We wish Allison and Chris all the very best with their book.

8. ‘YES, BUT HOW DO WE GET THERE? ALTERNATIVE VISIONS AND THE PROBLEM OF STRATEGY’ BY RICHARD HATCHER, JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES, (JCEPS), VOL. 5, NO. 2, NOVEMBER 2007,
ISSN 1740 2743. CHIEF AND FOUNDING EDITOR – PROFESSOR DAVE HILL
http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=98

Richard Hatcher does not want to let it rest, it seems. This article, which by the title sounds like it is quite a broad, general piece, instead mainly seems to be an attack on the work of Glenn Rikowski, Paula Allman and Peter McLaren. This could make one cynical about academia, even depressed, if one let it, but let us not go down that path! Still, it gives exposure to their work, I guess.

Yet, we also have to face reality. Hatcher does seem particularly determined to try to lessen, indeed rubbish, Glenn’s work for some reason. On p. 5 of the article, he says, for example that some of Glenn’s work is “utopian and reformist” and that:

“Rikowski’s view is idiosyncratic within the field of education…”

On another occasion he says that some of Glenn’s work “…takes him beyond the terrain of Marxism” (p.8), whilst also arguing that he himself will be developing a discussion in his article that “…will enable [him] to develop, from a Marxist perspective, a different strategic conception.” (p. 3). Yet, Hatcher does not include a single reference to Marx – either in the paper itself, or in the quite extensive bibliography at the end. Whilst anyone that knows Glenn’s work at all will know that he quotes extensively from Marx. We live in strange times, it seems, where those that do not quote from Marx are adopting a ‘correct’ Marxist perspective, whilst those that do include such quotes are not!

A little further on in the article he says that Glenn’s:

“…thesis begins from the correct premise that labour power is capitalism’s ‘weakest link’, but draws the erroneous conclusion that because labour power is produced by education therefore education is the strategically most important terrain of class struggle.” (p. 8)

He continues, arguing that:

“This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the significance of education as a field of class struggle. Not only is this mechanical economism not shared by any current on the Left today, it cannot be found in the works of Marx himself or in the historical experience of the Marxist movement (In fact, it echoes the classic reformist position that education is the key to resolving social inequality). The strategic conclusion Rikowski draws actually cuts off and isolates education from the struggles against the capitalist state which provide a basis for the sorts of united fronts McLaren advocates, and which, in the curriculum, provide the bridge for both teachers and students to move towards a critical understanding of capitalist society.” (p. 9)

Quite a lengthy quote here then the purpose of which seems to be to completely undermine Glenn’s work. Glenn’s work on labour-power as a commodity, and his analysis of it as being the weakest link in capitalism, is some of his most important and original work. He is breaking completely new ground here, and history will prove this to be the case, I am sure – as it has done with others that have broken new ground down the ages. Thus, for “idiosyncratic” read “original”! But why do we always have to wait until we are dead? It would be nice to think on a personal basis, that we could have a reasonable life-style in this life, and not have to engage with time-wasting exercises (I have had enough of this myself as well!).

What are some of the specifics of these attacks then? Well they are many. Glenn is isolated apparently (“...not shared by any current on the Left today…”). Not that this bothers Glenn particularly – he has never sort popularity in that way. Whilst at the same time Glenn has gone to great lengths to try to reinvigorate Marxism and Education and has very successfully brought many different people together in various discussions of it. This includes the ‘Marxism and Education: renewing dialogues’ seminars that he has organised with Tony Green at the Institute of Education, University of London. These have been successful but have also been a lot of work for Glenn. Glenn also invited Richard Hatcher to speak at one of these seminars incidentally, (MERD VII, on the topic of ‘Education and Alliance for Social Change’ on 26th October 2005), which Hatcher was pleased to be able to do.

Secondly, Glenn has a ‘mechanical economist’ approach apparently. Thirdly, that this work of Glenn’s on labour-power being the weakest link in capitalism, and that education is key in this regard, does not relate to Marx’s work at all. As I have already said, Glenn quotes extensively from Marx. But also, Glenn seeks to develop Marx’s work (as I also do) and does not seek to deify it. But really we cannot spend all our time justifying ourselves in this way! Fourthly, Glenn’s position is ‘classic reformist’. Fifthly, Hatcher is trying to separate Glenn from Professor Peter McLaren – so trying to do quite a thorough job here, re isolating him. And all that from just one paragraph! No wonder Glenn felt driven to write ‘In The Dentist’s Chair’.

In regard to Glenn Rikowski, Paula Allman and Peter McLaren, he says that they:

“…represent in some respects an extreme position which in my view does not provide an answer to the three questions for strategy..” (p. 3) (questions which Hatcher poses at the beginning of the article). He argues that the “…vast majority of teachers in the US and the UK do not share their revolutionary Marxist politics…” (p.5) But they have never suggested that they do, so not quite sure where he is intending to go with that one, or is he just simply arguing that if the majority do not agree with you then your position cannot be right or tenable?

It is also interesting to note that Professors Dave Hill and Mike Cole are largely omitted from these attacks – interesting, because they have both written a lot of material with Glenn, Paula and Peter. So, why are they being spared, one wonders, particularly given the fact that Hatcher attacked Dave and Mike in a British Educational Studies Association (BERA) paper that he gave in the summer – this article in JCEPS is actually a revised version of this paper?

But perhaps, the title of Hatcher’s paper gives the game away – think about it!

Anyway, enough of this!

References

Hatcher, R. (2005) Business Sponsorship of Schools: For-profit takeover or agents of neoliberal change? A Reply to Glenn Rikowski’s ‘Habituation of the Nation: School Sponsors as Precursors to the Big Bang?’ 5th November, available on Glenn Rikowski’s the Volumizer, posted 7th November: http://journals.aol.co.uk/rikowskigr/Volumizer/entries/651

Hatcher, R. (2006) A Reply to Rikowski’s ‘In the Dentist’s Chair’, 12th February, posted to them MASSES e-list, at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MarxSIG/message/623

Rikowski, G. (2005a) Habituation of the Nation: School Sponsors as Precursors to the Big Bang? An entry in The Volumizer, 19th October, at: http://journals.aol.co.uk/rikowskigr/Volumizer/entries/566

Rikowski, G. (2005b) In the Dentist's Chair: A Response to Richard Hatcher's Critique of Habituation of the Nation, 31st December, in three parts. Available at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=In%20the%20Dentist%5ba%5ds%20Chair

9. GUEST LECTURES GIVEN BY RUTH RIKOWSKI AT LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY IN NOVEMBER 2007, ON THE TOPICS OF GLOBALISATION, KNOWLEDGE, THE KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION, KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
I am giving some guest lectures at London South Bank University this semester, to masters’ students and third year undergraduates, around some of the topics covered in my published work - which has been rewarding but demanding. Topics covered have included globalisation, knowledge, the knowledge revolution, knowledge management and knowledge transfer. Victor Rikowski also made some of my PowerPoint slides for the presentations colourful and lively.

I have given guest lectures at London South Bank University in the past on topics that I have published material on, including topics such as leadership in the new economy from a Marxist perspective (http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=events&sub=Leadership:%20a%20Marxist%20Perspective), globalisation (http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=events&sub=Globalisation)
and ‘The way forward for the MBA’, where I have looked at topics such as globalisation, I.T., leadership, knowledge management and knowledge and culture.

10 THE REFEREED INTERNATIONAL EJOURNAL ‘RESEARCH IN COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION’ – A SYMPOSIUM JOURNAL
Here is some information about another Symposium Journal (Policy Futures in Education being a Symposium Journal). It is very good to see the growing success of refereed ejournals in this way.

This journal is entitled Research in Comparative and International Education (RCIE). It is a peer-reviewed international ejournal, and is edited by Professor David Philips of the University of Oxford and is available at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/rcie/index.asp. It is assisted by an Editorial Board and an International Advisory Board of international scholars, with a wide range of expertise in comparative and international studies.

As it says on the website:
“RCIE is concerned with research and its methods. It seeks to publish papers of between 5,000 and 10,000 words which report new research in the field of comparative and international education, broadly defined, or which address theoretical and methodological issues in comparative and international education with clear research relevance. Illustrations (including colour) are encouraged. Largely descriptive or solely policy-based papers are unlikely to be accepted for publication. All papers are blind-refereed by members of the International Advisory Board and others.”

An annual subscription to the journal enables the user to be able to obtain current and past issues online. The journal is published four times a year.
The latest issue of the journal is now available at www.wwwords.co.uk/rcie/content/pdfs/2/issue2_3.asp and its contents are listed below.
RESEARCH IN COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION (ISSN 1745-4999) Volume 2 Number 3 2007 www.wwwords.co.uk/RCIE

SPECIAL ISSUE: Policy, Education and Conflict

Guest Editor: JULIA PAULSONJULIA PAULSON.

Introduction. Policy, Education and Conflict, pages 172-175

LYNDSAY BIRD. Learning about War and Peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, pages 176-190

MAGALI CHELPI-DEN HAMER. How to Certify Learning in a Country Split into Two by a Civil War: governmental and non-governmental initiatives in Côte d'Ivoire, 2002-06, pages 191-209

KARIN DOOLAN & MLADEN DOMAZET. Political Education in Croatian Secondary Schools: an emergency reaction to a chaotic context, pages 210-221

CLARE A. IGNATOWSKI. Framing Youth within the Politics of Foreign Assistance, pages 222-229

MIKAELA LUTTRELL-ROWLAND. Gangs, Soldiers and 'Idle Girls': constructions of youth and development in World Bank discourse, pages 230-241

Z.E. KARPINSKA, RACHEL YARROW & L.M.A. GOUGH. Education and Instability: avoiding the policy-practice gap in an emerging field, pages 242-251

JEREMY RAPPLEYE & JULIA PAULSON. Educational Transfer in Situations Affected by Conflict: towards a common research endeavour, pages 252-271

11 DENISE NICHLSON’S INFORMATION SERVICE: STUDENTS AND OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
Denise Nicholson provides a very useful news information service. Here I focus on one of the latest ones she sent round, as a way of illustrating their value, and in case some others might then want to subscribe.

This issue focused on students and open access publishing, and included items such as the following:
1. Student stakes and student action in the open access movement
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007/11/student-stakes-and-student-action-in.html
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2007/november07/Student_activism.cf
2. Using open-access articles for student projects
http://www.plos.org/cms/node/271

3. Benefits of Open Access Publishing for students in higher education
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00011421/01/Benefits_of_AO_Publishing.pdf

4. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog
http://digital-scholarship.org/sepw2/2007/11/07/sepw-november-7-2007/

This free online service provided by Denise Nicholson covers various topics such as “copyright, plagiarism and other IP related matters; WIPO and WTO matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; issues affecting access to knowledge, particularly in developing countries; access for sensory-disabled persons; digitization and library issues, open access; open publishing; scholarly communication; useful websites; conference alerts, etc.”

If anyone wants to subscribe to the service, just email their names and contact details to Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za

Many thanks to Tom Ward, Sarah Amsler, Ralph Adam and Denise Nicholson for providing information for items 1,2,4 and 11 respectively.

Best
Ruth

25th November 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 20th News Update

2009-03-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.20

This Update (as promised) also includes a lot of items. It includes information about a new ejournal, Information, Society and Justice; Mike Cole’s latest book on ‘Marxism and Educational Theory’, more information about the books ‘Full of Volcanoes’ and ‘On Marx’ and the Critical Pedagogy Working Group at Kingston University. There are also a wide variety of other items, including information about book reviews and an exciting musical workshop, leading to the performance of an opera.

1. AN EXPLORATION OF PAULA ALLMAN’S APPROACH (THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL/REVOLUTIONARY PRAXIS) IN HER BOOK ‘ON MARX: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE REVOLUTIONARY INTELLECT OF KARL MARX’ (pp. 58-67), SENSE PUBLISHERS: ROTTERDAM: THE NETHERLANDS, ISBN 978 90 8790 192 9 (pbk); 978 90 8790 193 6 (hdbk)
PART OF THE SERIES ‘KEY CRITICAL THINKERS IN EDUCATION’ EDITED BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL PETERS AND TINA (A.C.) BESLEY

I spoke about this very important, albeit slim, book in my last Update (19) – item 4. But here I would like to focus on Paula Allman’s particular contribution, the approach that she adopts in regard to challenging traditional education that I referred to, where Paula focuses on the development of critical/revolutionary praxis through a Marxist approach, and through an application of the whole of Marx’s work. The depth and insightfulness of her writing in this area is breath-taking. It is something that all those that are concerned with the development of humanity through education should take seriously and do whatever they can to try to help to bring to fruition, in however small a way that might be.

Paula explains that the ideas presented in her book ‘On Marx’ are explored more fully in her book Critical Education Against Global Capitalism: Karl Marx and Revolutionary Critical Education, 2001. She very much draws on the work of Marx, Paulo Freire and Antonio Gramsci (having read all the works of these great thinkers in real depth) in this regard and is of the opinion that Freire and Gramsci:

….have gone the furthest in applying Marx in their thinking about educational practice. (2007, p. 58)

Firstly, though, I thought it would be useful to consider the concept of ‘Praxis’. The ‘Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy’, (1994) has this to say:

But it is in Marx that that the concept [praxis] becomes central to the new philosophical ideal of transforming the world through revolutionary activity. The subordination of theory to practice is connected with the inability of reason to solve contradictions, which are instead removed by the dialectical progress of history. Praxis is connected with genuinely free, self-conscious, authentic activity as opposed to the alienated labour demanded under capitalism.

Basically, ‘Praxis’ involves getting theory and practice working together – one feeds off the other, and this way enables significant progress to be made. This is a far more holistic approach, than defining, inventing and applying theory, or largely abandoning theory, and just focusing on practice and action.

In regard to ‘Praxis’ Paula Allman says that it is Marx’s philosophy:

…of internal relations that enabled him to formulate the revolutionary theory of consciousness/praxis which provides the foundational framework for the philosophical approach to education, that is being/becoming and knowledge/knowing… (2007, p. 58-9)

She refers to ‘internal relations’, saying that entities are ‘internally related’ and that they ‘mutually and reciprocally shape and determine one another’ (p. 58). Our sensuous experience and consciousness as human beings is ‘internally related’, and this is also comprised of ‘internally related dialectical contradictions’ (p.59) in capitalism.

Marx’s theory of consciousness shows that unity of thought and sensuous human experience are inseparable. For this reason, it is a ‘theory of praxis’, Paula Allman argues and within this there are 2 very different forms of praxis. One form is uncritical/reproductive praxis, which simply reproduces the “existing socio-economic relations” (p.59), and can help to enhance capitalism. Whilst a critical/revolutionary praxis aims to transform social relations and:

…ultimately to negate the socio-economic relations of capitalism, in order to create the possibility for the harmonious development of all humanity. (p. 59)

This “…opens up possibilities for critical agency in education…[and is]…premised upon an alternative, internally related (unity of) epistemology and ontology.” (p.59)

But in order to understand the alternative theories a general understanding of epistemology and ontology in educational practice and policy is necessary, Paula argues, particularly given the fact that most educators and policy makers do not recognise that these theories are implicit in their thinking. Within this conformist framework, knowledge is often seen as being unchangeable; it is a thing that is acquired and accumulated. It is this knowledge that teachers have to impart to students. Yet, the epistemology and ontology that arises from Marxist thinking is quite different, and as Paula says:

Marx’s epistemology begins with recognising that knowledge is historically specific and also never complete or finished. (p. 60)

Also, within this framework there are dialectical contradictions. Furthermore:

… these internally related contradictions produce mediations, such as the value form, which not only moves between the internally related opposites from which it has originated and the other contradictions that constitute the capitalist system but does so by metaphorising into other forms, such as the commodity, money and capital. (pp. 60-61)

Paula Allman says that with all this constant movement “…knowledge/knowing must move and develop accordingly.” (p. 61) Knowledge must be tested rather than acquired, it is the beginning rather than the end of learning and in this way it should be seen as a tool.

Paula says that Marx’s ontological vision:

…was for human beings to become the critically conscious creators, the ‘makers’, of human history. (p. 61)

She also talks about humans becoming themselves, in the essence of their ‘being’ – becoming humanised, and that this is achieved through a collective social process.

In future communist/socialist societies, infinite humanisation would be a major objective, fully supported such that individuals would be able to develop all the potentials of which they were capable. (p. 62)

Furthermore, that:

Any attempt to develop critical/revolutionary praxis within the context of capitalism is motivated by the understanding that the future possibility of a socially and economically just society depends on the unity, and thus reciprocity, of self and social/economic transformation. (p. 63)

Paula argues that critical/revolutionary praxis in education today is concerned with humanising the relation between ‘knowing’ and ‘being’. In this way it can be seen to be ‘on the road’ to the development of the whole person. Leading on from this, there is a need to end the division between teaching and learning, she says. Furthermore, in this regard, teachers need to change their understanding of and relation to, authority.

Through critical/revolutionary praxis the oppressed (that is those whose humanisation is thwarted) can see alternative ways of both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’. As Paula Allman says:

What it means to be a human being and for all people to be able not only to live as human beings but also to be able to develop their potentials more fully is also at stake, but then it always has been. (p. 66)

In conclusion, this section of Paula Allman’s book is very short (just 9 pages), but it is very important. It sends out a very clear message to all those educators that want to really contribute something towards the good of humanity and want to help to enable people through knowledge, learning, education and critical pedagogy to find lasting self-fulfilment. To achieve this, the adoption of an alternative epistemological and ontological frame of reference is necessary, Paula argues, and dialectical relationships need to be recognised and explored, and the traditional view of knowledge and understanding needs to be challenged. In sum, then, Paula provides a key, original and essentially optimistic contribution to the field of critical pedagogy, through her Marxist analysis of education.

2. ‘FULL OF VOLCANOES: LIBRARIES AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT’ (DE VOLCANES ILENA: BIBLIOTECA Y COMPROMISO SOCIAL)
CO-ORDINATED BY JAVIER GIMENO PERELLÓ, PEDRO LÓPEZ LÓPEZ AND MARIA JESŰS MORILLO CALERO, PUBLISHED BY EDICIONES TREA, SPAIN, 2007, ISBN 978-84-9704-317-5
http://www.trea.es/

PRESENTATION, CONTRIBUTORS AND ABSTRACTS

Leading on from item 16 in my last Update (19), here is some more information about this book. ‘Full of Volcanoes’ was successfully presented on Wednesday 17th October, at the Historic Library "Marqués de Valdecilla", Complutense University, Spain.

The following people participated in the presentation:

Jose Antonio Magan, Complutense University Library Director, introduced all the participants

Pedro López López and María Jesús Morillo - coordinators of the book
María Jesús del Olmo, - Alternative Library Movement Member
Blanca Calvo - Guadalajara Public Library Director
Carlo Frabetti - Spanish writer and a great friend and defender of public libraries.

Listed here are the names of all the contributors to the book.

Prologue: José Saramago
Presentation: Rosa Regás

Maria Jesús Morillo Calero, Rita Candame, Tatiana Carsen, Oscar Maya, Martin Vera, Ann Sparanese, Maria Jesús del Olmo Garcia, Javier Gimeno Perelló, Ruth Rikowski, Fernando Báez, Ramón Salaberria Lizarazu, Blanca Calvo Alonso-Cortés, Rosa San Segundo Manuel, Genaro Luis Garcia López, José Antonia Gómez Hernández, Javier Pérez Iglesias, Felipe Meneses Tello, Zapopan Martin Muela Meza, Pedro López López and Blanca Calvo

María Jesús Morillo also kindly provided me with abstracts in English for the different chapters in the book for these Updates, so that readers know a little more about the book – as unfortunately I cannot speak or read Spanish at all! These abstracts are below.

I: ETHICS AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT

1. The Commitment of Libraries and Librarians by Mª Jesús Morillo Calero (Spain)
This starts with an analysis about neutrality in librarianship as a position that lets some librarians obviate social commitment. However, far removed from this there is a progressive librarianship, almost unknown in Spain, that fights back against it.

2. Responsibility and Social Commitment of Information Professionals (Librarians, Information Managers, Archivists): a Latin American Perspective by Rita Candame (Argentina), Tatiana Carsen (Argentina), Oscar Maya (Mexico) y Martín Vera (Mexico).
The professional experiences of two autonomous and independent library communities from Mexico and Argentina are presented, with the creation of joint initiatives for the development of progressive librarianship in Latin America.
3. Some Reflections on Librarian Activism in the USA by Ann Sparanese (USA).
This chapter analyzes some of the lines and trends of the progressive activism among the American librarians, including the fight against racism, the war and censorship and in favour of democratic values.
4. Panorama of Web Resources on Progressive Librarianship by Mª Jesús del Olmo García (Spain).
This is a compilation of progressive librarianship internationally networked resources.

II: PRIVATIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE
5. Knowledge is Not a Commodity by Javier Gimeno Perelló (Spain)
This chapter considers how the birth of the WIPO (World Organization of the Intellectual Property) in 1996 supported the review of the Berne Convention, and consolidated the privatization and marketing of knowledge as a product.
6. Globalization, Libraries, Information and Social Commitment by Ruth Rikowski (Great Britain)
This chapter draws on some of the key aspects in her book Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the Implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements (2005), looking at issues such as the privatisation of public services and the commodification of services and intellectual property rights.

III: WAR DISASTERS

7. Libraries in War by Fernando Báez (Venezuela)
A historical tour is undertaken, revising the destruction of books, libraries, files and documentary patrimony in the warlike conflicts, from the most remote antiquity to the last plunders and destructions of libraries in Iraq and The Lebanon.

8. Libraries of a Republic in War or When the Gun of Today is a Guarantee for the Library of Tomorrow by Ramón Salaberría Lizarazu y Blanca Calvo Alonso-Cortés (Spain)
This chapter analyzes the librarian activity that began with the II Spanish Republic and continued during the Spanish Civil War, across the labor of institutions as Popular Culture and the Patronage of Pedagogic Missions, and of librarians as Juan Vicens, Tomás Navarro Tomás, Teresa Andrés, etc. All this immense labor was truncated with Franco's victory, which supposed the exile of hundreds of persons linked to these activities, as well as the destruction of an enormous diffusion of the culture and the libraries.
9. The 1939 Spanish Republican Exile of Librarians to Mexico by Rosa San Segundo Manuel (Spain).
When the Spanish Civil War finished, the Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas said that Mexico would take in exiled Spanish republicans. Approximately 50,000 Spanish exiles came to Mexico. A great number of Spanish librarians, bibliographers and bibliophiles went into exile to this country and developed an enormous labor practically unknown in Spain, with the foundation of publishing houses, presses and bookshops. In addition, Information Science's Schools were created, in which teachers of Spanish origin developed their work. Republican exiled librarians published great works in the area of Librarianship and Information Studies in Mexico.

10. The Right of Access to the Information of the Victims of Franco’s Regime: Does the Spanish Government Respect the Human Rights? by Genaro Luis García López (Spain)
This chapter studies the existing limitations in Spain to exercise in an effective way the right of free access to the public information on the part of the victims of the Franco's regime and the civil war, their relatives and representative associations.

IV: LIBRARIES FOR DIFFERENCE

11. Library and Integration: From Library Extension Work to the Processes of Social and Digital Inclusion by José Antonio Gómez Hernández (Spain)

This chapter provides a tour of the evolution of the extension work to coming to the current concept of the library as an element of social integration.

12. Libraries and immigrants: or how to look at our users without blinders by Javier Pérez Iglesias (Spain)

From the directives and definitions of institutions like IFLA and UNESCO, this chapter talks about the role of the library as public space open to all and working for the peace and the understanding of the people, as well as for the promotion of democratic values.

V: LIBRARIANSHIP FOR DEMOCRACY

13. Librarian-Political Analysis: Libraries, Democracy and Citizenship by Felipe Meneses Tello (Mexico)
This chapter articulates the library institution with the political phenomena of democracy and citizenship. It analyzes libraries and democracy across three complex interrelationships: 1] democracy, education and libraries, 2] democracy, educated citizenship and libraries and 3] democracy, active citizenship, common good and libraries.

14. Ehical Contradictions of the Social Responsibilities in Librarianship by Zapopan Martín Muela Meza (Mexico)

This work aims to be a critical analysis of some ethics and ethical contradictions and social responsibilities in the bosom of Librarianship. Information Professionals should assume social responsibilities towards the transformation of society, looking towards social equality, justice, and democracy, and away from the favours bestowed on the dominant, upper class.

15. Citizenship Education in Librarianship and Information Science: Spain and the European Space for Higher Education by Pedro López López (Spain)

This chapter defends the need to attend to the dimension of citizenship in the education of the students of Library Science.

APPENDIX:

The New Role of Librarians (Fernando Báez Speech)

3. ‘INFORMATION, SOCIETY AND JUSTICE’: A NEW PEER-REVIEWED OPEN-ACCESS E-JOURNAL, EDITED BY SHIRAZ DURRANI

A new e-journal has just been started up, which is entitled ‘Information, Society and Justice’. It is edited by Shiraz Durrani. See:http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/depts/dass/research/studentjournal/
(currently still under construction)Shiraz circulated the following information about the journal:
“Information, Society and Justice is a peer-review, open-access electronic journal based in the Department of Applied Social Sciences (DASS) at the London Metropolitan University. The journal is governed by an Editorial Board drawn from UK and overseas. It seeks to provide a proactive space for critical discussion of the linkages between social information, justice and democracy. It will focus on issues of equality, human rights, social inclusion, economic justice, and struggles for liberation and democratic expansion.The central role of information in these areas will be explored in depth. It will focus on the role that librarians and information workers together with libraries and information services can play in safeguarding, highlighting and communicating on issues such as equality, human rights, social/economic justice, social policy, and liberation. Creative work on these themes will also be considered.The journal will publish original research, communiqués, interviews, reports and other material on these and other fields. It is not limited to any one disciplinary perspective and will accept contributions from academics, professionals and information workers working in any disciplines.The journal invites relevant articles from academicians, policy practitioners, and civil society activists. It also encourages submission from students and their participation in the administration of the journal.ISJ is expected to be published twice a year. The first issue is expected to be published in November 2007.Manuscript requirements:Articles submitted to the journal should be your original work. Authors sending any work to us at the same time guarantee that the work does not break any copyrights laws or rules. You retain the copyright. We welcome the articles to be based on your personal experience and real-life stories. Work submitted should normally be between 1000-5000 words, but shorter summaries and reports will also be accepted. Please sign it with your full name and give contact address and e-mail. Every article should have a short title which indicates the scope of the article. Work can be submitted by e-mail as MS Word documents. Photographs and chartsillustrating the content are also welcome. The editorial board reserves the right to make changes to your work before publishing it. All submissions should meet requirements of London Metropolitan University’s policies on Equality and Diversity and plagiarism.

Articles should be submitted to Shiraz Durrani at s.durani@londonmet.ac.uk.”

The Editorial Board consists of Shiraz Durrani, Catherine Closet-Crane, Pawel Dziedzic, Nick Jones, Professor Ali Memon, Dave Percival, Mark Perkins and Usman Tar
This journal, then, should provide a very useful and welcome addition to the field, raising and promoting further issues related to information and social justice.

4. PAUL CATHERALL HAS STARTED UP A BLOG
http://journals.aol.co.uk/catherallp/praxis/

Paul Catherall has just started up a new AOL blog. He has called it “ ‘Praxis’: translating an idea into action”.

He introduces his blog in the following way:

“Firstly, welcome to my new Blog, where I hope to comment on issues of social justice as they arise. In the current UK climate, we must maintain a vigil on developments of domestic and foreign government policy which are shaped by the Neo-Conservative politic - characterised by the aggressive spread of global capitalism (as 'democracy') and the invasive transformation of society into a myriad of profit-based experiences. I am not a traditional socialist, but I hope that others reading this blog will wake up to the sheer injustices caused by the commodification agenda - transforming traditional tax-funded services like schools and hospitals into complex profit-based systems - leading to less accessible, less accountable, less affordable systems and ultimately the degeneration of society back to the dark ages of inequality, ignorance and servility.”

5. MARXISM AND EDUCATIONAL THEORY: ORIGINS AND ISSUES BY PROFESSOR MIKE COLE, ROUTLEDGE, 978 0 415 33171 5 9 (pbk) (£22.99); 978 0 415 33170 8 (hdbk) (£75.00)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marxism-Educational-Theory-Origins-Issues/dp/0415331706/ref=sr_1_3/202-4988115-3920669?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192365909&sr=1-3

Professor Mike Cole, a writing colleague and friend of Glenn Rikowski’s has a new book out on ‘Marxism and Educational Theory’. As it says in the publicity flyer:
“We live in a world where thousands make massive profits out of the labours of others, while those others exist as wage slaves, millions of whom die of starvation and poverty-related illness every year. The fundamental aim of Marxism is the overthrow of the anarchic, exploitative and eco-destructive system of world capitalism and its replacement by world socialism and equality.”
The following key areas are addressed: utopian socialism, poststructuralism and postmodernism, transmodernism, globalisation, neo-liberalism and environmental destruction, the new imperialism and critical race theory.

There is also a Foreword by Professor Peter McLaren.

6. UNIVERSITY OF THE AGEAN, RHODES, GREECE: WORKSHOPS FOR THE MA ‘GENDER, NEW FORMS OF EDUCATION, NEW FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INFORMATION AGE’
http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/genderstudies/postgrad/general-en.html

Dr Dionyssios Gouvias, Lecturer in Education Policy, Department of Pre-School Education and Educational Planning, University of the Agean, Rhodes, Greece, informed me about an interesting new innovative MA that has been set up at the university, which is entitled: “Gender, New Forms of Education, New Forms of Employment and New Technologies in the Information Age.”

The programme has as least three innovative features, thereby bringing the Greek academic and professional world on a par with other European institutions. These innovations cover: the Content (interdisciplinary approach to knowledge), the Organisation and the Teaching Methodology (combination of e-learning and conventional meetings).

The university is running a series of thematically organised workshops on special topics relating to the programme’s main areas of study. This is being organised and run by recognised scholars specialising in each topic.

The workshops focus on the following topics:
1. Gender and New Forms of Employment in the Age of Globalisation
2. Gender and New forms of Education in the Age of Globalisation
3. Gender and New Technologies in the Information Age

The workshops consist of presentations, discussions, group work and various other activities (decided by the presenters themselves) and covers both theoretical and empirical research.

N.B. Dr Dionyssios Gouvias gave a paper at a ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues’ seminar, held on 3rd May 2006 on the theme ‘Universities plc?’, that Glenn Rikowski ran with Tony Green at the Institute of Education, University of London.

7. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY WORKING GROUP BASED AT THE INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE, KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/schools/social_science/ISS/critical_pedagogies/index.shtml

An important working group on Critical Pedagogy has been set up at the University of Kingston. As it says on the website:

“ ‘Critical Pedagogies’ is a working group based in the Institute for Social Science [University of Kingston] that aims to explore the meaning, practice and possibilities of critical pedagogies in the classroom and beyond. It grew out of a movement within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to revitalise traditions of critical social science within the university. It is also part of a wider, international project to re-imagine what undergraduate education is and is for, and to reconnect pedagogical debates to political and ethical concerns.”
We were very pleased to discover that the section of this website entitled ‘External Resources’ includes a link to our website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’. It also includes links to the individual contributions of Henry Giroux, Ilan Gur-Ze’ev, Douglas Kellner and Peter McLaren. See:
http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/schools/social_science/ISS/critical_pedagogies/resources/index.shtml
Meetings, reading circles, symposia and discussion papers are held regularly. The meetings are open and all are welcome to join the ‘Critical Pedagogies’ group.
For more information, contact Dr. Sarah Amsler at s.amsler@kingston.ac.uk

8. CHANDOS CATALOGUE
Chandos Publishing has a new catalogue out on books for ‘Library and Information Management’ – Autumn 2007. If anyone would like an electronic copy of this, do contact me, and I will email you one.

9. PAUL CATHERALL’S REVIEW OF RUTH RIKOWSKI’S BOOK ‘GLOBALISATION, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES’, OXFORD: CHANDOS PUBLISHING, 2005, ISBN 1 854334 084 4 (pbk); 1 84334 092 5 (hdbk)
Paul Catherall has written a very positive, detailed and, in my view, insightful review of my globalisation book, which was published in New Library World: charting new developments, International Library Education, Vol. 108, No. 1/2, 2007 (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do;jsessionid=D219B5C267221FBD471074471CB10E86?containerType=Issue&containerId=24514)
Paul says that: “This book provides an in-depth and yet accessible treatise on the implications of globalisation as represented by the impact of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on public services.” (p. 92).
Paul also considers my work on the knowledge economy and intellectual labour saying that I illustrate “…how in the modern world, intellectual labour is central to our economic system … [and] … links the ‘knowledge revolution’ of intellectual production and modern information industries to the success of the global economy, illustrating how the WTO is attempting to transform intellectual property and public services into international tradable commodities.” (p. 93).
He concludes by saying that “The book is very ambitious and attempts to provide us with ‘the big picture’ on the forces at work on the international scene that are driving the corporate takeover of public services.” (p. 96)

Different versions of Paul’s review of my book are also available on the web at Amazon.co.uk (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Globalisation-Information-Libraries-Organisations-Professionals/dp/1843340844/ref=sr_1_5/202-9016388-9242256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192021694&sr=8-5) and Information for Social Change (see http://libr.org/isc/occasional_papers/Rikowski.html)

Another hard copy version was also published in Impact, the journal for the Career Development Group of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) in 2006 and Paul wrote a short piece for Ymlaen, the Career Development Wales Group of CILIP’s newsletter (Issue 8, Summer 2006) .

10. ‘NEW TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS ON ACADEME’ – A REVIEW OF ‘TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY: AN ACADEMIC LIBRARIAN’S GUIDE’ BY J.M. WILLIAMS AND S. GOODWIN, OXFORD: CHANDOS PUBLISHING, ISBN 978 1 84334 172 7 (PPBK); 978 1 84334 173 4 (HDBK), £39.95 – REVIEWED BY RALPH ADAM

Ralph Adam (on CILIP London Committee) has written a positive review of a book that I commissioned for Chandos publishing, which has been published in this months issue of CILIP Update – November 2007, Vol 6 (11), p. 44. Ralph Adam says: “This book has appeared at just the right moment – and is very welcome. It describes technologies for enhancing library education (in both formal teaching and enquiry-desk work), filling the gap between teaching manuals and technology guides.”

11. POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION – GROWING SUCCESS: TO BE PUBLISHED 6 TIMES A YEAR!
Policy Futures in Education grows from strength to strength, with more and more high quality articles being submitted. So much so that it will now be published six times a year, starting from next year (2008). This is in contrast to the four issues a year that have been published since it started, in 2003. Three issues for 2008 are already in production (which obviously includes the issue that I am co-editing with Isaac Hunter Dunlap on ‘Digital Libraries’).

12. HISTORICAL MATERIALISM FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Historical Materialism Conference 2007: School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, WC1, 9-11 November 2007

This is the Fourth Annual Historical Materialism Conference held in conjunction with the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize Committee and the Socialist Register. It will take place between 9-11 November, 2007 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. The conference continues its interdisciplinary thread and allows the participants to choose among a wide range of parallel workshops from different disciplines and topics which include, among others:

Labour (Comparative Case Studies of Working Class and Trade Unions, Theoretical Debates on Mobilisation and Labour Process Theories, Rural Labour Relations, Social Movements)History (Russian Revolution, Spanish Revolution, Absolutism and Bourgeois State, Pre-capitalist Modes of Production)Political Economy (Finance and Capital, Value Theory and Capital, Grundrisse Anniversary, Contemporary Capitalism, Borders and Political Economy of Development, Africa and Dispossession, World Economy, Neoliberalism and Resistance, Commodity Chains)Philosophy (Materialism and Philosophy, Modalities of Political Power, Althusser, Re-reading Gramsci)Culture (Marxism, Art and Institutions, Critical Film Studies, Debord and Society of Spectacle, Ideology and Utopia, Art and Politics)International Relations (Defining the International, Geopolitics, IR and Gramsci, Israel-Palestine)Marxism and.... (Marxism and Postcolonialism, Marxism and Law, Marxism and Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Class and Education) A special room will be devoted to selected film screenings which will take place during three days of the conference. Confirmed speakers include:Bashir Abu-Manneh, Gilbert Achcar, Christine Achinger, Edward Acton, Aijaz Ahmad, Brian Alleyne, Sabah Alnasseri, Christopher J. Arthur, Sam Ashman, Maurizio Atzeni, Sedat Aybar, Sarah Badcock, Giorgio Barratta, Luca Basso, Asef Bayat, Jonathan Beller, Riccardo Bellofiore, Ana Cecilia Bergene, Henry Bernstein, Rakesh Bhandari, Andreas Bieler, Sophie Béroud, Jacques Bidet, Robin Blackburn, Chris Bolsmann, Paola Bonifazio, Derek Boothman, Atilio Boron, Mark Bould, Stephen Bouquin, Robert Brenner, Andrew Brown, Tom Bunyard, Ray Bush, Alex Callinicos, Paul Cammack, Liam Campling, Gavin Capps, Giuseppe Caruso, John Chalcraft, Lorenzo Chiesa, Andrew Chitty, Simon Clarke, Alex Colas, Gareth Dale, Neil Davidson, Gail Day, Tim Dayton, Massimo de Angelis, Radhika Desai, Ana Dinerstein, Paolo dos Santos, Antoni Domenech, Albert Domingo, Fernando Duran, Andy Durgan, Steve Edwards, Tony Elger, Gregory Elliott, Ferdan Ergut, Mauro Farnesi, Ben Fine, Donald Filtzer, Roberto Fineschi, Carl Freedman, Alan Freeman, Gregor Gall, Heide Gerstenberger, Melanie Gilligan, Andrew Glyn, Hugh Goodacre, Jonathan Goodhand, Jamie Gough, Peter Gowan, Volker Gransow, Diego Guerrero, Peter Hallward, Jane Hardy, Chris Harman, Graham Harrison, Barbara Harriss-White, David Harvie, Owen Hatherley, Mike Haynes, Micheal Head, Michael Heinrich, Renate Holub, Richard Hyman, Makoto Itoh, Peter Ives, Donna Jones, Patrick Keiller, John Kelly, Mick Kennedy, Laleh Khalili, Jim Kincaid, Jeff Kinkle, Gal Kirn, Sharon Kivland, Sam Knafo, Onur Suzan Komurcu, Michael Kraetke, John Kraniauskas, Hannes Lacher, Rocco Lacorte, Mark Laffey, Spiros Lapatsioras, Costas Lapavitsas, Ching Kwan Lee, Esther Leslie, Norman Levine, William Lewis, Renzo Llorente, Dic Lo, Domenico Losurdo, David Mandel, Giacomo Marramao, David McNally, George Meramveliotakis, Alessandra Mezzadri, Keir Milburn, John Milios, Owen Miller, Toby Miller, Dimitris Milonakis, Kim Moody, Fred Moseley, Rastko Mocnik, Simon Mohun, Adam Morton, Kevin Murphy, Mike Neary, Michael Neocosmos, Paolo Novak, Benjamin Noys, Carlos Oya, Bryan Palmer, Silke Panse, Ilan Pappé, Simon Pirani, Anna Pollert, Moishe Postone, Nina Power, Ozren Pupovac, Devi Sacchetto, Mõkkel Bol Rasmussen, Mike Richards, Glenn Rikowski, Spyros Sakellaropoulos, Jyoti Saraswati, Hajime Sato, Ben Selwyn, Helena Sheehan, Stuart Shields, Subir Sinha, Bev Skeggs, John Smith, Tony Smith, Panagiotis Sotiris, Gaspar Tamas, Benno Teschke, Adrien Thomas, Peter Thomas, Massimilano Tomba, Alberto Toscano, Greg Tuck, Vanessa Ushie,Kees van der Pijl, Elisa van Waeyenberge, Fabio Vighi, Mike Wayne, Tunde Zack Williams, Paul Willis, Jane Wills, Frieder Otto Wolf, Tony Wood, Owen Worth, Leo Zelig, Slavoj Zizek.

The conference has become an important event on the Left, providing an annual forum to discuss recent developments on the agenda of historical materialist research by scholars, researchers, students and activists from different continents. Online registration is now available. Prices are suggested donations but as the conference receives no other funding they encourage all - including paper givers - to register now. See: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2007.htm

Glenn Rikowski will be speaking at the conference on Marxist Educational Theory Unplugged.

13. LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SUPPLIERS (LMS) AT CILIP
On Friday 9 November 2007, from 09.00am - 16.00pm, 12 library management suppliers (LMS) will be talking about their library computer management systems, providing demonstrations and responding to questions from participants at the HQ of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), at 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE.A list of the suppliers is available at:http://www.cilip.org.uk/training/suppliers/sss/lms207.htm
The session is free. To register, click here:http://fs3.formsite.com/cilip/form822887713/index.html
All visitors on the day will also be entered into a free prize draw to win a New Apple iPod nano 8GB kindly donated by IS Oxford, designer of the Heritage Library Management System.

This seems like a very good opportunity to me, to compare and contrast the advantages, disadvantages, level of customer support and functionality of different library computer management systems. LMS’s are costly, so the more information that can be gathered prior to making that all-important decision can surely only be to the good, particularly given that I.T. is now so much part of our everday life. Saying ‘no’ to the purchase of a library management system is not a possibility for most library managers today. The advantages to be gained are tremendous of course, but there is still much room for improvement, particularly in regard to customer support. This applies to the computer industry in general, in fact. This is something that we all need to be more aware of and seek to make companies more accountable. We must always be mindful of the fact that organisations in capitalism are essentially about value creation and profit-making, and customer care and support is and always will be, very much secondary (at least) to this agenda. But by exercising some pressure, we can improve the situation in some ways.

14. STATISTICS ON OUR WEBSITE, ‘THE FLOW OF IDEAS’ – DOING WELL, AND CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOMED
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/

The statistics on our website are doing well (by our standards anyway!), averaging over 100 visits a day, and were up to around 150 a day in the summer. If anyone is interested in writing a piece for it, or contributing in some other way, then do let us know!

15. JOHN BOND’S FUNERAL
A very dear friend of mine passed away a few weeks ago (on 22nd September 2007). His name was John Thomas Bond. He was 91 years old, so in that way, something to celebrate, I guess, rather than feel sad about. But obviously, it is still difficult when one loses someone like that. I went to the lovely, personal and open funeral service that took place on Thursday, 11th October 2007, at the Friary, The House of the Divine Compassion, where he lived for the last few years of his life. Some of the service was held in the spirit of the Society of Friends – the Quakers. There were some 70 people there. John’s favourite saying was ‘The best is yet to be’. John – we wish you well on your journey. You are irreplaceable, a light in our life, seeking social justice and providing hope, joy and peace as well as being a magnet to so many.

I spoke about John in the piece I wrote about my parents, that is now available on our website. It is entitled ‘Stanley and Mabel Turney and the Peace Pledge Union: experiences of being bought up in a family advocating peace’ and is available at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Turney%5ba%5ds%20and%20PPU

16. MUSIC4PEOPLE SUMMER SCHOOL
Finally, to end on a nice, cheerful note, here is some uplifting musical news!
Virginia Rushton, who runs the ‘Second Chance’ choir that I am now a member of, has been involved in writing a new opera, entitled ‘Brushwork’ for ‘Music4People’. ‘Music4People’ is a new organisation that was set up in 2007 to widen access to quality musical activities for adults. The focus, in particular, is to provide musical opportunities for those people who, for whatever reason, were not able to engage more fully with musical activities earlier in their lives.

‘Music4People’ will be having annual, weekly residential Summer Schools (to be held in the first week of August) and the first one will be held next summer at Giggleswick School in the Yorkshire Dales, from 2nd-9th August 2008. ‘Brushwork’ which is a comic opera and was inspired by a variety of historical portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, will be performed at this workshop.

This sounds like a very exciting project to me - opening up musical creativity and enabling more people to be able to enjoy and participate in music. If you want to know/find out more – do contact me.

Many thanks to Maria Jesús Morillo Calero, Shiraz Durrani, Paul Catherall, Mike Cole,
Dionyssios Gouvias, Clare Hardcastle and Virginia Rushton for providing information for items 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 13 and 16 respectively.

Thanks also to Paula Allman for reading the draft version of this, and for her comments in regard to item 1.

Best wishes,
Ruth

30th October 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 19th News Update

2009-03-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Ruth Rikowski, News Update No. 19

I expect you are wondering what has happened to me, after such a long silence. Well, summer ‘took over’ and my life seemed to be full of so many other things, that there just was not time to do these Updates. Anyway, here we are again, with quite a lot of material in Update No. 19, and there is likely to be quite a lot more material in the next Update as well!

The first four items focus on ‘Marxism and Education’, and includes information about Paula Allman’s latest book ‘On Marx’. This is followed by details about the latest issue of Information for Social Change. Then, there is information about the magazine Axiom, which is another magazine that Graham Coult edits. This magazine is about people and business development in the legal profession. A look at the work of David Gurteen follows, including the David Gurteen Knowledge Cafes and Knowledge Letters. The winter issue of Policy Futures in Education is already out, and details of this are outlined. There is also information about the book ‘Full of Volcanoes: Libraries and Social Commitment’ - I have a chapter in this book. All this and more is included in this Update.

1. MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES X
Glenn Rikowski has been organising these very successful seminars at the Institute of Education, University of London (with some help from Tony Green) for 5 years now. Well, after having given this some considerable thought he has decided that it is time to delegate and move on, so this will be the last one that he organises.

Below are details of MERD X.

MARXISM AND EDUCATION:
RENEWING DIALOGUES X

Ten Years of New Labour: Blair’s Educational Legacy and Prospects

A DAY SEMINAR
Wednesday 24th October 2007
9.00 – 5.00, Nunn Hall
School of Education Foundations & Policy Studies
University of London, Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way, London WC1

9.00 – 9.30:
Registration

9.30 – 10.00:
Introduction and Announcements:
Tony Green (University of London, Institute of Education) and
Glenn Rikowski (University of Northampton) – will talk about the new book by Paula Allman, On Marx: An Introduction to the Revolutionary Intellect of Karl Marx

10.00 – 10.30:
Ian Hextall (Roehampton University) & Malcolm Richardson (Middlesex University) Building for Business? New Labour’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ Programme

10.30 – 11.00:
Molly Bellamy (Middlesex University) Changing Narratives of Self in Student Writing Under New Labour

11.00 – 11.15:
BREAK

11.15 – 11.45:
Alpesh Maisuria (University of Wolverhampton) The Torture of Capitalism

11.45 – 12.15: Martin Allen (Alperton Community School) & Patrick Ainley (University of Greenwich) Education Still Make You Fick Under Gordon Brown, Innit?

12.15 – 1.15:
LUNCH

1.15 – 1.45:
Dave Hill (University of Northampton) Critical Pedagogy, Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy and Socialist Education: What Should Socialist/Marxist Teachers Do?

1.45 – 2.15:
Thaker Hafid (Cardiff University) The Privatisation of Education Phase II: Perspectives on state schools and the private sector after ten years of a Labour government

2.15 – 2.30:
BREAK

2.30 – 3.00:
Philip A. Woods (University of Aberdeen) City Academies: Alienation, Economism and Contending Forces for Change

3.00 – 3.30:
Kevin Farnsworth (University of Sheffield) Coming up with the Wrong Answers: Labour’s Corporate-Centred Education Initiatives

3.30 – 4.00:
Terry Wrigley (University of Edinburgh) Curriculum Change in the Blair Years

4.00 – 4.15:
BREAK

4.15 – 5.00:
PLENARY – OPEN DISCUSSION

The Seminar is free, but places are limited
To reserve a place, please contact Glenn Rikowski at: Rikowskigr@aol.com

2. PALGRAVE SERIES ON ‘MARXISM AND EDUCATION’
Leading on from these ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogue’ seminars, Glenn Rikowski and Tony Green secured a book contract with Palgrave Macmillan. In time, the plan is that there will be a book on each of the seminar themes, with papers from all of the seminars. The edited collections will be published as part of the Series, along with some monographs.

Over the last few years, Glenn Rikowski has been endeavouring to not only revitalise Marxism and Education, but to move it forward. Glenn’s work on Marxist educational theory is particularly significant in this regard. This Series helps to put the whole topic of ‘Marxism and Education’ very much back on the agenda.

3. OFFERS TO ORGANISE FUTURE ‘MARXISM AND EDUCATION’ SEMINARS?
If anyone is interested in continuing the good work and organising future ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues’ (MERD) seminars with Tony Green, at the Institute of Education, University of London do please contact Glenn Rikowski at: rikowskigr@aol.com

4. ‘ON MARX: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE REVOLUTIONARY INTELLECT OF KARL MARX’ – BY PAULA ALLMAN AND PAULA ALLMAN’S OTHER WORKS

Paula Allman, a writing colleague and friend of Glenn Rikowski’s has a very good, new book out on Marx, which is the first in a new series that is edited by Professor Michael Peters and Tina (A.C.) Besley entitled ‘Key Critical Thinkers in Education’, Sense Publishers: The Netherlands, 2007 (ISBN 978 90 8790 192 9 (paperback).

As it says on the back cover of the book:

“On Marx introduces readers to the greatest intellect of the last millennium. …Marx provides unparalleled understanding and clarity as well as inspiration for engaging collectively in a type of praxis that holds the promise of both self and socio-economic transformation. We all live in the world of global capitalism, and no one has explained better than Marx how capitalism works, how it develops—now and in the future—and the consequences to be expected from the unfolding of its inner contradictions—from the growth of global poverty, the widening gap between the rich and the poor to the proliferation of endless war and environmental destruction.”

Paula also demonstrates the significance of Glenn Rikowski’s work in her book and how he has not only helped to keep Marxist educational theory alive, but has also developed and continues to develop it further, particularly through his analysis of labour-power. He sees the commodity labour-power as being the weakest link in the rule of capital. She says that after 1989, with the collapse of ‘actually existing socialism/communism’, those educators that still wanted an alternative analysis of education took one of four routes. The first two routes revolved around structuralism and culturalism. Whilst “The third and fourth routes involved a return to Marx, i.e. the entirety of Marx’s thought rather than only the early or the mature Marx.” (p. 57) The fourth approach is her own which focuses on developing critical/revolutionary praxis. Whilst the third approach revolves around the work of Glenn Rikowski. She says that “Rikowski (e.g. 1996; 2003) has undertaken a valuable critique of what he calls the ‘old Marxist theory of education’ and has begun to develop a new Marxist approach to theorising education/training based on analysing labour-power in capitalism. His analyses focus on the ways in which education/training practice and policy serve to meet capitalism’s changing needs with regard to labour-power, capital’s most essential commodity; and he also considers the ways in which capital invades and dehumanises individuals through the processes that constitute them as labour-power” (pp.57-58).

See:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/9087901925/

And: http://www.sensepublishers.com/ (Then go to the ‘Online Book Store’ and type in ‘Paula Allman’ in the search box)

The book is the first book in the series, ‘Key Critical Thinkers in Education’. The series focuses on reviving critical approaches and thinkers in educational theory, including the work of Rousseau, Marx, Gramsci, Dewey, Marcuse, Rogers, Freire, Derrida, Foucault, Said and Butler.

OTHER BOOKS BY PAULA ALLMAN

Paula Allman has 2 other very significant books out on Marx, Education and Critical Pedagogy.

Her first book was Revolutionary Social Transformation: Democratic Hopes, Political Possibilities and Critical Education, published in 1999 (hardback, ISBN 089789667X) and 2001 (paperback) by Bergin & Garvey.

For the paperback version see amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolutionary-Social-Transformation-Democratic-Possibilities/dp/0897898036/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/202-4988115-3920669?ie=UTF8&qid=1191746729&sr=1-3

The book is summarised there in the following way:

“The author employs both "a language of critique" and "a language of possibility" to argue that the process of social transformation must be inherently educational. Social transformation begins in prefigurative, preparatory projects and continues even after the creation of a new social formation. She also argues that Marx's materialist theory of consciousness - his theory of critical praxis - informs the thinking of both Freire and Gramsci. The ideas of Freire and Gramsci together with Marx's dialectical conceptualization of capitalism provide essential ingredients for the type of critical theory of educational praxis necessary for authentic social transformation. These ingredients also indicate how local transformative efforts can be linked to the global project for social transformation and ultimately the ending of all oppression.”

Glenn Rikowski wrote an amazon.co.uk review of Paula’s first book, but it no longer seems to be there! However, he also wrote another review which was published in Education for Social Justice (2000, Vol.2 No.3, pp.60-64).

On amazon.com, the book is praised in the following way by eminent observers:

“...provides an important addition to the libraries of educators wishing to advance their rudimentary understanding of Marx, Freire, and Gramsci.”–Interchange“...the text may be useful to those not yet familiar with the power, breadth and vision of Marx's analysis.”–Philosophy in Review“...Paula Allman's book is a tour de force. It is rigorous, it provides deep knowledge of Marx, Gramsci, and Freire, and it is inspiring in the use of these three figures' ideas to promote radically democratic social relations.”–The Adult Education Quarterly "This is a well-argued book containing a radical analysis of injustice and how we must organize ourselves collectively to eradicate it. It emphasizes that we need both consciousness and education if we are to work for transformation rather than reform. A thoughtful new presentation of Marxist ideas based upon the author's own experience in education, emphasizing the importance of the struggles that lie ahead." - Right Honorable Tony Benn MP (House of Commons, London)"A welcome and timely antidote to the ludic temporising of much fashionable 'postmodern theorising' about education for social change in today's world....It shows us how to be strategic about our visions and visionary about our strategies." - Ian S. Martin, Senior Lecturer Department of Community Education, University of Edinburgh"What Paula Allman does - systematically, authoritatively and, in my opinion, triumphantly - is to reinsert Marxist theory at the heart of the contemporary debate about radical education. A detailed reading of Marx, Gramsci, and Freire and of their contribution to revolutionary transformation. Allman, as ever, is principled and hopeful." - Jane Thompson National Organisation for Adult Learning (NIACE) UK

At: http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Social-Transformation-Democratic-Possibilities/dp/0897898036/ref=sr_1_2/105-6800208-2635649?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191747457&sr=1-2

Paula’s second book, Critical Education Against Global Capitalism: Karl Marx and Revolutionary Critical Education, was published in 2001, also by Bergin & Garvey (ISBN 0-89789-743-9). According to Glenn Rikowski, this work constitutes the best book on Marxist educational theory published ever – and he has been studying this field for 30 years! Rather than starting out from Gramsci and Freire (as in her first book) this second book approaches Marxist educational theory and critical education through Karl Marx. There is also a chapter on Paula’s own practice as a critical educator.

At amazon.com, reviews on this book include:

“Allman draws on Marxist theory to analyze dominant or hegemonic forms of pedagogy, as well as to offer suggestions for an alternative vision of "critical revolutionary praxis." Specifically, Allman applies Marx's theory of dialectical contradiction to a Freirean model of pedagogy, which she argues is crucial to challenging the processes and forces of capitalist globalization.”– Educational Theory "Paula Allman's book is beyond doubt one of the most important and possibly THE most important of all contemporary texts in education. It will be a classic. I can't think of an educational text that can match it in importance. Amazing!" - Peter McLaren Professor, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of C California, Los Angeles and author of ‘Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and The Pedagogy of Revolution’

See: http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Education-Against-Global-Capitalism/dp/0897897439/ref=sr_1_1/105-6800208-2635649?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191747457&sr=1-1

Together, Paula Allman’s three books have established her as the world’s leading writer on Marx and critical education.

5. LATEST ISSUE OF ‘INFORMATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE’ IS NOW OUT – see: http://libr.org/isc/toc.html

‘LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION WORKERS IN CONFLICT SITUATIONS’ EDITED BY TOMI SAMEK AND MARTYN LOWE
Issue 25, Summer 2007

Contents:

Editorial: Libraries and Information Workers in Conflict Situations edited by Martyn Lowe and Toni Samek

Opening poem “It is our time to tread our own path”
by Sara Plaza Moreno

“Memoricide” in the twentieth century by Edgardo Civallero (Feature article)

A probing treatment of military recruitment and misinformation and the responsibility of libraries to low-income youth by Anna Kirkpatrick

An Indonesian case look at information’s role in emergent democracies by Zola V. Maddison

A discussion of where social justice and librarianship meet in the context of international librarianship, activism, and the tough subject of truth commissions by Sergio Chaparro

An annotated list honoring American librarians who have dedicated themselves to human rights and the cause of social justice by Katharine J. Phenix and Kathleen de la Peña McCook

An introduction to Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam by Sara Masters

Cultural property in times of conflict by Richard Saltzburg

Introduction to the Civil Resistance & People Power web based annotated bibliography, covering all aspects of the various nonviolent struggles for independence, social justice, and human rights that have taken place throughout the world since the end of WWII by Martyn Lowe

On truth, power, human rights information, and the Internet as court of last/only resort by Clay Collins (feature article)

Ellie Clement’s and Alison Cullingford’s important storytelling of David Hoggett and the Commonweal Collection, a precious, unique, independent, specialist library devoted to non-violent social change.

6. “A ‘PASSIONATE CALL TO ARMS’” – A REVIEW OF TONI SAMEK’S BOOK ‘LIBRARIANSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS’ BY JOHN PATEMAN
John Pateman, a member of Information for Social Change Editorial Board, has written a very positive review of Toni Samek’s book ‘Librarianship and Human Rights: a twenty-first century guide’, Chandos Publishing: Oxford, 2007, which was published in CILIP Update, October 2007, Vol 6, No 10, p. 45. John Pateman says: “Inspiring, affirming, activating, energising, I ran out of superlatives to describe this book. If you are a library worker who wants to change the world, read it today – because tomorrow may already be too late.”

7. AXIOM MAGAZINE EDITED BY GRAHAM COULT

Graham Coult, the editor of Managing Information, now also edits another magazine, which is entitled ‘Axiom’ – see:
http://www.axiom-magazine.co.uk/

‘Axiom’ is a magazine about people and business development in the legal profession.

The magazine includes articles, case studies and interviews from leading experts in a variety of fields, including business development, marketing and PR. It also includes news, a calendar of relevant events and book reviews.

In summer 2006, ‘Axiom’ changed from being a quarterly print to a monthly electronic publication.

‘Axiom’ also has a newsletter, which contains many interesting and useful news items.

The August 2007, Issue 50 newsletter of ‘Axiom’, for example, contained a number of interesting news items such as:

1) ‘Rights For Cohabitees Would Give Children Better Deal’ - DWF Press Release (3 August 2007) – this news item highlights the fact that according to the law firm DWF:“Thousands of children from broken homes could get a better start in life if changes to the rules on co-habitation go ahead”.

2) ‘Employers’ Obligations During Lack Of Water Supply - Advice From Rickerbys’ (27 July 2007) This news item referred to the fact that people in Gloucestershire were without water in the summer, and noted that, according to guidance issued by Rickerbys, under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, there are certain obligations placed on employers in relation to the provision of water and sanitary conveniences at work.
If you would like to be added to the distribution list for the newsletter, email Graham Coult - grahamcoult@blueyonder.co.uk,
with 'Add Recipient Axiom Magazine’
Subscription to Axiom magazine – a single user subscription is £140.00 per 12 months plus VAT. There are also multiple user licensing options.

Axiom magazine and its web site are owned by Ourebi Ltd, Editorial and Publishing Services. There are three directors of Ourebi Ltd, and five shareholders. The Chairman and Managing Director is Graham Coult. editor@axiom-magazine.co.uk
Members of the Ourebi Ltd team are also involved in the production of Managing Information magazine, its web sites, and the web site of Aslib the Association for Information magazine.

8. DAVID GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE CAFES AND KNOWLEDGE LETTERS
David Gurteen is a very high profile and significant figure in the world of Knowledge Management (KM). KM conferences can be very expensive, but David endeavours to make KM available to all interested people, and this is what attracted me. This is surely what KM should partly be about – the free and easy exchange and flow of information and knowledge etc.

As it says on David Gurteen’s website, David Gurteen is an “independent knowledge advisor, educator and coach”. He “helps people to share their knowledge; to learn from each other; to innovate and to work together effectively to make a difference!” David is also the founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community, which is a “global learning community for people who are committed to making a difference: people who wish to share and learn from each other and who strive to see the world differently, think differently and act differently.”

What has been of particular interest to me has been the Gurteen Knowledge Cafes and Letters.

Gurteen Knowledge Cafes
As it says on the Gurteen website, “Gurteen Knowledge Cafés are learning communities…Their purpose is to bring people together to learn from each other in order that they may make a difference…The outcome for the participants is what they take away as individuals that they can act on and do differently - immediately!”The cafes are held in several cities around the world. Meetings are held regularly and are free. Participants take it in turns to organise events – arranging and facilitating talks and sessions on a wide variety of themes and booking rooms etc.
I have attended many of the knowledge cafes in London, and have found them very enjoyable and stimulating. It has given me the opportunity to speak to a wide variety of people in the KM world.

I also organised and spoke at a Knowledge Café at London South Bank University on the topic of ‘What is the meaning of Value?’ - see
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/X0008BE66/

Whereas the Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for knowledge workers. Any interested people can subscribe to it. It contains a lot of very useful information, on areas such as KM, learning, creativity and the Internet. The knowledge-letter is sponsored by the Knowledge Management Forum of Henley Management College, Oxfordshire, England.

The September 2007, Issue 87 Gurteen newsletter, included this interesting news item, for example:

Knowledge Metaphors can mislead usRefers to Daan Andriessen giving a keynote talk in Barcelona, Spain, at the 8th European Conference on Knowledge Management, on 6-7 September 2007. The talk was entitled ‘Knowledge As Love; How Metaphors Direct Our Efforts to Manage Knowledge in organizations’.David Gurteen said that in the talk Daan:

“…made the point that we use metaphors to make sense of the world and the terms ‘knowledge management’ and ‘intellectual capital’ were such metaphors. When we speak of ‘knowledge management’ we use a ‘resource’ metaphor to help describe knowledge and when we use the term ‘intellectual capital’ we use a ‘capital’ metaphor. Daan explained that metaphors are indispensable for conceptualization and understanding. However, we need to be aware that metaphors highlight certain things and conceal others. For example, the ‘knowledge as a resource’ metaphor ignores the fact that knowledge is subjective and difficult to elicit.”
David found it fascinating, so following on from the conference he conducted some video mini-interviews with some of the conference participants including Daan and asked them "What is your favorite knowledge metaphor". He also ran a Knowledge Cafe on the theme.
The knowledge newsletter can be copied, reprinted or forwarded in all or part to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and David Gurteen is attributed.

David Gurteen also has a section on his website for articles and publications, and he includes information about various KM books that have been published. David kindly added a link to the book on Knowledge Management that I have edited - "Knowledge Management - Social, Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives” - see
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/S592025/
(further information about the book is in my signature below)
Additional information about David Gurteen and the work that he undertakes can be found at:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/about-dg

9. ‘SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY AND POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS’ BY GREGORY RIKOWSKI

This essay is now available on our website. It looks at the philosophers Thomas Hobbs (1651) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762) and how their views on how social contract theories account for our political obligations. See:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Social%20Contract%20Theory%20and%20Political%20Obligations

10. WINTER 2007 ISSUE OF POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION IS ALREADY OUT!
Policy Futures in Education has received such a large number of high-quality articles that it has resulted in the early publication of the winter 2007 issue! It is available at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/5/issue5_4.asp

POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION (ISSN 1478-2103)Volume 5 Number 4 2007

JOSEPH AGASSI & RONALD SWARTZ
Educating Elites in Democratic Societies: a dialogue

RICHARD KAHN & DOUGLAS KELLNER
Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich: technology, politics and the reconstruction of education

ANDREA LIESNER
Governmentality, European Politics and the Neo-liberal Reconstruction of German Universities

COSTAS AGGELAKOS
The Cross-thematic Approach and the 'New' Curricula of Greek Compulsory Education: review of an incompatible relationship

INGRID HENNING LOEB
Development and Change in Swedish Municipal Adult Education: occupational life history studies and four genealogies of context

TOMAS HELLSTRÖM
The Varieties of University Entrepreneurialism: thematic patterns and ambiguities in Swedish university strategies

TIMOTHY MURPHY
Jack Mezirow and Perspective Transformation: toward an understanding of Irish educational policy within a European framework

PAUL THEOBALD & JIM KNOTWELL
A Communitarian Critique of the Warfare State: implications for the twenty-first-century university

GRAHAM E. HIGGS & JOHN BUDD
Toward an Authentic Ethos for Online Higher Education

AYBEK GOREY
Inequity in the Australian Education System

ANA CANEN
Multiculturalism and a Research Perspective in Initial Teacher Education: possible dialogues

LINDA J. GRAHAM
Towards Equity in the Futures Market: curriculum as a condition of access

ANTHONY GREEN
Neoconservatism English-style: back to the future with remoralizing voices for education?

KENT DEN HEYER & ANDREW PIFEL
Extending the Responsibilities for Schools beyond the School DoorBook

Reviews

Declining by Degrees: higher education at risk (Richard H. Hersh & John Merrow, Eds), reviewed by Casey E. George-Jackson

Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey: modernities and the traveling of pragmatism in education (Thomas S. Popkewitz, Ed.), reviewed by Seamus Mulryan

Access to the full texts of current articles is restricted to those who have a Personal subscription, or those whose institution has a Library subscription.

However, all articles become free-to-view 18 months after publication.
For all editorial matters, including articles offered for publication, please contact Professor Michael A. Peters (mpet001@uiuc.edu).
Any concerns re a subscription, or difficulty in gaining access to the journal articles, please contact the publishers at support@symposium-journals.co.uk

11. GLENN RIKOWSKI’S TALK AT THE “MIGRATING UNIVERSITY: FROM GOLDSMITHS TO GATWICK” CONFERENCE AT GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

This was a conference held at Goldsmiths College, University of London on
14 -15th September 2007. Glenn Rikowski spoke in the Panel 2 session on “The Challenge of Critical Pedagogy” on Friday 14th at 2.00-4.00.

Glenn Rikowski produced a paper especially for the conference, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society, which can be viewed at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Critical%20Pedagogy%20and%20Capitalism

12. GLENN RIKOWSKI TALKING AT UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON

Glenn Rikowski will also be talking at the Education for Freedom Conference organised by the Education Not For Sale Network (formerly the Campaign for Free Education) on Sunday 21st October 2007 at the University of East London Docklands Campus. The conference starts at 11.30 (registration) and after keynote talks from Professor Dave Hill and Dr. Glenn Rikowski there will be workshops on the following: radical visions for education; education, alienation and the environment; students in struggle internationally (Iran, Zimbabwe); sex education; and the case for free education.

Glenn’s talk will be on Education and the Realm of Freedom.

For further details, contact: robsivapalan@hotmail.com

13. CERTIFICATE OF LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION (CLTHE)
I suddenly find myself studying for the ‘Certificate of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education’ (CLTHE) at London South Bank University. The ‘powers that be’ have deemed that it is something that might be beneficial to me! (although I have now been teaching in higher education for 6 and a half years, but so be it). A portfolio of work has to be submitted, which includes items such as a response to a diversity scenario, a book review and a critique of one of the university’s policies

14. WORDS ON WISDOM: PROFESSOR BRUCE LLOYD’S MASTER CLASS
Professor Bruce Lloyd led a discussion on ‘Leadership and Wisdom’ on the 1st March 2007, in the Abbey Conference Centre. Bruce Lloyd’s talk covered issues such as, what is wisdom, why is it important for leadership, how is it learnt and why is it ignored?

The event was attended by Faculty Alumni, Staff and members of our ‘Friends’ organisation at London South Bank University and there was an interesting discussion and informal networking.

The event was part of the master-class series set up for the Friends of the Faculty.

This was reported in ‘BCIM (Faculty of Business, Computing and Information Management) Enterprise Newsletter’ (of London South Bank University)

Bruce Lloyd has a chapter on Knowledge Management and Wisdom in the Knowledge Management book that I edited in 2007 (further details in my signature below).

15. ‘DIGITAL LIBRARIES’ – NOW IN PRODUCTION
The special issue for ‘Policy Futures in Education’ that I am co-editing with Isaac Hunter Dunlap on the topic of ‘Digital Libraries’ is now in production. It will be published in the first quarter of 2008. The contents can be viewed at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_1.asp

16. ‘FULL OF VOLCANOES: LIBRARIES AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT’ (DE VOLCANES ILENA: BIBLIOTECA Y COMPROMISO SOCIAL)
CO-ORDINATED BY JAVIER GIMENO PERELLÓ, PEDRO LÓPEZ LÓPEZ AND MARIA JESŰS MORILLO CALERO, PUBLISHED BY EDICIONES TREA, SPAIN, 2007, ISBN 978-84-9704-317-5
http://www.trea.es/

I had a lovely surprise in the post this month – 4 copies of this book, ‘Full of Volcanoes’!! This book includes a chapter by me on ‘Globalisation, Libraries, Information and Social Commitment’. My chapter summarises some of the main points made in my book ‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries’ (further details in my signature below). This is the first time that my work has been published in a book in another language (in Spanish), so all quite exciting! My work has been published and promoted in various Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Finish and Icelandic) in different journals, but this is a first, in a book! The hope now is that, at some point, the whole book can be translated and published in English.

The title of the book comes from a poem by the Chilean poet Pabló Neruda:
“I shall not die
I step out now
In this day full of volcanoes
Towards the multitude
Towards life”

17. A MEMBER OF ‘SECOND CHANCE’ CHOIR
Here is something different – I have just joined a choir. It is called ‘Second Chance Choir’. This led on from the Wanstead House event that I participated in, in the summer. The person who ran that project, Virginia Rushton (Founder and Director of Operahouse Music Projects), also runs this choir, and now I am enthusiastically singing along with them all. One very exciting plan is for us to sing Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ along with other choirs at the Royal Albert Hall, next May.

Best wishes

Ruth

7th October 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 18th News Update

2009-03-29T08:00:00.001-07:00

Eighteenth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI

1. NEW ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’ WEBSITE

The ‘Managing Information’ website has recently been redesigned and is looking very good! See: http://www.managinginformation.com/

2. LATEST ISSUE OF ‘POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION’ IS NOW OUT

The latest issue of Policy Futures in Education is now out and is available at: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/5/issue5_3.asp
POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION (ISSN 1478-2103)Volume 5 Number 3 2007

SPECIAL ISSUE Political Socialization, Childhood and Education: cross-national perspectives

Guest Editors: RUSSELL FARNEN & HEINZ SÜNKER

Introduction, pp. 275-277

Russell F. Farnen. Class Matters: inequality, SES, education and childhood in the USA and Canada today, pp. 278-302
Heinz Sünker and Thomas Swiderek. Politics of Childhood, Democracy and Communal Life: conditions of political socialisation and education, pp. 303-314
David Hemson. The Toughest of Chores: policy and practice in children collecting water in South Africa, pp. 315-326
Daniel German and Caitlin Lally. A Profile of Americans' Media Use and Political Socialization Effects: television and the internet's relationship to social connectedness in the USA, pp. 327-344 Claudia Schertges. Political News and Political Consciousness,
pp 345-356
Dirk Michel. Life-Long Political Socialization, Consciousness and Political Agency in Israel Today, pp 357-372Kariane Westrheim and Solvi Lillejord. A Zone for Deliberation? Methodological Challenges in Fields of Political Unrest, pp. 373-385Linda Shepherd. Exposure to Community Violence and Political Socialization Among Adolescents in Northern Ireland, pp. 386-400

REVIEW SYMPOSIUMThe Access Principle: the case for open access to research and scholarship (John Willinsky) reviewed by Fides Datu Lawton, Cushla Kapitzke and Garett Gietzen, with an introduction by Michael A. Peters and a response by John Willinsky, pp. 401-423

Access to the full current articles is only obtainable by subscription – either by a Personal or Library subscription.

However, all articles become free-to-view 18 months after publication.Personal subscriptions automatically include free access to ALL past issues.

Personal subscriptions can be obtained immediately, upon payment.
For further information see: www.wwwords.co.uk/subscribePFIE.asp

LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION (institution-wide access). For those working within an institution that maintains a Library, you can ask them to purchase a Library subscription so access is provided throughout your institution; full details for libraries can be found at
www.symposium-journals.co.uk/prices.html

For all editorial matters, including articles offered for publication, please contact Professor Michael A. Peters (mpet001@uiuc.edu).

In the event of problems concerning a subscription, or difficulty in gaining access to the journal articles, please contact the publishers at support@symposium-journals.co.uk

3. Dr. MIKE NEARY OBTAINS A NATIONAL TEACHING FELLOWSHIP
Mike Neary, a friend and academic collaborator of Glenn Rikowski’s has just obtained a National Teaching Fellowship. There is a report about this, with a very nice picture of Mike in the Times Higher Education Supplement of 6th July 2007, p. 7. Altogether 50 people were selected for National Teaching Fellowships, by the Higher Education Academy.

Mike won the award for the significant work he has done encouraging and enabling undergraduates to undertake research. He is a Reader in Sociology at Warwick University, and with a colleague he set up the ReInvention Centre for Undergraduate Research at Warwick – see: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/current/reinvention/.

From 1st September 2007 Mike will be taking up a new position as Chair, Professor of Teaching and Learning at University of Lincoln, and Dean with responsibility for teaching and learning across the university

4. ‘RSS FOR LIBRARIES’: ANOTHER SIRSIDYNIX EVENT
Below is information about another SirsiDynix event which looks very interesting and useful.
News item from SIRSIDYNIX:
“Free your content! RSS for Libraries
Presented by:
Paul Pival - Distance Education Librarian, University of Calgary, and
Meredith Farkas - Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University
Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11 a.m. - noon Eastern / 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. Pacific
RSS feeds - for the Library User and the Library Professional

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for syndicating content on the Web. It's a common thread behind almost all social technologies. Blogs, wikis, social bookmarking sites, Flickr, podcasts, and many other Web 2.0 sites all have RSS feeds that allow consumers to receive content without having to visit the site where the content actually lives. RSS separates content from presentation, allowing the content to be reused in multiple places and combined with other content to create unique resources. Another great feature of RSS is that it's actually easy to utilize, even for people with little technical background.

Register below to take part in this FREE webinar.
Paul and Meredith will describe what RSS is and how to use it in a variety of ways in libraries: to make it easier for users to find out about your collections and programs, to push subject-related content to patrons, and to publish dynamic content on a variety of pages. There are many tools that make generating RSS feeds, subscribing to RSS feeds, displaying RSS feeds, and mixing RSS feeds an incredibly simply proposition for those with little technical knowledge. In addition, the presenters will show you how to use RSS to easily keep up with the topics you are interested in without having to visit multiple Web sites each day.

Register for this SirsiDynix Institute webinar at:
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=sirsi%2C197760%2Cb40hkJW7%2C1607781%2Cb9TVkCL
Archive of previous SirsiDynix Institute events. See: http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=sirsi%2C197760%2Cb40hkJW7%2C778441%2Cb9TVkCL.
You can check out past events at any time.
For more upcoming 2007 SirsiDynix Institute events, go to http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=sirsi%2C197760%2Cb40hkJW7%2C831086%2Cb9TVkCL.”

5. AUGUSTINE ADJEI UNDERTAKING A DISSERTATION ON KM AND CULTURE
A masters student of mine from London South Bank University, Augustine Adjei, is going to undertake his dissertation on Knowledge Management and Culture, which is an area that I wrote a lot about in the KM book that I edited in 2007, (see my signature below for further information about the book and Update No. 17 for further information about the Culture section of the book specifically). Adjei has asked me to be his supervisor, which obviously, I am very happy to do.

6. PAINSWICK LIBRARY IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE: AN UPDATE BY PHILIP BOOTH
Philip Booth inserted the latest information about Painswick Library on his Ruscombe Green blog on 18th July 2007 – see http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com/

Philip informs us that the District Council at Cabinet approved a £20,000 grant towards the Painswick Gateway project a couple of weeks ago in an endeavour to keep the library open. Whilst Philip is pleased that these funds have been made available, he is disappointed that the fund is not larger. Also, he makes the point that the service should ideally be provided by the whole County rather than the District Council. Philip also provides some background information from Stroud District Council Cabinet papers. As he makes clear, in 2005 Gloucestershire County Council reviewed the long-term provision of libraries across the County. From this, it was decided that Painswick Library would close in 2009. Then, in April 2006 a ‘Friends of Painswick Library’ (FPL) was set-up in an endeavour to ‘save’ the library service. The FPL considered how the building could be better integrated with the assets managed by St Mary’s Church (to the back of the Library) for the benefit of the village as a whole.

A core group of the FPL was established and it concluded that Painswick should purchase and bring the various buildings together for different community and other uses. It also recommended that an independent charitable Trust be set up.

As I have said on previous Updates, Philip has also been linking the threat posed to Painswick Library to wider, global issues, and in particular, linking it to my book on Globalisation and Libraries.

So, the Painswick campaign continues – let us hope that the library can, indeed, be saved in some shape or form, whilst at the same time, we need to remain ever mindful of the bigger picture.

7. REVIEW BY HELEN RADUNTZ OF ‘DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT’ BY CHRISTOPHER MAY, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2007
ISBN 10 1843341247’; 13 9781843341246. See:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Rights-Management-Information-Professional/dp/1843341247/ref=sr_1_15/202-0537876-0486205?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184783635&sr=1-15

Dr. Helen Raduntz informs me that she has reviewed ‘Digital Rights Management: the problem of expanding ownership rights’ by Christopher May, for a forthcoming issue of ‘Library Review’- see: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/035/2007/00000056/00000002;jsessionid=e6xmqyp9pyd.henrietta

Helen says:
“I have nothing but praise for May’s lucid presentation in his book ‘Digital Rights Management: The Problem of Expanding Ownership’, not only in providing a holistic account of the political economy of Digital Rights Management, but also for charting the interrelationships of which the deployment of DRM is a part. As an important critical evaluation of current trends in the development and deployment of ICTs and the social implications, it is a book that I have no hesitation in recommending.”Many thanks to Philip Booth and Helen Raduntz for providing information for items 6 and 7 respectively.

Best wishes
Ruth

Ruth Rikowski's 17th News Update

2009-03-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Ruth Rikowski News Update No. 17

This Update is by way of another special issue, this time focusing on my work on Knowledge Management and the Knowledge Revolution. This includes both the talks that I have given and my published work on the topic.

TALKS GIVEN BY RUTH RIKOWSKI ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND THE KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION

TALKS GIVEN IN 2001

1) Gave a special lecture to MSc students at Kingston University, on Knowledge Managment and the Knowledge Revolution, 13th June 2001. Based on my 2 articles in Business Information Review, 2000 (see published articles section below)

2) Spoke at the Open University, to library and information staff
Talk entitled Looking ahead in the information world, on 27th September 2001. Talk focused on I.T. and KM issues for the library and information profession in the future
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:w7w9dadWFwAJ:library.open.ac.uk/aboutus/seminars/2001.html+ruth+rikowski+and+open+university&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8

TALKS GIVEN IN 2002

3) Spoke at ASLIB Knowledge Management Conference. Talk entitled: The role of the informational professional in KM initiativesConference entitled Mobilising Knowledge for Business PerformanceHeld at Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 8th May 2002.Talk based on a paper that later became a published article in Managing Information, May 2003 (see published articles below)

4) Gave a special lecture on Information Management and Knowledge Management in the Knowledge Economy to MSc students at Kingston University on 20th May 2002Talk based on my 2 published articles in Business Information Review in 2000 (see published articles below)

TALKS GIVEN IN 2003

5) Gave a talk at the Library and Information Show, Excel, Docklands on The Role of the Information Professional in Knowledge Management, 1st May 2003Based on my article in May 2003 issue of Managing Information (see published articles below)

TALKS GIVEN IN 2004
6) Gave a talk at the 'Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues' seminar held at The Institute of Education, University of London, on 5th May 2004. Theme of the seminar -'Education and the Labour Process'Talk entitled: On the impossibility of determining the length of the working day for intellectual labour Talk based on my article in Information for Social Change, Summer 2004 (see published articles below)7) Gave a talk at Birkbeck College, University of London - Marx, Individuals and Society Seminars, Winter 2004. Talk entitled: On the impossibility of determining the length of the working-day for intellectual labourTalk based on my article in Information for Social Change, Summer 2004(see published articles below)
8) Gave a talk on The Meaning of Value at London South Bank University, at a David Gurteen Knowledge Cafe on 7th September 2004. I considered various meanings of value and then asked participants to consider what they thought value meant. I concluded by saying that I think we need to return to a Marxist analysis of value, and that value is always being referred to in knowledge management circles - the need to extract value from knowledge. However, this value can only ever ultimately be derived from labour - and mainly from intellectual labour - and so we need to return to Marx. Furthermore, that we need to differentiate between subjective and objective definitions of value
See: http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/X0008BE66/

TALKS GIVEN IN 2005

9) Gave a special lecture to the MBA students at London South Bank University on 18th April 2005, on Leadership in the New Economy: extracting knowledge and ideas from intellectual labour - a Marxist perspective (This paper subsequently became a chapter in a book edited by me Knowledge Management: Social, Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives – Ch 3 – see below)

TALKS GIVEN IN 2006

10) Gave a talk entitled The creation of value from knowledge. Part of a workshop on ‘Value Theory in the Knowledge-Based Economy’, held at Lancaster University on 5th-6th April 2006.Based on 2 articles of mine: one in Information for Social Change, Winter 2004 and one in Policy Futures in Education, 2003 (see published articles below)

11) Gave a talk entitled On the impossibility of determining the length of the working-day for intellectual labour at the Workshop on ‘Work and the Knowledge-Based Economy’ at Lancaster University, held on 12th-13th July 2006Talk based on my article in Information for Social Change, Summer 2004 (see published articles below)Interesting feed-back followed on from the talk, particularly from Professor Bob Jessop, including various quotes from Marx about intellectual labour.
Both these talks formed part of the Knowledge-Based Economy Programme held at Lancaster University, 2005-2006, for the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS)http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ias/annualprogramme/kbe/index.htm
Dr Steve Fleetwood, KBE Programme Director - s.fleetwood@lancaster.ac.uk
For general information about the IAS and its activities, contact:Professor Bob Jessop, IAS Director - r.jessop@lancaster.ac.uk

12) Gave a guest lecture to Masters student (MSc in Information Systems/MSc Electronic Commerce) at Kingston University on the topic of The Creation of Value from KnowledgeOn 4th April 2006Talk based on my article ‘Creating Value from Knowledge in the Knowledge Revolution’, published in Information for Social Change, Winter 2004(see published articles below)

PUBLICATIONS BY RUTH RIKOWSKI ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND THE KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION
ARTICLES – both online and hard copy

2000
1) The knowledge economy is here - but where are the information professionals? (Part 1) Business Information Review, September 2000, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 157-167. See:http://bir.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/3/157

2) The knowledge economy is here - but where are the information professionals? (Part 2), Business Information Review, December 2000, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 227-233. See:http://bir.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/4/227

2002
3) Studying Knowledge Management at Masters level, with particular reference to South Bank University Managing Information, Nov 2002, Vol. 9 No 10, pp. 56-57

4) Knowledge Management References Managing Information, Dec, Vol. 9, No. 10

5) Studying Knowledge Management at Masters level, with particular reference to South Bank University (this is a longer online version of the article in Nov 2002 issue), Managing Information
http://www.managinginformation.com/knowledge_management/intro.htm

2003
6) Value - the life blood of capitalism: knowledge is the current key, Policy Futures in Education, Vol.1, No.1, 2003, pp. 163-182
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=pfie&vol=1&issue=1&year=2003&article=9_Rikowski_PFIE_1_1&id=195.93.21.68

7) The role of the information professional in knowledge management: the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for the information professional? Managing Information, May 2003, Vol. 10, No 4, pp.44-47

2004
8) On the impossibility of determining the length of the working-day for intellectual labour, Information for Social Change, Summer 2004, Iss 19
http://libr.org/isc/articles/19-R.Rikowski-2.html

9) Creating value from knowledge in the knowledge revolution Information for Social Change, Winter 2004, Iss 20
http://libr.org/isc/articles/20-R.Rikowski.html

BOOK

Knowledge Management: Social, Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives Chandos Publishing, Oxford, 2007,ISBN 1 84334 139 5Foreword by Professor Deian Hopkin, Vice-Chancellor, London South Bank University
Contributors include:Bob Bater, Isabelle Cabos, Paul Catherall, Bruce Lloyd, Ruth Rikowski, Leburn Rose and Mandy Webster

http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=67
This book focuses on various aspects of KM - including social, political and philosophical perspectives; practical perspectives and theoretical perspectives. It includes chapters about KM and intangible value, KM and wisdom, the role of the library in KM, accessibility issues for web-based information systems and thermodynamics and knowledge.Orders to: Turpin Distribution Services Ltd, Stratton Business Park, Pegasus Drive, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. SG18 8TQ Tel No. +44 (0) 1767 604951 Fax No. +44 (0) 1767 601640 Email: custserv@turpin-distribution.com
The book includes several chapters by me:
Chapter 3: ‘Leadership in the knowledge revolution: an Open Marxist theoretical perspective and analysis
Chapter 11: Knowledge Management: an Open Marxist theoretical perspective and analysis
And
All of Part 3: Cultural Perspectives:
Chapter 6: Knowledge Management within and across cultures and cultural theories
Chapter 7: Knowledge sharing and organizational learning in the developed and the developing world
Chapter 8: Knowledge Management: internal, external and social cultures
Chapter 9: An Open Marxist theoretical analysis of knowledge management within and across cultures

N.B. If anyone wants hard copies of any of my published articles then just get in contact with me and I will send you the relevant copy (ies). Also, if anyone wants copies of any of my published articles in MI (in 15th News Update), then just let me know.

Best wishes,
Ruth

16th July 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 16th News Update

2009-03-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

Sixteenth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI

This Update consists of profiles of the contributors to the Knowledge Management book that I have edited, and a selection of information news items.

1. REVIEW OF TONI SAMEK’S BOOK, ‘LIBRARIANSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS: A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GUIDE’ BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
A full-page spread of my review of Toni Samek’s book, Librarianship and Human Rights, Chandos: Oxford, 2007 [ISBN 978 1 84334 146 8 (pbk); 978 184334 198 7 (hbdk)] is in the June issue of Managing Information, Vol. 14, No. 5, p.56.

A slightly longer version of my review is also available on our website - see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Librarianship%20and%20Human%20Rights

2. EVENT FOR THE BOOK ‘KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES’ EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2007.
ISBN 978 1 84334 139 0 (pbk); 978 1 84334 189 5 (hdbk)

There has been such a lot going on in my life that, unfortunately, organising a book launch for this KM book that I edited never saw the light of day! Yet, many important issues have been raised in the book, which need to be discussed further. Thus, I am planning to hold an event in the autumn. This will take the form of a discussion/forum, which will give each of the contributors an opportunity to say something about their chapters. The short talks will be followed by a discussion. Once the arrangements have been finalised further information about the event will be circulated in these Updates.

3. PROFILES FOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE BOOK - ‘KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES’ EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2007
I have decided to take this opportunity to include some information about the different contributors to this KM book. Thus, profiles for the different contributors are outlined below.

BOB BATER
Bob trained initially as an industrial chemist, then later as an information scientist. He has played a variety of roles, working in the chemical, engineering and aerospace industries. In particular, he worked for 8 years as an IT manager and information manager in the National Health Service. He left the NHS in 1994 and formed his own company, providing advisory and development services in knowledge management.

Bob is Principal Associate of InfoPlex Associates which provides advice and development services in Information and Knowledge Organisation
- knowledge mapping, metadata schemas, ontologoies, taxonomies, thesauri, topic maps – across many different types of organisations in both the public and private sectors. He is also Director of Development at KnowPlexity Limited, which is a new company established to provide high quality e-learning materials in all aspects of KM.

Bob Bater’s website can be seen at:
http://www.infoplex-uk.com/

Bob has various publications on KM, including quite a few articles in Managing Information (he also used to be one of my book reviewers for MI). Some examples of his publications are listed below.

KM: a model approach, Managing Information, Vol 6, No 8, October 1999

Cataloguing electronic resources: wise up or dumb down?, Managing Information, 2000, Vol. 7, No. 4, p. 36

Knowledgeware: fact or fancy!. Part 3: Navigating Knowledge, Managing Information, Oct 2002, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 42-45

‘KM in the Legal Profession: leveraging knowledge for enhanced profitability’ (2006). A report in the ‘Knowledge and Insight’ Series, in Association with Ark Group, publisher of Inside Knowledge magazine (formerly called Knowledge Management). See:
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:674sD-HG_wUJ:www.skyrme.com/pubs/kmlegal.htm+bob+bater+and+law+article&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8

Third Order Knowledge Mapping’, a paper presented to the NKOS Workshop in Vienna, September 2005. Available at: http://www2.db.dk/nkos2005/Bob%20Bater.pdf

ISABELLE CABOS
Isabelle has worked on the assessment of macro and micro sustainable development issues for the European Parliament, the European Commission and the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. She has a degree in environment and economics, and is now involved in the development of corporate responsibility issues at the European Investment Bank.

Isabelle has a number of published works on related KM subjects. These include:
Working document providing guidance to the UN CSD expert group on ISD for the preparation of the CSD 7 on The relationships between indicators of sustainable development. Benchmark of methods to links and aggregate economic, environmental and social indicators to evaluate policies of sustainable development (UN CSD, 1999)

Co-author of Towards environmental pressure indicators for the EU. Report covers 10 of the policy fields developed in the 5th Environmental Action Programme of the Commission: Air pollution, Climate Change, Loss of Biodiversity, Marine Environment and Coastal zones, Ozone Layer depletion, Resources Depletion, Dispersion of Toxics substances, Urban Environment Problems, Waste, Water Pollution and Water resources. It describes the pressure exerted by human activities on the environment. (ISBN 92-828- 4978-3) (DG environment / Eurostat, 1998)

Contributed to the SCOPE 58 edited by Bedrich Moldan and Suzanne Billharz Sustainability Indicators, ISBN 0471-97352-1 (UNEP, 1997)

Author of a pilot study on Indicators of Sustainable Development following the methodology and the framework of the Commission on Sustainable Development of the United Nations for the Earth Review II (June 97). The report presented Economic, Social, Environmental and Institutional indicators, indicating the purpose of the measure, a short methodological description, data available at EU-15 level, comments on the context and the trend observed. (ISBN 92-827-9828-3, 134 pages). (Eurostat, 1996-1997).

Author of European Parliament working documents on The Common Market Organisation of fruit and vegetables, The Common Market Organisation of wine, The Common Market Organisation of banana, and Glossary of the Common Market Organisation, 1994-1996.

PAUL CATHERALL
I inserted information about Paul in my 6th News Update, so will not repeat that information here! However, it did not include information about Paul’s published articles, so a few examples of these references are listed below.
Career Development in a non-traditional library role: some personal reflections. Information for Social Change, No. 19, Summer 2004 (also published in Ymlaen, Wales CDG newsletter, Autumn 2004) http://libr.org/isc/articles/19-Catherall-1.html
Influences in E-Learning: forces for change or confusion? Information for Social Change, No. 19, Summer 2004 http://libr.org/isc/articles/19-Catherall-2.html
Starting to write for the Information Sector, some experiences. Information for Social Change, No. 22, Winter 2005 http://libr.org/isc/issues/isc22/22-11.pdf
An overview of Grounded Theory following attendance at the London Grounded Theory conference with Barney Glaser 24th-26th April 2006 (internal NEWI paper), 2006. Available at: http://draigweb.co.uk/elearning

Furthermore, Paul has a lovely book of poems (also illustrated by him) –
‘Foibles, Frolics and Phantasms: Illustrated Poems (1995- 2005)’, (2006) Baltimore, PublishAmerica. ISBN: 1424113997.
I have reviewed this book. See:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Foibles,%20Frolics%20and%20Phantasms

PROFESSOR BRUCE LLOYD
Bruce spent over 20 years in industry and finance before joining the academic world a decade ago to help establish the Management Centre at what is now London South Bank University.

He has a degree in Chemical Engineering and a MSc (Economics) / MBA from the London Business School. He obtained his PhD (by published work) in 1996 for his work on 'The Future of Offices and office Work: Implications for Organisational Strategy'.

His experience of industry included time with BP and the Commonwealth Development Finance Company, where he was concerned with investing in small companies in various parts of the world. During the 1980's he also spent sometime with ICI plc assisting in their New Ventures programme, particularly in Billingham.

Over the past twenty years he has been involved on the Executive of the Strategic Planning Society and as a Council Member of the (now) Chartered Management Institute. He was a member of the latter's Advisory Board for a research project on 'Leadership: A Challenge for All' and was involved in a development of that project which was specifically concerned with leadership issues in the public sector. He was also involved in a study on the future of the Professions that was being undertaken by the Royal Society of Arts. He has been actively involved, as a past Chairman, with the Association of MBA's.

Since the late 1960's he has written extensively on a wide range of strategy related issues, such as 'Economies of Scale', 'Energy Policy', 'The Future of Offices and Office Work', the link between Power, Responsibility, Leadership and Learning (including an article 'Leadership and Power: Where Responsibility Makes the Difference', in 'Coaching for Leadership: How the World's Greatest Coaches Help Leaders Learn', Edited by Marshall Goldsmith, Laurence Lyons and Alyssa Freas, Jossey-Bass (2000)) and more recently he has been exploring the relationship between Wisdom and Knowledge Management.

He has undertaken over 30 interviews with leading thinkers on leadership published in 'Leadership and Organizational Development Journal', as well having done other interviews for the 'Tomorrow Project Bulletin'. This included an interview with Lyndsay Rees-Jones at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) on epublishing, which was published in the March 2002 issue (pp. 6-7). He was the UK co-ordinator for 'The Millennium Project' operated by the American Council for the UN University 1999-2005.

His present interests focus on lecturing, researching and writing on Strategy and Futures related areas.

Dr LEBURN ROSE
Lee is Head of the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Foundation Studies at London South Bank University. He worked for several years in manufacturing and engineering before moving into academia. Lee is deeply committed to teaching, with a portfolio that now includes management education in information technology and business. Furthermore, he also taught on the MSc in knowledge management systems at London South Bank University. This is how I first connected with Lee – I also taught on this course. His PhD is in the area of economic evaluation of human platelet cloning.

Lee also spoke at the book launch for my globalisation book. For a full report of the book launch (including a summary of Lee’s speech) see:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Full%20Report%20Ruth%20Rikowski%5ba%5ds%20%20Book%20Launch%20for%20Globalisation,%20Information%20and%20Libraries

Lee is very enthusiastic about writing and developing new ideas. His chapter in this KM is his first published work, and I very much hope that it will lead on to many more publications by him, which would be of benefit to many, I feel sure.

MANDY WEBSTER
Mandy gained her law degree at the University of Nottingham and an MA in librarianship at Loughborough University. For the lat ten years she has been the library and information services manager at Browne Jacobson LLP, working as a legal information specialist. This work has included developing intranet resources, online services and information skills training. Her previous experience includes working in academic sector libraries and research and National Health Service information services.

4. WRITING FOR THE LIBRARY PROFESSION: A SIRSIDYNIX EVENT
I used to work for Dynix (a library software company), which has now merged with Sirsi, to form SIRSIDYNIX (See: http://www.sirsidynix.com/Solutions/Products/integratedsystems.php).

I periodically receive news items from the company. This news item on ‘Writing for the Library Profession’ looked particularly interesting, so information about this is included below.

NEWS ITEM FROM SIRSIDYNIX

“The session will be presented by:
Stephen Abram - Vice President of Innovation for SirsiDynix and
Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute

Judith A. Siess - Expert in one-person librarianship and
interpersonal networking

On Tuesday, July 10, 2007, 11 a.m. - noon Eastern / 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. Pacific

Do you Have Something Important to Say?

Do you want to inform and influence your colleagues? Do you have a story to
tell? Have you done something innovative that delighted your users? We do not have a paucity of ideas and innovation in libraryland – we do have a problem with diffusion. We need to share our ideas and experiences more. From blog postings, to periodical and newsletter articles, to Web site content, and even to books, library staff are increasingly being asked to write. With the dynamic and rapid change happening in our sector, we have an increasing obligation to share our knowledge and experiences. It's an exciting time to be in libraries.

Register now to take part in this FREE webinar.

This SirsiDynix Institute brings together two library leaders, authors, bloggers, and journalists to share their secrets and tips. Both share the experience of putting together this year's bestselling Out Front with Stephen Abram. Judith Siess's latest book is The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries. The two authors’ blogs are among the most popular, “Stephen's Lighthouse” and “OPL Plus” (not just for OPLs anymore). Both share their knowledge, insights, and opinions openly. Want to know some of the secrets? With all of the great innovations happening around the world in libraries, we have to start sharing more. If we don't take our candles out from under the basket, who will?

Stephen’s Blog: Stephen’s Lighthouse, http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/
Judith’s blog: OPL Plus (not just for OPLs anymore), http://opls.blogspot.com/

Register for this SirsiDynix Institute webinar at:
https://events.livemeeting.com/SirsiDynix071007Reg.htm

If you have missed previous SirsiDynix Institute events, or are unable to make this one, we have an extensive archive posted at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php. You can check out past events at any time.

Read about more 2007 SirsiDynix Institute events at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/ “

N.B. My I.T. background, work experience, publications and talks will be a topic for a future News Update.

5. MARX AND THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN BY GLENN RIKOWSKI
In October 2000, Glenn Rikowski presented a paper at the 'Marx, Individuals & Society' Seminar at Birkbeck College, University of London, entitled Marx and the Future of the Human.
An edited and much shorter version of this paper went on to be published in Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory (Vol.11 No.2, pp.121-164) in 2003. This was entitled: ‘Alien Life: Marx and the Future of the Human’.
The full and original paper is now available for the first time at The Flow of Ideas web site, at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Marx%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20the%20Human

6. ‘MANAGING STRESS AND CONFLICT IN LIBRARIES’ BY SHEILA PANTRY
Sheila Pantry (who also used to be one of my book reviewers for Managing Information) has a new book out, and she asked me if I would circulate information about it. Thus, the press release for it is below. It certainly looks like a useful book!

“PRESS RELEASE 21 June 2007

SHEILA PANTRY ASSOCIATES LTD
Managing stress and conflict in Libraries
by Sheila Pantry OBE BA FCLIP
Facet Publishing: London, 2007; ISBN 978-1-85604-613-8
Stress and conflict in the workplace undermines performance and can make people mentally and physically ill, and research indicates that ever-increasing numbers of people are experiencing excessive pressure of this kind – including aggression and abuse – in our rapidly changing world of work.

This applies to libraries and information organizations as much as anywhere; indeed they can be particular targets for verbal and non-verbal violent behaviour, through their accessibility to the public, and there are also employees of such organizations who are suffering, often in silence, from aggression, bullying and harassment from a work colleague.

Tackling – and preventing – conflict and stress effectively is a legal responsibility for management, and can result in significant benefits for the organization in terms of recruitment and retention, employee commitment, performance and productivity, customer satisfaction, organizational image and reputation, and avoidance of potential litigation.

Managing Stress and Conflict in Libraries defines clearly what should and should not be tolerated in a healthy and safe working environment, and introduces the reporting procedures and communication skills leading to conflict resolution, enabling both employees and managers to consider situations consistently based on risk assessment previously carried out. The chapters in the book cover:

· Current health and safety concerns
· Are you at risk?
· The business case
· Risk assessment procedure
· Advice, guidance and legislation
· Taking action to solve interpersonal conflict
· Dealing with aggression and violence
· Support to be expected inside and outside the organization.

Also included are case studies, a glossary of health and safety terms, and sources of further information, including relevant legislation.

This book is essential reading for employees at all levels, and also for managers, team leaders, supervisors, personnel and human resources staff, complaints officers, union officers and anyone else in the information organization who may be called upon to deal with people.

Sheila Pantry OBE BA FCLIP manages an independent information services consultancy and electronic publishing business, including websites. She has had a long and varied career in information management in a range of industry sectors, and also in government as Head of Information Services for the Health and Safety Executive. She specializes in worldwide occupational health and safety information and is an experienced trainer, writer, editor and lecturer.

All titles available at 20% discount to Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals members.Remember to quote your Membership Number if claiming the discount.

Facet Publishing, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE, UK www.facetpublishing.co.uk
Available from Bookpoint Ltd, Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD.Tel: +44 (0)1235 400400. Fax: +44 (0) 1235 832068/861038. Email: orders@bookpoint.co.ukFurther information - email: sp@sheilapantry.com

7. THE OCKRESS by VICTOR VERNE RIKOWSKI
The ‘Ockress’ is an epic tale by Victor Rikowski set in PowerPoint format. In action, content and storyline Victor thinks it can be compared to Wagner’s ‘Ring’ and the operas’ comic-book-like drama, (Richard Wagner being Victor’s favourite composer). The Ockress demonstrates human characters in super-human situations. It is a fantasy, semi-autobiographical story of adventurers, heroes, Gods long dead and Gods reborn in different forms. The detail within the plot embraces an altogether universal approach, in its enormity and expansiveness and it is dealing once more with essentially human issues.

Victor is currently investigating the possibility of inserting The ‘Ockress’ on the web. If anyone would like to know more about this, and/or would like to see a sample of the material and/or would like a demonstration of The Ockress, then contact Victor at: TheOckress@hotmail.co.uk. Alternatively, contact me at: rikowskigr@aol.com.

8. TECHNORATI
It is good to see that my blogs are now being picked up by ‘Technorati’ which according to the website has ‘zillions of photos, videos, blogs and more’. See:
http://technorati.com/posts/tag/Ruth+Rikowski

‘Technorati’ currently tracks 86.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.
It says on the ‘Technorati’ website that it is:
“…the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web, right now. The Live Web is the dynamic and always-updating portion of the Web. We search, surface, and organize blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as “citizen media.” ” (http://technorati.com/about/)

Many thanks to Bruce Lloyd, SirsiDynix and Sheila Pantry for providing information for items 3, 4 and 6 respectively. Some of the other information for the profiles for item 3 were sent to me by the contributors prior to the publication of the KM book, and helped to form the ‘About the Contributors’ section of the book (pp.xiii-xiv).

Best wishes,
Ruth

28th June 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 15th News Update

2009-03-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Fifteenth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI

This News Update includes some more detailed information about my connections with Managing Information as well as a variety of other information news items.

1. RUTH RIKOWSKI’S CONNECTIONS WITH MANAGING
INFORMATION
I have referred to Managing Information (MI), the monthly ASLIB (the Association for Information Management) magazine (http://www.managinginformation.com/) quite a lot in these News Updates. So, I think it is about time that I provided some further information in regard to my connections with MI!

I got my first article published in Managing Information in 2000. It was about the relationship between I.T./computer departments and library/information departments. I spoke about the importance and value of the systems librarian/information professional in this regard. I was employed in that area of work at the time and felt strongly that the work of this breed of professional was often not really being given enough regard. My article was entitled 'The Essential Bridge: a new breed of professional?, and it was published in April 2000, Vol. 7, Iss 3, pp. 40-45.

Then, in October 2001 I was invited to participate in a radio programme – You and Yours, on BBC Radio 4 on the topic of the GATS. Following on from this Graham Coult, the editor of MI invited me to write an article based on the radio programme and then invited me to be the Book Reviews Editor for MI. I excitedly accepted both opportunities.

I was then the Book Reviews Editor for MI, from 2001-04 and within this period I connected with many writers and thinkers in the library and information profession. This included people across a wide variety of spectrums: such as academics, KM experts, public librarians, IT specialists, university and college librarians, independent consultants, archivists, reference librarians etc. etc. Five or six reviews that I commissioned were published every month in the magazine, and they were also inserted on the MI website. The reviews were on a wide range of topics within the profession, including subjects such as knowledge management, digitisation, the internet, e-publishing, public libraries, reference enquiry work, legal information, metadata, marketing, cataloguing and classification.

Quite a lot of my material has been published in Managing Information over the last few years. This has included both articles and book reviews. The list of my published articles in MI is below. The MI book review section is available at: http://www.managinginformation.com/bookreviews.htm
(listed according to alphabetical title of the book).

My connections with Graham Coult and Managing Information have also developed in a number of other ways. Graham introduced me at the talk I gave on TRIPS at the Library and Information Show at Excel, Docklands, London, in April 2003, for example.

Furthermore, I connected with Chandos Publishing through my book review work for MI, which then led me to write my first book and to become the Commissioning Editor for Chandos (both at the invitation of Dr Glyn Jones, the owner of Chandos).

Graham visited Painswick in Gloucestershire earlier this year, and reported on this in MI, after I had informed him about the threat posed to Painswick Library, and how Philip Booth was linking this to my work on globalisation and libraries.

Indeed, the idea of writing these News Updates themselves also came originally from MI – from Graham and Robeel Haq. Robeel set up the MI website and was the MI webmaster for a number of years. The weekly Managing Information Newsletter started back in 2001.

Managing Information covers a wide-range of important topics within the library and information profession, and the topics are presented in a very lively and interesting way, I think. In this way, MI plays a very valuable role within the library and information profession, and I certainly hope that it will be able to continue to build on this role, in the future.

Ruth Rikowski’s published articles in ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’

The essential bridge: a new breed of professional? (2000), Vol. 7, No. 3,
pp. 40-45

GATS: private affluence and public squalor? Implications for libraries and information (2001) Vol. 8, No 10, December, pp.8-10.

Studying Knowledge Management at Masters Level, with particular reference to South Bank University (2002), November, Vol. 9, No. 9, pp.56-57

Knowledge Management references (2002), December, Vol. 9, No 10, p. 40. Full version of article available in Features section at:
http://www.managinginformation.com/features.htm

The significance of WTO agreements for the library and information world, (2003), January/February, Vol. 10, No. 1, p.43

Tripping along with TRIPS?: the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and its implications for the library and information world (2003), April, Vol. 10, No 3, pp.10-13

The role of the information professional in knowledge management: the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for the information profession? (2003), May, Vol. 10, No 4, pp.44-47

Females, computers and libraries (2003), July/Aug, Vol. 10, No, 6,
pp. 6-10

Japanese Libraries, the GATS and PFI (2005) November, Vol. 12, No. 9, p. 20

Information Professional and Poet: a focus on Paul Catherall (2006), June, Vol. 13, No. 5 (2006) pp. 6-7

Tony Benn: links to libraries’ future - report on Tony Benn’s speech at CILIP Members’ Day, October 2006, and linking this to the topic of the commercialisation and privatisation of state-funded libraries (2007), May, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 24-26

Finally, I would like to thank Graham Coult for his continued support and for the great interest he has taken in my writing and my other related work over the last few years.

2. THE TERMS ‘INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY’ AND ’INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS’
Following on from my News Update No.13, Richard Stallman (who started the Free Software Movement, leading on from his launch of the GNU project, a free software operating system) emailed me, saying that the term ‘intellectual property’, should be rejected and avoided because of the inherent bias in the concept.

For further information about Stallman’s views on this, see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html

In this piece, Stallman looks at the term ‘intellectual property’ and says that: “The term carries a bias…it suggests thinking about copyright, patents and trademarks by analogy with property rights for physical objects.” Furthermore, that:”There is no such unified thing as “intellectual property” – it is a mirage.” Also that issues such as patents, copyright and trademarks need to be treated as separate topics.

In addition, instead of using ‘TRIPS’ Stallman uses ‘TRIPES’ – Trade-Restricting Impediments to Production, Education and Science

Richard Stallman also has an article in Policy Futures in Education,
entitled Did you say “intellectual property”? It’s a seductive mirage, Vol 4, No 4, 2006
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/4/issue4_4.asp#1

Furthermore, he has written a piece about the possible misuse of other terminology - Some confusing or loaded words and phrases that are worth avoiding. See:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
This includes terms such as ‘Digital Rights Management’ and ‘Piracy’.

What Stallman is saying here is clearly very important. This problem applies to so many concepts used in capitalism – for example, the use of the term ‘social exclusion’ rather than ‘poverty’. The term ‘social exclusion’ makes capitalism seem a nicer system than it actually is – i.e. that it is possible for everyone to be socially included and to reap the benefits from capitalism, and that no-one really needs to be in dire poverty. Well, that is never going to be the reality whilst we live in capitalism! This is a social system that systematically generates inequalities of income, wealth, status and power. Careful thought needs to be given to our use and mis-use of language, and this is an on-going process. Thus, if a concept is created and used which does explain something clearly, but this is not so helpful for perpetuating capitalism (like the term ‘poverty’ itself), then those seeking to further the capitalist agenda will endeavour to invent other terms to more adequately meet their ends (such as the term ‘social exclusion’).

Furthermore, Marx used many concepts which clearly exposed the intrinsic workings of the capitalist system, but these terms are largely not in common usage, because pro-capitalists largely do not want the system exposed in this clear way. And/or the terms become twisted and misused; such as the concepts of ‘Capital’ and ‘Value’, which are used extensively in the business literature today, but are seldom linked to Marx’s work. I have undertaken a lot of work on the concept of ‘value’, linking this to knowledge, and this will be covered in more depth in a future News Update. But the point to note here is that these concepts are used because people find themselves having to use these terms in order to explain what is going on (such as the need to ‘add value’), but do not want to acknowledge the full horrors of capitalism. There is so much that needs to be done in regard to challenging and scrutinising capitalism and our whole use of vocabulary is yet another aspect of it.

N.B. The item below is taken from publicity which was circulated for this workshop – which uses the term ‘intellectual property’. This illustrates the problem we face and the fact that this is the term that is in common usage.

3. WORKSHOP IN BRUSSELS ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Oxfam International, the South Centre, and other partners held a multi-stakeholder workshop on Intellectual Property, Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), and Sustainable Development, on the 12th May 2007, in Brussels.The meeting brought together a variety of people, including African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) negotiators, ACP Brussels missions, ACPcivil society, EU civil society, EU parliamentarians and EU development ministries to discuss the treatment of IP in Economic Partnership Agreements.
Speakers included:Hunter Nottage, Advisory Centre for WTO Law; Dalindyebo Shabalala, Center for International Environmental Law; Viviana Munoz, South Centre; Corrina Heineke, Oxfam International; Carlos Correa, Senior Advisor, South Centre; El Hadji Diouf, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre
For further enquiries about the Workshops contact
Palesa Tlhapi: ptlhapi@ciel.org or +41 22 321 4776.

Background information that was circulated prior to the workshops”The past two years have seen the proliferation of regional and bilateralfree trade agreements containing higher intellectual property standardsthan those established by the TRIPS Agreement. Spearheading the push forsuch higher standards is the United States, followed closely by theEuropean Union, which has also begun to seek such standards in its ownbilateral relationships. These standards pose serious problems forsustainable development in the innovation policy of developing countries,especially in areas such as Public Health, Food Security and Biodiversity. The scale of the problem has been expanded considerably by the EuropeanUnion’s inclusion of higher intellectual property standards in thenegotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that it is carryingout with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries….

The full scope and nature of the IP provisions to be negotiated remains tobe elaborated but it is clear that the European Commission under PeterMandelson is seeking higher standards on, at least, copyright issues,geographical indications and enforcement, while ignoring developing countryinterests in areas such as public health, traditional knowledge, geneticresources and folklore.”Objectives of the Brussels workshop included:• To discuss the potential impact of proposed IP standards on thedevelopment of ACP countries.• To build capacity and networks by bringing together EU civil society, ACPcivil society and ACP negotiators to discuss IP issues and challengesraised in negotiating IP standards in EPAs. “
It is very encouraging to know that workshops such as this are taking place, and that these important topics are being explored in this way.

4. RIKOWSKI POINT
Glenn Rikowski has started a new AOL blog called Rikowski Point. The point of this new blog is that he can differentiate between it and the Volumizer to the advantage of readers. At the moment, basically anything goes into the Volumizer. There are short articles, with proper referencing, and lots of what are basically adverts - telling people about conferences and other events he and I are either going to, or running or support, or that we are just plain interested in. At the moment, those who are just interested in the short articles have to rummage through lots of adverts for events to get to what they want - though readers can find links to all of these ‘Best of the Volumizer’ articles at:

http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Volumizer
Glenn has now split these functions up. The Volumizer will be largely concerned with small articles which bring Marxism into contact with education policy, social time and transhumanism. Rikowski Point will provide readers with details on conferences, gigs and other events. In addition, Rikowski Point will have very short comments and links to articles - but there will be no sustained discussion or analysis. For that, you either need the Volumizer or, for more substantial articles, The Flow of Ideas, the Rikowski web site, at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/
You can get Rikowski Point at: http://journals.aol.co.uk/rikowskigr/rikowski-point

5. CITY BUSINESS LIBRARY IN LONDON GOING ONLINE
Leading on from item 8 in my 11th News Update the topic of the City Business Library, London going online has also been reported in this month’s Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP’s) monthly magazine, Update (p. 6). It says that the City Business Library is currently run by the City Corporation but the lease for its current city premises expires in 2009. Furthermore, that the library is suffering from serious financial problems and that it plans to go ‘almost entirely electronic’. There is a user consultation process currently in operation – see: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation

6. COUNTERPOISE: A JOURNAL FOR LIBERTY, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND DISSENT
Counterpoise is an important journal, focusing on the alternative press.
See: http://www.counterpoise.info/

The alternative press comes in many different forms, including books, pamphlets, magazines and electronic materials. Yet:

“Its ideas and publications are often ignored, misrepresented or suppressed by corporate and government media, and are overlooked by schools, universities, and libraries worldwide. Counterpoise describes, critisizes, defends and promotes these publications and products against this bias.”

The journal includes: essays; review articles; reviews of books, periodicals and non-print material often overlooked by other review journals, and an annotated bibliography of tools for the alternative press.

As it says on the website:
“Counterpoise is a useful tool for libraries, bookstores, publishers, researchers and informed citizens.”

Since January 2001 Counterpoise has been a project of the Civic Media Center and Library, a “not-for-profit, tax-exempt alternative library and
Gathering place in Gainesville near the University of Florida.” It is indexed in the Alternative Press Index and is a member of the Independent Press Association.

Counterpoise also values the work of Information for Social Change. It referred to the special issue that I edited on the topic of ‘Globalisation and Information’ (Issue 14, Winter 2001), for example, saying that “The articles are well researched and tend to challenge the reader...The articles serve as a primer for those wanting to learn more about the worst-case scenario of globalization and libraries."

7. ‘PLEASURE GARDENS’, IN THE TEMPLE, WANSTEAD PARK

Suddenly, I find myself involved in a wonderful and exciting project, which I thought I would like to share with you. I live quite near Wanstead Park, London, E11. There used to be a grand house in Wanstead Park, called Wanstead House. There is a fascinating history attached to it, and I am participating in an event which tells the story of it all.

The event is a Community Performing Arts Project, which is being held at The Temple in Wanstead Park (Wanstead Park being the grounds of what was Wanstead House). It celebrates the 125th Anniversary of the City of London Corporation’s management of Wanstead Park.

The event is entitled ‘Pleasure Gardens’. It will re-create an entertainment in the style of a Regency Pleasure Garden in 1814, which will be attended by the Wanstead heiress Catherine Tylney-Long and her husband, William Pole-Wellesley. Catherine’s husband brought ruin upon her by getting into tremendous debt through gambling, thereby forcing them to sell and dismantle Wanstead House. Still, this means that the City of London Corporation was able to buy the grounds very cheaply, so that the park now belongs to the people!

The entertainment will include dancing, singing, music and a Punch and Judy show and I will be participating in the singing and dancing! It is wonderful to find myself involved in a ‘Jane Austen-type’ event in this way (which brings me back to my love of books – English classical literature this time)! It is also so good to have a sense of history and community being brought to the area, in this very creative way.

A video of the event is being made for the local community, and the event is also being filmed for the City of London Corporation.

For more information about the whole event, see:
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:eBP6t_Ji558J:213.86.34.248/NR/rdonlyres/AFB589DB-FC09-4F2E-A0A7-CB6410399147/0/OS_EF_Infopack.pdf+wanstead+park+and+pleasure+gardens&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk&ie=UTF-8

The ‘Pleasure Gardens’ performance will be on Sunday 24th June 2007, from 7-9pm.
Tickets (£12.00 each) will be available from next Wednesday (13th June). But, tickets are very limited, so you will have to move fast if you are interested!
Contact: Rachel Holtom, Heritage Education Officer for Epping Forest on 0208 5297090 or email
rachael.holtom@cityoflondon.gov.uk

8. REPRODUCING RUTH RIKOWSKI’S NEWS UPDATES
A question has arisen in regard to reproducing parts of these News Updates. If people want to reproduce parts of these News Updates, then that is fine by me – we can make a bigger impact together than we can apart! However, I would appreciate it if you contacted me first, before any such reproduction. As well as providing me with some protection, it also means that I know where the material is being reproduced, thus hopefully aiding with the building process for a better world! I suggest that the following wording is used for any such reproductions: “Reproduced with kind permission of Ruth Rikowski”.
Many thanks, in advance!

Many thanks to Richard Stallman and Mikael Böök for providing information for items 2 and 3 respectively.

Best wishes,
Ruth

Ruth Rikowski's 14th News Update

2009-03-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Fourteenth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI

News Update No. 14 consists of a number of information news items and a focus on 2 other people that I commissioned to write books for Chandos Publishing – namely, Sue Batley and Jean Bradford. Sue and Jean also both used to review books for me, for Managing Information.

1. VICTOR VERNE RIKOWSKI HAS JUST SECURED A PERMANENT, PART-TIME POSITION, WORKING AT THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Well, the library tradition in our family continues it seems! Our middle son, Victor Rikowski, has just secured a permanent, part-time position, working for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Public Libraries. This leads on from the temporary work that he has been doing there, and should fit in well with his studies.

Victor has also written material for Information for Social Change, including:
Future of Capitalism: millionaires ruling the millions, Winter 2001,
Iss. 14
http://libr.org/isc/articles/14-Victor_Rikowski.html

Problems in Education Today, Summer 2006, Iss. 23
http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/B9d%20Victor%20Rikowski.pdf

There is further information about Victor on our website – see:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=about&sub=Victor%20Rikowski

2. STANLEY AND MABEL TURNEY AND THE PEACE PLEDGE UNION: EXPERIENCES OF BEING BOUGHT UP IN A FAMILY ADVOCATING PEACE BY RUTH RIKOWSKI

I have just inserted this article on our website. It is a piece that I wrote about my parents, my family background, and my experiences of being bought up in a family advocating peace. I wrote the article in 2002 shortly after both my parents had died. In fact, it very much helped me to come to terms with my grief. I wrote it originally for the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) (http://www.ppu.org.uk/), which my father was a member of for many, many years, for the PPU Archive Collection in London, where the hard copy is now housed. I liaised with Bill Hetherington, the PPU Archivist there, in this regard.
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Turney%5ba%5ds%20and%20PPU

3. FOCUS ON SUE BATLEY

Dr. Sue Batley is a Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University and Course Director of the MA in Information Services Management. Her teaching and research centre upon the organization and retrieval of information, covering information and knowledge architecture and traditional cataloguing and classification. Sue is someone that I commissioned to write the book ‘Classification in theory and practice’ for Chandos and further details about this book are given below.

Having completed a PhD on factors affecting search behaviour and retrieval of information from picture databases at the University of Aberdeen in 1989, Sue worked as a subject librarian and lecturer at the University of East London before taking up her current post in 1996.

Sue has published two books and several articles in the area of resource description and organisation. Her latest book, published by Chandos is Information architecture for information professionals (2007) http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=119.
This book examines the field of information architecture from the perspective of an information professional and is intended to explain concepts in a way that will be accessible to information professionals as well as to a wider readership. The aim is to explain information architecture partly within the context of traditional librarianship, and partly within the context of systems design. Subjects of relevance to the study of information architecture are varied and wide-ranging. Sue’s book does not claim to cover all aspects in depth, but to provide an overview of issues to the extent that basic theoretical and practical understanding is developed. Coverage includes: core concepts of indexing, classification, cataloguing and user-centred design; analysis of user needs, organisational needs, tasks and individual resources; search and retrieval facilities focusing on search engine functionality and taxonomy creation; records management, content analysis and metadata creation; principles of interface design and usability; management and maintenance of the information system and systems’ evaluation.

Sue’s previous book, also published by Chandos is entitled

Classification in theory and practice (2005)
http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=26. Classification has often been treated as a sub-set of cataloguing and indexing with relatively few basic textbooks concentrating solely on the theory and practice of classifying resources, Sue says. This book attempts to redress the balance somewhat. Sue’s aim was to demystify a complex subject, by providing a sound theoretical underpinning, together with practical advice and promotion of practical skills. The book explores theories of classification in broad terms and then focuses on the basic principles of library classification, introducing readers to technical terminology and different types of classification scheme. Individual classification schemes are also examined in depth. Each scheme is explained using frequent examples to illustrate basic features.

4. FOCUS ON JEAN BRADFORD

Jean Bradford is another person that I commissioned to write a book for Chandos. As can be seen below, she decided to turn the project into an edited collection. In this write-up by Jean, she outlines her own background, but the main focus is on the Chandos edited collection itself.

Interlending and document supply in Britain - Edited by Jean Bradford and Jenny Brine. Published by Chandos: Oxford, 2006 (ISBN (pbk) 1 84334 140 9)
http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=75

This book grew out of a Roadshow organised by FIL: Forum for Interlending and Information Delivery (FIL). http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/fil/index.html. This event was organised for newcomers to interlending and document supply (IDS) and the organisers wanted to produce a reading list for delegates. Although there were numerous relevant articles, they could not find a book explaining the IDS system in the United Kingdom (UK) today. This book aimed to fill that gap.

Jean Bradford has been an Interlending and Document Supply (IDS) librarian since 1977. She currently manages the IDS, Serials and Binding Section of the University of Bristol Library and is responsible for copyright compliance for the Library. She has worked for the University of Bristol since 1974, so her experience comes from the perspective of an academic library.

However, she wanted to make sure that any book included information of use to IDS librarians in all sectors in the United Kingdom. So, she asked fellow members of the FIL Committee for help and Jenny Brine, then IDS librarian at Lancaster University Library and Secretary of FIL, offered to help with editing a book. Jenny has now moved on to be Health and Medicine Subject Librarian at Lancaster.

Jenny and Jean then recruited other colleagues to help with writing particular sections. Contributors included librarians in public libraries, national libraries and commercial organisations. This reflects the collaborative culture among IDS librarians who can always be relied on to help each other track down information required by their readers, Jean explains. FIL helped by paying the expenses for the participants in the project to meet, to discuss progress or to visit other libraries. Jean and Jenny are very grateful for the support which FIL provided.

Feedback from readers of the book has been very positive, Jean says. As the editors hoped, library staff refer to it in their day-to-day work. Jean delivers a lecture on IDS and co-operation for the MSc Course in Information and Library Management at the University of the West of England. The book is included on the students’ reading list and this enables any who may not have had much experience of IDS to prepare for her session. It has also been used in connection with the research for an Inter-Library Loan Feasibility Study carried out for the MLA. Senior managers too have found it has helped them gain a better understanding of the work needed to provide an IDS service to users, Jean says. Copies have also been sold overseas and as Jean emphasises, this has been gratifying as another aim of the editors was to help those who were not familiar with the IDS system in the UK.

5. LIBRARIAN ACTIVIST.ORG
http://www.librarianactivist.org/index.html
This really useful website was established by Danielle Dennie, a Science
Librarian at the Université du Québec a Montréal. It provides news,
information and resources to librarians who “want to be active in political and
social issues surrounding libraries and librarianship.”
It includes information about various progressive library groups, such as
‘Librarians Against the WTO’ and ‘Urbana-Champaign Independent Media
Center Library’.

You can contact the site, send interesting news stories etc to:
info@librarianactivist.org.

6. LIS NEWS: LIBRARIAN AND INFORMATION SCIENCE NEWS
http://lisnews.org/

This collaborative weblog is a very valuable resource for library and information workers, I think.

The LIS News website was created by Blake Carver in 1999, and as it says:

“LISNews is a collaborative weblog…devoted to current events and news in the world of Library and Information Science. A dedicated team of international bloggers scour the World Wide Web to find stories they find interesting. You'll find links to news stories and Web sites, along with original writing, interviews and reviews. LISNews is updated frequently, usually 7 days a week. We are a non-commercial site, supported by our users.” LISNews is ‘open and collaborative’, and includes authors from a wide range of viewpoints. It holds no control over any work submitted for posting and takes no responsibility for work submitted. As such, I think it is a very valuable tool that library and information workers can contribute to.

The weblog includes a lot of interesting news. One of the most recent news items on the website, for example, alerts us to the fact that Michigan Libraries might face 50% cuts in 2008.

7. UPDATE ON COPY/SOUTH DOSSIER

Alan Story circulated the following message on 29th May 2007, in regard to the Copy/South Dossier. It is very good to see interest and discussion on this important document growing in this way and I hope that this will continue.
”Dear Copy/South Dossier reader:About a month ago (26 April), the Copy/South Research Group launched its"Reader Response" project. The project is designed to give readers of theC/S Dossier an opportunity to comment, positively or negatively, on thecontents of the Dossier and/or to tell of their own personal experienceswith copyright in the global South.First, we want to thank the first ten people from seven differentcountries (located on five continents) who have taken up ourinvitation...and you can read their comments under the "Reader Response"section of our website (http://www.copysouth.org/). So a dialogue has beenstarted and, among these responses, you will find some interestingperceptions of the issues at stake.Second, we would like to extend a welcome to other Dossier readers tosubmit their comments and thoughts as well. The e-mail address forresponses is: response@copysouth.org.
The C/S website gives a brief backgrounder on why we set up this projectand a few guidelines drawn up for submissions. We will be happy to postyour thoughts on our website.Best wishesAlan Story for the Copy/South Reader Response Project. http://www.copysouth.org/”

8. BOOK CHAPTERS ON TRIPS BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No. 13 included information about my various published
works on the topic of Globalisation, Information and Libraries. However, I omitted to include 2 items; that is, 2 forthcoming edited collections which I have chapters in. This information is now outlined below.

A Marxist analysis of the World Trade Organisation’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (2007) (forthcoming) in
Global Knowledge Cultures, edited by Cushla Kapitzke and Michael A. Peters, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers

Traditional Knowledge and TRIPS (2007) (forthcoming) in
Information for Social Change: Writings from a Radical Library Collective, edited by Shiraz Durrani, Library Juice Press, LCC: USA

9. OBTAINING HARD COPIES OF MY PUBLISHED ARTICLES ON ‘GLOBALISATION, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES’
News Update No. 13 included information about various published articles of mine that are only available in hard copy. If anyone would like copies of any of these articles, just get in contact with me (rikowskigr@aol.com) and let me know what article(s) you would like, and I will send the relevant copies to you.

Many thanks to Sue Batley, Jean Bradford and Alan Story for providing information for items 3,4 and 7 respectively and to Steve Fesenmaier for providing information for items 5 and 6.

Best wishes,
Ruth

2nd June 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 13th News Update

2009-03-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Thirteenth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI

GLOBALISATION, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

This is a ‘special’ News Update, focusing on my work on globalisation, information and libraries. It includes information about both my publications and my talks on the topic.

I decided to devote this News Update to this subject - it is a very important topic, and I have devoted a lot of time and energy to. Through all my work, I have obviously raised considerable awareness. Yet, I do not think the message has been conveyed as effectively as it needs to be – well, at least, not in terms of actually taking sufficient action in order to start to change the tide! Thus, any suggestions for raising awareness further and to actively make an impact are most welcome. I would also be very willing to give further talks to any interested parties, and/or have a forum for further discussion. Just contact me at: rikowskigr@aol.com.

My basic position is that in order to understand the world we live in, we need an analysis of global capitalism and for me this necessitates a Marxist analysis. Marx began his analysis of capitalism in Capital, Vol 1, with the commodity. The continued survival of capitalism depends on the extension of the commodification process, on a global basis. Value that is created and extracted from labour (through the exploitation of labour), becomes embedded in the commodity and the commodity is then sold in the market-place for a profit. By this means, global capitalism is sustained, extended and perpetuated.

In my writing and talks, I consider this big topic in relation to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and libraries and information. The focus is on the 2 agreements that are being developed at the World Trade Organisation (the WTO being one of the key drivers in globalisation), that have serious implications for libraries and information – i.e. GATS (the General Agreement on Trade in Services) and TRIPS (agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. In essence, these 2 agreements are about transforming services and intellectual property rights into international tradable commodities. Within this very broad topic, there is also a lot of detail, and I explore this in considerable depth, in my various published works.

TALKS GIVEN BY RUTH RIKOWSKI ON GLOBALISATION, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

TALKS GIVEN IN 2002

a) Still at your service?: One day conference organised by ATTAC London on the GATS and privatisation of UK public services, 16th Nov 2002, held at the London School of Economics, University of London.This consisted of a variety of speakers and workshops, considering the GATS from a number of different angles – e.g. water privatisation; globalisation and language; legal implications of the GATS; privatisation of the police, the National Health Service, schools, higher education and libraries.
The conference was organised by ATTAC, London, GATS Working Group, which I was a very active member of this group, at the time.
I wrote a report on the event. See:
http://libr.org/isc/articles/17-Rikowski-3.html

b) The profit virus: globalisation, libraries and education: a fringe meeting of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Conference at Glasgow, on 22nd August 2002. The session was organised by myself.Speakers included Frode Bakken, Paul Whitney, Ruth Rikowski, Steve Rolfe, Anneliese Dodds and Glenn Rikowski
I wrote a report on the event. See:
http://libr.org/isc/articles/16-R.Rikowski-1.html

c) GATS: the Global Threat held at Sussex University
on 23rd May 2002. Session considered what the GATS is and the implications of the GATS for various public service sectors.Speakers included Linda Kaucher, Ruth Rikowski and Tom Lines

d) Gave talk at ATTAC, London, held at London School of Economics, on The WTO/GATS Agenda for Libraries, 30th April 2002

e) Spoke at an informal meeting of the International Group of the Library Association on The WTO/GATS Agenda for Libraries, 20th March 2002
About 35 people attended and there was a lot of interest in the topic and a good discussion.

TALKS GIVEN IN 2003
a) Gave at talk at the Library and Information Show at Excel, Docklands: Tripping along with TRIPS, on 30th April 2003.

b) Gave special lecture to MSc students at Kingston University: An overview and assessment of TRIPS, focusing in particular on trade, moral and information issues, on 2nd June 2003. There was a lot of interest and a good discussion.

c) Gave talk at Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Umbrella Conference on GATS and Libraries, on 5th July 2003. Libraries: international tradable commodities or public services?. Conference Report of CILIP Umbrella Conference, 2003 by Graeme Hawley, included a section about my talk in Information Scotland, Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in Scotland http://www.slainte.org.uk/publications/serials/infoscot/vol1(4)/brolly.html

TALKS GIVEN IN 2005
a) Trading in Knowledge? The World Trade Organisation and Libraries. Conference held on 2-3 March 2005, at Moller Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Organised by EBLIDA and SCONULSpeakers included: George Monbiot, columnist in The Guardian; Professor Susan Robertson, University of Bristol; Dale Honeck, Education Representative from the WTO; Ruth Rikowski and Paul Whitney, Chief Librarian, Vancouver Public Library.
I spoke about TRIPS and Libraries.
Programme for conference:
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/events/WTOConference/wtoprogramme
Report online by Toby Bainton http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:S6hmhgwXDQIJ:www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/34/20.rtf+bainton,+sconul+and+trading+in+knowledge+and+eblida&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk
Report by Barbara Stratton, CIILP Senior Copyright Advisor, in CILIP's monthly magazine Update, May 2005, Vol. 4, No. 5, p.15. b) Spoke about GATS and TRIPS at Sheffield Hallam University, on 9th February 2005Spoke to Yorkshire and Humberside Career Development Group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).Session was entitled International and Trans-border Information Issues

c) Talked about my book Globalisation, Information and Libraries to MSc students at Kingston University on 24th May 2005

d) Capitalism's Final Frontier: the reification of imagination by Ruth Rikowski. Talk provided an overview of my book Globalisation, Information and Libraries on 27th Sep 2005 at Lucas Arms, 245 Grays Inn Road, London. Organised by ‘Principia Dialectica’ - see http://www.principiadialectica.co.uk/

e) Talked about my book Globalisation, Information and Libraries at London South Bank University, in the Faculty of Business, Computing and Information Management, on 27th Oct, in Keyworth Centre

f) One-day mini conference organised through Career Development Group, Wales, CILIP, on Globalisation, Libraries, Information and Education, at: Swansea University, on 2nd Dec 2005.Talked about my book Globalisation, Information and Librariesand

Anneliese Dodds talked about Globalisation, GATS and Higher EducationAnneliese Dodds is a Research Student, in the Department of Government and Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation, LSE
Report on the event by Paul Catherall. See: http://libr.org/isc/occasional_papers/swansea.html
g) Talked about my book Globalisation, Information and Libraries at a Marx, Individuals and Society Seminar, at Birkbeck College, University of London, on 8th December 2005.

TALKS GIVEN IN 2006

a) Spoke about my globalisation book at Lancaster University, as part of the Knowledge-Based Economy Research Programme for 2005-06, at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS).
Part of a workshop that was entitled: Education and the Knowledge-Based Economy held on 19th-20th January http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:OMWHQq0tILkJ:www.lancs.ac.uk/ias/annualprogramme/kbe/education.htm+lancaster+univ+and+knowledge-based+economy+and+ruth+rikowski&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk

For general information about the IAS and its activities, contact:Professor Bob Jessop, IAS Director - r.jessop@lancaster.ac.uk

b) Spoke about my globalisation book at University of Greenwich, 1st Feb 2006 to Research Seminar for PhD and masters research students. There was a lot of interest and a good discussion.

c) Gave guest lecture on Globalisation: A Marxist Perspective to the MBA students, at London South Bank University, for the International Management Issues unit. Considered various definitions of globalisation and outlined my Open Marxist theoretical perspective. Asked potential international managers to reflect on their own potential future role.In Keyworth Centre, 13th February

d) Talked about my globalisation book at Discourse, Power and Resistance in Education Conference 5: Research as a Subversive Activity, 21st April, at Manchester Metropolitan University

http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/dpr_06/abstracts/

TALKS GIVEN IN 2007
a) Talked about my globalisation book at News from Nowhere Club in Leytonstone, London on 10th Feb.Approx 20 people attended from the local community, and the talk was conducted in a round table forum, with lots of discussion. There seemed to be a particular interest in me, as I was a local author, from East London.b) Gave talk on globalisation and libraries at UK Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), Sekforde Arms, London, 13th Feb, 6.30pm. Talk entitled What have global trade agreements ever done for library and information workers? http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/feb07.htm
‘Round table’ format, where I invited interjections from the participants throughout my talk. The session lasted for about 2 hours, with further informal discussions around refreshments. There was a good discussion and a lot of interest. Brief summary of talk at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=events&sub=Globalisation (near bottom of page)Distributed copies of my PowerPoint slides. If anyone would like a copy of these, please contact me at: rikowskigr@aol.com
See also:
CILIP Response to “Liberalising Trade in Services: A New Consultation on the World Trade Organisation GATS Negotiations” (2004) – Updated March 2005

http://www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/lobbying/consultations2004/worldtrade.htm

PUBLICATIONS BY RUTH RIKOWSI ON GLOBALISATION, INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

ARTICLES (both Online and Hard Copy)

PUBLICATIONS IN 2001
Globalisation and Information - Edited by Ruth RikowskiInformation for Social Change, Issue No. 14, Winter 2001Includes articles by: Bill Lehm, Glenn Rikowski, Clare Joy, Victor Rikowski, Fiona Hunt, Ruth Rikowski, Anneliese Dodds, Shahrzad Mojab, Alex Nunn, Patrick Ainley and Jonathan Rutherford.

GATS: private affluence and public squalor? Implications for libraries and information Article summarising and providing further analysis about a radio programme, on Radio 4 (on You and Yours), on the GATS that I participated inManaging Information , Vol. 8, No. 10, December 2001, pp. 8-10Also, available in Library Juice, 4.46, Dec 19, 2001 http://libr.org/juice/issues/vol4/LJ_4.46.html#7

Report on Globalise Resistance Conference at Hammersmith, 2001 Link-up, the newsletter of Link: a network for north-south library development, Spring 2001, pp. 6-8
The Corporate Takover of Libraries Information for Social Change, Winter 2001, No. 14 http://libr.org/isc/articles/14-Ruth_Rikowski.html

PUBLICATIONS IN 2002

The Capitalisation of librariesThe Commoner: a left-academic activist e-journal, 2002, May, No. 14 http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:B2D_uQvPt1oJ:www.commoner.org.uk/04rikowski.pdf+commoner,+rikowski+and+capitalisation+of+libraries&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

Globalisation and Libraries In Globalisation, Report by House of Lords, Select Committee on Economic Affairs, Session 2002-03, 1st Report, the Stationery Office, 2002. In 'Volume of Evidence', part 2, HL5-II - on CD-ROM, pp. 360-371

Globalisation: Select Committee on Economic Affairs, House of Lords, Session 2002-03, 1st Report – Review by Ruth Rikowski, in Managing Information
http://www.managinginformation.com/Book%20reviews/bookreviews_globalisation.htm

The WTO, the GATS and the meaning of 'services' Public Library Journal, Summer 2002, Vol.17, No. 2, pp. 48-50 (Part 1 of a 2-part article, based on my talk The WTO/GATS Agenda for Libraries)

Takeover by stealth? Public Library Journal, Autumn 2002, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 73-76(Part 2 of a 2-part article based on my talk The WTO/GATS Agenda for Libraries)

What does the future hold for our public libraries? Information for Social Change, Summer 2002, No. 15 http://libr.org/isc/articles/15-Rikowski-2.html

Feedback on 'Globalisation and Information' issue of ISC (No. 14) Information for Social Change, Summer 2002, No. 15 http://libr.org/isc/articles/15-Rikowski-1.html

The profit virus: globalisation, libraries and education (Summary report of the fringe meeting at IFLA conference, 2002)IFLA Journal, special issue on the Glasgow Conference, Winter 2002, Vol. 28, No. 5/6, pp. 341-342

The profit virus: globalisation, libraries and education (Report of the fringe meeting at IFLA conference, 2002)Library Juice, 5:31. Oct 2002 http://libr.org/juice/issues/vol5/LJ_5.31.html#2

Report on Fringe meeting at IFLA Conference, 2002 - 'The profit virus: globalisation, libraries and education', In Link-Up: the newsletter of LINK: a network for north-south library development, September 2002, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 17-19

Raising awareness about the GATS and 'Women's Issues'Information for Social Change, Winter, Iss 16, 2002 http://libr.org/isc/articles/16-R.Rikowski-1.html

Report on meetings and demonstrations attended, overall impression and a look toward the future (Report on the 2002 IFLA Conference in Glasgow)Information for Social Change, Winter 2002, Vol 16 http://libr.org/isc/articles/16-R.Rikowski-2.html

Anti-globalisation websites Information for Social Change , Vol. 16, 2002 http://libr.org/isc/articles/16-R.Rikowski-3.html

Reprinted in Linkup: the newsletter of Link - a network for north-south library development, Vol. 15, No. 1, March 2003WTO/GATS Agenda for Libraries (abbreviated version)

Focus: on International Library and Information Work - Journal for the International Library and Group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), 2002, Vol. 33, No.2, pp. 53-65

Kommersialisering och Privatisering - WTO/GATS Agenda for Bibliotek I ett Engelskt Perspektiv (WTO/GATS agenda with special reference to public libraries in England)BIS (Bibliotek i Samhaelle) (Libraries in Society), Swedish left library journal. 2002, No. 3, pp. 6-9 http://www.foreningenbis.org/Gats/gatsrr.html

PUBLICATIONS IN 2003
Library privatisation: fact or fiction? Information for Social Change , No. 17, Summer 2003 http://libr.org/isc/articles/17-Rikowski-2.html

The significance of WTO agreements for the library and information world, Managing Information, Jan/Feb 2003, Vol. 10, No. 1, p.43

Tripping along with TRIPS?: the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and its implications for the library and information world Managing Information, April 2003, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 10-13

Globalisation, Libraries and Information, Relay: the journal of the University College and Research Group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), 2003, July, Iss. 55, pp. 11-12 and Information for Social Change, No, 17, Summer 2003 http://libr.org/isc/articles/17-Rikowski-1.html

TRIPS into the unknown: libraries and the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, IFLA Journal, 2003, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 141-151

Keep tripping along with TRIPS?: an assessment of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), focusing in particular on trade, moral and information issues, Business Information Review, September, Autumn 2003, 20(3)

PUBLICATIONS IN 2004
Background and Overview to the book - Globalisation, Information and Libraries’, Information for Social Change Summer 2004, Issue 19

http://libr.org/isc/articles/19-R.Rikowski-1.html

PUBLICATIONS IN 2005
Global Trading of Libraries and Intellectual Property Rights, The Hobgoblin, 2005 http://www.thehobgoblin.co.uk/journal/H7.htm#gats

Japanese Libraries, the GATS and PFI, Managing Information, Nov 2005, Vol. 12, No. 9, p. 20

A discussion on ‘The World Tonight’, BBC Radio 4 programme, 25th October 2005, 10.00pm, about the UK Government Education White Paper and links with the GATS, Library Services, Education Services and the extension of the commodification process. Glenn Rikowski participated in this programme.
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Education%20White%20Paper

PUBLICATIONS IN 2006
Overview and a Marxist analysis of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Policy Futures in Education, Special issue on Intellectual Property Rights - Edited by Cushla Kapitska, Vol. 4, No. 4, Winter 2005 http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/4/issue4_4.asp#6

The inspiration of the Benns: reflection and report:
Tony Benn speaking about his diaries and archiving material: ‘The importance of keeping our history’, at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Members’ Day, October 26th 2006. Includes information about the impact that Caroline and Tony Benn had on Glenn Rikowski and myself, in regard to our work on globalisation and the World Trade Organisation.
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Tony%20and%20Caroline%20Benn

PUBLICATIONS IN 2007
Tony Benn: links to libraries’ future: report on Tony Benn’s speech at CILIP Members’ Day, October 2006, and linking this to the topic of the commercialisation and privatisation of state-funded libraries, Managing Information, May, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 24-26

BOOKS

Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements (2005), Chandos Publishing: Oxford
http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=35

Globalisation, Information, Libraries and Social Commitment (2007) (forthcoming) in Libraries and Social Commitment. Co-ordinated by Pedro López López, Javier Gimeno Perelló and María Jesús Morillo, Ediciones Trea: Spain (text in Spanish)

Best wishes,
Ruth

26th May 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 12th News Update

2009-03-29T07:47:00.001-07:00

Twelfth News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.12

This News Update consists of a number of news and information items and a focus on Philip Booth.

1. ‘TONN BENN: LINKS TO LIBRARIES’ FUTURE’, Managing Information, May 2007, Vol 14, No. 4, pp. 24-26

In the May issue of Managing Information, there is an article by me about Tony Benn’s speech at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Members’ Day last October.

I record the main parts of his speech and then link it to libraries’ future. The focus of Tony Benn’s talk was on Tony as an archivist and he spoke about why he has always kept a diary, ever since he was a child. He then broadened it out to the topic of freedom of information.

A longer version of this article is also available on our website – see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Tony%20and%20Caroline%20Benn

In this longer version, I also speak about the work of Caroline Benn and the influence that she had on Glenn Rikowski, particularly in regard to the writing of his book The Battle in Seattle (Tufnell Press: London, 2001), which considered the implications of the World Trade Organisation for education (and indeed, was one of the first books out on this subject). Leading on from this, I then wrote my own globalisation book. In this article, I highlight two recent developments in libraries - Painswick library and the British Library, and emphasise that we need to be “…continually vigilant if we want to retain a decent state-funded library service.” (p. 25)

2. FOCUS ON PHILIP BOOTH
The reference to Painswick Library leads me on very nicely to the next item, which is a focus on Philip Booth (written by Philip Booth). I found out about the threat posed to Painswick Library from Philip Booth’s web-log, where he linked threats such as this to my work on the GATS and libraries, and in particular, to my globalisation book.

Philip Booth is Coordinator of the 5-strong Green party group of District councillors in Stroud, Gloucestershire where he also works as a researcher and community activist.Philip completed a BSc (Jt Hons) Psychology and Sociology degree in 1984 before doing a postgraduate Social Work course and then worked in Australia and SE Asia for an aid and development agency. This included initiating Sydneys' largest foreign film festival and an alternative tourism project in India. In 1988 Philip worked as a Social Worker in London before moving to manage innovative local authority day services for adults with learning difficulties in North Somerset.Philip then moved to the Stroud area and worked as a freelance Trainer and Consultant in work with adults with learning difficulties. A chronic illness meant he was himself disabled for a number of very difficult years. His health has now improved significantly and he has returned to work in a huge range of community projects and campaigns.

Politics has always played a key role in Philip’s life from activism during the 1984/5 miners strike, numerous marches and protests, thousands of meetings and letters and more. Philip tries to live the "Act Local, Think Global" with work and local campaigns to save Post Offices, support the Village Shop, improve the local book, stop airport expansions, challenge the local nuclear industry, save a local library from closure and more.Green support in the District runs at about 20% and they are the third largest group on the Council with 10% of the seats although on the Town Council Greens hold 11 of the 18 seats making it the first majority Green Town Council in the UK. Green votes and Green District councillors have meant that the ruling Conservative group has been unable to ignore issues like climate change, Philip says. Furthermore, he emphasises that they have now produced an excellent first step strategy that is based considerably on Green recommendations. Greens plan to see it delivered and improved.The Green group have also led to the Council being among only a handful to reject the draft South West Regional Spatial Strategy; the most important regional planning documents for the next 20 years, Philip says.

All this fits with Stroud's reputation for being radical and green, Philip says: the unique anti-slavery arch of 1834, the 1898 Whiteway colony set up by Tolstoyan anarchists, the Arts and Crafts movement flourishing, the best Farmers Market in the South West, the new Transition Stroud project, Ecotricity (the world's first green energy company), amongst the first Fairtrade towns in the country, innovative Community Agriculture, affordable homes and Co-housing projects, Non-Violent direct action at Fairford USAF and more and electing the first Green councillor in the country.Philip's blog has been listed amongst the top Green blogs and linked to sites like the New Statesman: http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com/

Philip’s other activities include:- promoting a new safer 'greener' approach to traffic engineering:http://www.resurgence.org/selection/booth0306.htm
- helping establish the Transition Stroud project - the communities response to climate change and peak oil:http://transitiontownstroud.blogspot.com/
- setting up the Ruscombe Brook Action Group who are seeking to establish sustainable solutions to managing sewage in the valley:http://www.rbag.org.uk/
- setting up the Safe Water Campaign for Gloucestershire to oppose water fluoridation: http://safewatercampaign.blogspot.com/
- helping establish the successful monthly Coffee House Discussion group - political discussion meetings in Stroud which attract between 25 and 60 people each month: http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/
- Green Left - an anti-capitalist current in the Green party: http://www.greenleft.org.uk/

Philip Booth comments:”Capitalism can only survive with continued economic growth. From peak oil, to global warming, to the extinction of species, capitalism is clearly unsustainable. As well as the ecological insanity, capitalism leads to a pervasive sense of 'alienation', the macdonaldisation of society and making us pay for what we had for free. Capitalism is innately unjust. Economics needs to be a tool for us: the system of grow or die has to be replaced with a one that meets, in Gandhi's words, everyone's need not everyone's greed.”

3. BOOK REVIEW BY RUTH RIKOWSKI:
‘BUILDING KNOWLEDGE CULTURES: EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AGE OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITALISM’ BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL PETERS AND A.C. (TINA) BESLEY,
Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, USA, 2006.
ISBN 10 0 7425 1790 X; 10 0 7425 1791 8, 225pp.
in Managing Information, May 2007, Vol. 14, No. 4, p. 32

There is a full-page spread given to my review of Peters and Besley’s book, in this months Managing Information.

This is a very important book, outlining some of the main trends that are taking place on the global stage today, in regard to knowledge, education and information. There will also be a longer review of this book by me in the ‘Digital Libraries’ issue for Policy Futures in Education http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/ that I am editing with Isaac Hunter Dunlap (Spring 2008).

4. VIRGINIA TECH LAUNCHES APRIL 16th ARCHIVE (PRESS RELEASE)
This press release was kindly sent to me by Jeremy Hunsinger, Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

It is interesting and enlightening to witness how the process of digitisation and preservation is assisting with the healing process, following on from this tragedy.”BLACKSBURG, Va., April 30, 2007 - Virginia Tech's Center for Digital Discourse and Culture (CDDC) is pleased to announce the launch of the April 16 Archive (http://www.april16archive.org/). This new online archive assists artists, humanists, social scientists, and all other scholars who seek, today and in the future, to develop a better understanding of the violent events of April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech, when a gunman shot and killed 33 students and professors, and injured many more.

It is also available to the general public of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the United States of America, and the world at large as we come to terms with a local, national, and global event that will have ramifications for years to come. This archive works actively to deploy electronic media for the collection, interpretation, preservation, and display of stories and digital objects related to the tragedy of April 16, 2007 and its many effects as text, image, and sound. Developed in cooperation with George Mason University's Center for History and New Media (CHNM), this project is receiving technical, curatorial and administrative support from Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff.

The archive will preserve a diverse record of the events surrounding April 16, 2007 by collecting first-hand observations, photographic images, soundrecordings, media reports, personal writings, official statements, individual blog postings, and any other documents that can be stored as digital files. In addition to local reactions, the archive welcomes responses from across the globe in any language. Through this archive, we aim to leave a positive legacy for the larger community and contribute to a collective process of healing, especially as those affected by this tragedy tell their stories in their own words. The larger trend exemplified by this project is the "digital memory bank." Memory banks are being used to preserve the richness of the present as it transitions to the past, thereby ensuring that the collected records can be both readily accessible and carefully preserved for future access.

The April 16 Archive welcomes contributions from the Virginia Tech community, as well as from anyone around the world who wants to share words of support or reflection following the events of April 16, 2007. The attacks happened in Blacksburg, Virginia, but they were experienced around the world through mass media and community ties. The accounts of that day from any site across the globe are, therefore, very important to the April 16 Archive as it documents the full impact of this tragic event. For more information, visit http://www.april16archive.org/ or contact admin@april16archive.org.

For media enquiries, contact Brent Jesiek, Manager of the CDDC, at (540) 231-7614 or cddc@vt.edu.

This story is also posted on the April 16 Archive website:http://www.april16archive.org/news/”The Virginia Tech Center for Digital Discourse and Culture (formed in 1998) is one of the world's first university based digital points-of-publication for new forms of scholarly communication, academic research, and cultural analysis. The Center for Digital Discourse and Culture is also working with Virginia Tech's newly established Institute for Society, Culture, and the Environment (ISCE) to develop new scholarly initiatives, such as the April 16 Archive.See also:
Center for Information Policy Research: http://www.cipr.uwm.edu/

5. TRANSDISCIPLINARY STUDIES: BOOK SERIES EDITED BY JEREMY HUNSINGER AND JASON NOLAN, SENSE PUBLISHERS

http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/

Jeremy Hunsinger used to be one of my book reviewers for Managing Information. He has also reviewed books for Information for Social Change. He told me some while ago, that he now had his own book series, with Jason Nolan, which is entitled: ‘Transdisciplinary Studies’. Further information about the series (taken from the website) is outlined below.

“Transdisciplinary Studies is an internationally oriented book series created to generate new theories and practices to extricate transdisciplinary research from the confining discourses of traditional disciplinarities. Within transdisciplinary domains, this series will publish empirically grounded, theoretically sound work seeking to identify and solve global problems that conventional disciplinary perspectives cannot capture. Transdisciplinary Studies seeks to accentuate those aspects of scholarly research which cut across todays learned disciplines in an effort to define new axiologies and forms of praxis. This series intends to promote a new appreciation for transdisciplinary research to audiences that are seeking ways of understanding complex, global problems that many now realize disciplinary perspectives cannot fully address. Scholars, policy makers, educators and researchers working to address issues in technology studies, public finance, discourse studies, professional ethics, political analysis, learning, ecological systems, modern medicine, and other fields clearly are ready to begin investing in transdisciplinary models of research. It is for those many different audiences in these diverse fields that we hope to reach, not merely with topical research, but also through considering new epistemic and ontological foundations for of transdisciplinary research.”

The first Books in the Series is:
Towards Humane Technologies: Biotechnology, new media, and ethics (Forthcoming) - Edited by: Naomi Sunderland, Peter Isaacs, Phil Graham, and Bernard McKenna
Editorial Board: Professor Megan Boler, Professor Geoffrey C. Bowker, Dianne McKenna Professor for the Center for Science, Technology and Society, Santa Clara University, Professor Timothy W. Luke, Professor Wendy Martin, Professor Dr. Helga Nowotny and Professor Joel Weiss

There is also an email discussion and announcement list in conjunction with the Series.
See also Jeremy Hunsinger’s blog: http://www.tmttlt.com/

6. INTERACTIONS: UCLA (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOST ANGELESE, USA) JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND INFORMATION STUDIES
ISSN 1548 3320
http://repositories.cdlib.org/gseis/interactions/

This is a peer-reviewed ejournal, bringing both education and information together, from a critical perspective. It is edited by students in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and it “…brings together senior and emerging scholars, activists, and professionals whose work covers a broad range of theory and practice.”

InterActions is published twice yearly with funding provided by the UCLA Graduate Students Association and the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.

InterActions provides: “…critical commentary on current issues and [promotes] perspectives in educational and information systems that can service the cause of social justice.”
Submissions can be from traditional areas of inquiry in the field of education and information studies, or from newer interdisciplinary perspectives – e.g. women’s studies, ethnic and cultural studies, film studies, postcolonial theory, critical pedagogy and poststructuralism.
The UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies includes 2 departments – Department of Education and Department of Information Studies. The 2 departments are committed to: “…understand and improve educational practice, information policy, and information systems in a diverse society.” This includes research and professional training.

7. PETER MCLAREN
Professor Peter McLaren is based at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Peter is also someone that contacted Glenn Rikowski, having read and been inspired by his 2 articles in the British Journal of Sociology of Education (1996 and 1997), which Helen Raduntz referred to in my News Update No. 11 (item 5). Leading on from Peter reading these articles and making contact with Glenn, Glenn then helped to bring Peter back to Marxism (and away from Post-Modernism). Peter and Glenn have maintained an email correspondence ever since then, and they have also written a lot together. In particular, they edited 3 books (also with Professors Dave Hill and Mike Cole):

i) Marxism against postmodernism and educational theory, Lexington Books: USA, 2002,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marxism-Against-Postmodernism-Educational-Theory/dp/0739103466/ref=sr_1_2/203-1231501-9876729?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179317175&sr=1-2

ii) Postmodernism in educational theory: education and the politics of human resistance, Tufnell Press: London, 1999
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Postmodernism-Educational-Theory-Education-Resistance/dp/1872767818/ref=sr_1_5/203-1231501-9876729?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179317175&sr=1-5

iii) Red Chalk: on schooling, capitalism and politics, The Institute for Education Policy Studies, Brighton, 2001
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Chalk-Schooling-Capitalism-Politics/dp/0952204215/ref=sr_1_6/203-1231501-9876729?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179317175&sr=1-6

Glenn also interviewed Peter for the summer 2006 issue of Information for Social Change. This was entitled: Critical Pedagogy reloaded: an e-interview with Peter McLaren, No 23: http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/C3%20Peter%20McLaren%20and%20Glenn%20Rikowski.pdf

8. LATEST ISSUE OF POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION IS NOW OUT
The latest issue of Policy Futures in Education is now out (Vol 5 No. 2) http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/5/issue5_2.asp.
PFIE is now subscription-based. For subscription details, see:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/subscriptions/subscriptions.asp

PFIE Spring 2007, Vol. 5, No. 2
Neoliberalism and EducationGuest Editor: DAVID HURSH

Contents:
David Hursh. Introduction

David Gabbard. Militarizing Class Warfare: the historical foundations of the neoliberal/neoconservative nexus

João M. Paraskeva. Kidnapping Public Schooling: perversion and normalization of the discursive bases within the epicenter of New Right educational policies

Pauline Lipman & David Hursh. Renaissance 2010: the reassertion of ruling-class power through neoliberal policies in Chicago

Luis Armando Gandin. The Construction of the Citizen School Project as an Alternative to Neoliberal Educational Policies

Sandra Leaton Gray. Teacher as Technician: semi-professionalism after the 1988 Education Reform Act and its effect on conceptions of pupil identity

Dave Hill. Critical Teacher Education, New Labour, and the Global Project of Neoliberal Capital

Penny Griffin. Neoliberalism and the World Bank: economic discourse and the(re)production of gendered identity(ies)

John Clarke. Citizen-Consumers and Public Service Reform: at the limits of neoliberalism?

REVIEW SYMPOSIUMA Brief History of Neoliberalism (David Harvey), reviewed by Kenneth Saltman and Victoria Perselli

GENERAL ARTICLE: Keith Hammond - Palestinian Universities and the Israeli Occupation

REVIEW ESSAY: Michael A. Peters - Identity, Reason and Violence
Chief Editor of PFIE: Professor Michael Peters

Many thanks to Philip Booth and Jeremy Hunsinger for providing information for items 2, 4 and 5 respectively.

Note: This newsletter does not support any one particular political party. The views expressed by Philip Booth in regard to the Green Party, are Philip’s own personal views.

My personal position is that we find ourselves having to live, work and survive in global capitalism, with all the injustices and suffering that it entails, whether we like it or not! The process of doing this means that we are forced to make some sort of sense of it – also whether we like it or not. In my endeavour to do this, I find that for me, Marxism provides a better analysis, explanation and understanding of capitalism than any other theory or explanation does. Furthermore, that with such an analysis we can then move forward.

Best wishes,

Ruth

19th May 2007

Ruth Rikowski's 11th News Update

2009-03-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Eleventh News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.11

This News Update consists of a variety of news items and profiles. The profiles are on Dr. M.Paul Pandian and Dr Jia Liu. I commissioned Dr Pandian and Dr Liu to write books for Chandos Publishing, and they are also contributing articles to the special issue on ‘Digital Libraries’ that I am editing with Isaac Hunter Dunlap, for Policy Futures in Education. There is also a piece by Dr. Helen Raduntz, highlighting the significant influence that Dr. Glenn Rikowski has had on her work and thinking.

1. REPORT ON SAVE AND BURN
I went to see the film ‘Save and Burn’, at the Barbican on Thursday 3rd May (covered in my last News Update, No. 10), and very much enjoyed it. I also had a chance to meet up and talk to the Director, Julian Samuel, himself, who flew out from Canada, specifically for the showing. He also kindly gave me a DVD of the film. The film very much focused on the value of the library, particularly in regard to its place in society, and where we are going with the concept of the ‘library’ in the future. Within this, it emphasised how the library helps us to ‘get in touch with ourselves’. Also, how the library can be both an agent for social control, and a liberating agent (yet another one of the contradictions in capitalism). I particularly enjoyed listening to the thoughts and comments of Alistair Black, Professor of Library History, Leeds Metropolitan University and Erling Bergan, Editor, Librarians Union of Norway, Olso.

The showing formed part of the London Palestine Film Festival 2007, and the film was shown on the very last night of the festival. The film included accounts of the destruction of libraries and cultural infrastructure in Palestine and Iraq in recent years, by Israel and US-led occupying forces.
Julian Samuel’s website – see:
http://www.juliansamuel.net/02.html

2. STEVE FESENMAIER
Steve Fesenmaier, who has reviewed ‘Save and Burn’ (see my News Update No. 10) kindly put me back in contact with Julian Samuel about 10 days ago. Since then, he has been informing me about a lot of the work that he himself does. Below, is the URL to his blog:

Steve Fesenmaier’s blog
http://www.thegazz.com/gblogs/wvfilm/

3. WRITE-UP ABOUT MY GLOBALISATION TALK IN LONDON CILIP NEWSLETTER BY IAN GARDNER
There is a very nice and informative write-up by Ian Gardner, about a globalisation talk that I gave at a London CILIP meeting on 13th February 2007, in this months London CILIP Newsletter (May, Issue 11), p. 3 (hard copy). Ian Gardner said that: “The meeting quickly developed into a spirited discussion, supported by a number of comprehensive handouts and illuminating quotes from Ruth’s published work.” And he ended by saying that: “Overall, the meeting was a thoroughly interesting discussion over whether the role of the WTO, in seeking to make services and intellectual property tradeable commodities, is damaging the interests of people, especially in the developing world.”

Further information about my CILIP talk is available at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=Globalisation
(towards bottom of page)

The London CILIP Newsletter is edited by Monica Blake and John Lake. For further information contact Monica Blake at info@blakeinformation.com.

4. ALEXANDER RIKOWSKI HAS GOT A PLACE AT KING’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, TO STUDY PHILOSOPHY, FOR 2007-2010
We had some fantastic news this week. Alexander Rikowski, our eldest son, has a place at King’s College, University of London, to study for a degree in Philosophy. King’s has an RAE rating of 5*A, along with Cambridge and LSE. Given that he achieved this after having completely rejected formal academic education, this is quite some mean achievement, I think, and I hope you agree! Also, many thanks to Birkbeck College, University of London for helping to inspire and enthuse him about education. So, for all those that have rejected formal education and have few if any formal academic qualifications, there really is hope. Just hang on in there, and do not be fooled by the propaganda, that there is only one way to succeed – i.e. gain good A’ Level grades and gain a degree by taking out a huge loan etc. There are other avenues that can be explored.

Alexander is very keen on Logic, and Wittgenstein, in particular - he thinks clarity and clear thinking, talking and writing is extremely important.

I imparted the good news to Professor Michael Peters, who then told me that he is currently writing a book about Wittgenstein with some others, which will be published by Paradigm later this year. It is entitled ‘Saying and Showing: Wittgenstein as a pedagogical philosopher’. Alexander plans to read and review this book. Alexander is also planning to read Michael Peters and James Marshall book, ‘Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Postmodernism, Pedagogy’ (Critical Studies in Education and Culture), Greenwood Press, 1999

5. MARXIST INFLUENCES IN EDUCATION: HELEN RADUNTZ REFLECTS ON THE WORK, THINKING AND INFLUENCE OF GLENN RIKOWSKI
In the Focus on Dr. Helen Raduntz in News Update No. 8 Helen made mention of Dr. Glenn Rikowski’s role as external examiner of her unpublished doctoral thesis ‘A contemporary Marxian critique of trends in education and teachers' work in an era of major structural change’, but this was only part of his involvement in Helen’s academic development, she says.

Helen’s doctoral research involved three distinct but dialectically related aspects; an explanation of a Hegelian-Marxian critique developed specifically for the thesis; an examination, based on Marx’s still relevant critique of capital, of the dynamics of capitalism which forms the backdrop to trends in contemporary education, and an analysis of education and teachers’ work from this standpoint. It was to prove a huge undertaking and there were few academics in the mid 1990s with a Marxist background within the Australian tertiary education scene on whom she could depend for support across these three disciplines.

It was therefore a huge relief for Helen when a colleague drew her attention to two then recently published articles in the British Journal of Sociology of Education (BJSE) by Glenn Rikowski Left alone: end time for Marxist Educational Theory? (1996, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 415-451) and Scorched Earth: prelude to Rebuilding Marxist Educational Theory (1997, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 551-574). The articles were just what she was looking for and she made immediate contact with Glenn. Thus began a relationship which has lasted now for ten years over which period Glenn has been a constant email mentor and companion, she says, in the development of her understanding of Marx’s critical method and his theories as set out in ‘Capital’.

It requires some intellectual effort to regard the Marxian critique not as a fixed set of methodological principles to be applied to an object of research — that is relatively easy but not particularly fruitful in overcoming one’s assumptions and entrenched ways of thinking. Rather it is a method which is formed by and draws its logic from the content or issues under investigation. This kind of research methodology is something of a revolution in the field of research generally and a reversal of mainstream scientific research practices.

Therefore, Helen emphasizes, having someone like Glenn with whom to bounce ideas back and forth and to be able to draw on his reservoir of knowledge and experience on matters of Marxist theory without reserve has been for her one of the most fortuitous and invaluable highlights of her academic career. It is an association for which she will always be grateful and which she hopes will continue for many years to come.

That relationship has now extended to Ruth Rikowski who has been influential in persuading her to accept the challenge of developing a Marxian critique for examining the issue of intellectual property and the work of information professionals (to be published by Chandos). Helen says it is an undertaking which will prove to be a measure of how well she has mastered the techniques of the Marxian critical method.

6. FOCUS ON JIA LIU
Dr. Jia Liu (who likes to be known as ‘Jessica’) is currently a Visiting Scholar of the University of Toronto, Canada. From October 2002 until November 2004, she had been a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation, Germany. Before she came to Germany for the third time, she had been an Associate Professor of the Peking University, China. So far, she has had more than 40 academic publications. With the 1st resumed fellowship of the AvH Foundation, she implemented a research project about the digital reference service which leads to one of her forthcoming books The Evaluation of Worldwide Digital Reference Services in Libraries, to be published by Chandos. http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=152
This book originates from an international cooperative research project. In the middle of March 2005, Professor Ingeborg Simon of the Faculty of Information and Communication, the University of Media (Hochschule der Medien, HdM), Stuttgart, Germany, visited Dr Jia Liu, then Associate Professor of the Department of Information Management, Peking University (PKU), Beijing, China. In the spring, the season when most flowers blossom on the beautiful PKU campus, Professor Simon suggested a cooperative student research project between the two institutions. Dr. Liu agreed with her and, together they set the fundamental tone of the project according to the agreement. One month later, the new research project came into reality. The project was entitled ‘Evaluation of Worldwide Digital Reference Services in Libraries’. It started on 1 April 2005 and ended on 15 June in the same year. Two student groups (one from HdM and one from PKU) implemented the project while the two teachers acted as the mentors on corresponding sides.

By reporting the results of the project mentioned above, the author aims to provide the reader with an understanding of e-mail reference services in libraries worldwide in her Chandos book. On the other hand, the book compares the results created by the two groups and furthermore explores the reasons for resulting in the differences. Finally, some proposals and perspective of the digital reference service are put forward. The content of the book is international and the creation of the book is also an international journey. Although it is prepared on the basis of the project, the book is far beyond a report of the project.

Dr Jia Liu is also a contributor to the forthcoming ‘Digital Libraries’ issue for Policy Futures in Education, and in her article, she considers how the digital library is integrating with the digital reference service. She explores this further through a series of case studies. The author emphasises the advantage of ‘systematic integration’, and ‘symbiotic interest’, thereby serving the user in a more efficient way.

On June 1, 2007, Jia Liu will leave for Wuerzburg, Germany to do some further research about the digital reference service with the 2nd resumed fellowship of the AvH Foundation. Dr. Liu has a solid belief in the sentence “all things living are in search of a better world” which was said by Karl Popper, the founder of the theory of World III.

Refs
Metadata development in China: research and practice. D-Lib Magazine [USA], December 2004. At URL: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december04/liu/12liu.html
Digital library activities in Europe: a brief overview. Journal of Educational Media & Library Sciences, Vol. 42, No.4 (June 2005)

Is the collaborative service always superior to the single library service? : a project for evaluating the chat reference services in USA. Bibliothek: Forschung und Praxis = Library: Research and Practice, Vol. 30, No. 3 (2006): 353-66.
Metadata and its applications in the digital library. Westport, CT, USA: Libraries Unlimited, June 2007; [forthcoming]

7. FOCUS ON M. PAUL PANDIAN

Dr. M.Paul Pandian is Head, Library and Information Resource Centre at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India. He is currently implementing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based system for his library, which is a wireless technology comprising tags, readers and antennas. With respect to its implementation in libraries, each book has an RFID tag attached to it which contains information specific to that book. General library operations such as checking out, checking in are self operated by users and stack verification can be quickened.

Prior to this he was the Head, Library and Information Resource Centre at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore, India and a member of the core team that was responsible for setting up of a campus wide information system for IIM. He also worked as Scientist at INFLIBNET, University Grants Commission, India. He was responsible for developing online union catalogs of participating libraries for the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre. This Centre is an AutonomousInter-University Centre (IUC) of University Grants Commission (UGC) involved in creating infrastructure for sharing of library and information resources and services among Academic and Research Institutions. INFLIBNET works collaboratively with Indian university libraries to shape the future of the academic libraries in the evolving information environment.

Also as a course coordinator at INFLIBNET, he designed and developed course materials for a six weeks residential course on applications of computer and communication technologies in Libraries for library executives and information scientists.He has published several articles and one book in the area of library information sciences. Chandos Publishing: Oxford will soon be publishing his new book entitled Emerging Technologies for knowledgeresource management.

The main purpose of this book is to examine various factors that contribute to an enabled environment for optimum utilisation of information resources. These include the digital form of information resources, which are inherently sharable, consortia as a concept to bring people and materials together and unified portal as technology to bring together disparate and heterogeneous resources for share and access. An attempt has been made to explore the capabilities of emerging technologies that support sharing electronic resources in a heterogeneous and distributed consortia environment. The book also provides reviews of existing portal models for sharing resources and identifies the gap in meeting the objectives. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of these contributing factors and emerging technologies, the book provides a framework for a cost effective unified portal model to share the electronic information resources available in the participating libraries in a distributed digital environmentHe is also contributing an article to the forthcoming special issue on ‘Digital Libraries’ for Policy Futures in Education, which myself and Isaac Hunter Dunlap are editing. His article is entitled "Digital Knowledge Resources" and it provides an overview of digital knowledge resources, their characteristics, growth and development and impact on information access and use. It also deals with issues relevant to building digital knowledge resources in a distributed environment.

Refs
Pandian, M, Paul Jambhekar, A and Karisiddappa, C.R. (2002) IIM Digital Library System: Consortia based approach. Electronic Library, 20(3), p.211-214

Paul Pandian, M. and Karisiddappa, C.R. (2003a). Standards formodern library consortia: librarians' perspectives. In proceedings of SIS2004, IIT, Chennai, IndiaPaul Pandian, M and

Karisiddappa, C.R., (2003b). Technology issues for library consortia in India. CALIBER 2003, INFLIBNET, UGC, India

Pandian, M. Paul (2005) Unified access to heterogeneous resources in a distributed library consortia environment. Presented at International Conference on Information management in a knowledge society (ICIM), IASLIC, Mumbai, India

Radio Talk: Relevance of books in the internet era. Talk broadcasted in All India Radio on 21.11.2000 at 20.00 Hrs.

8. CITY BUSINESS LIBRARY UNDER REVIEW
Martin Waller reports in The Times this month that the City Business Library, which has been based off Aldermanbury since 1991 is under review. It might go entirely online or could form part of the British Library or partner with a local business school. There has been an archive service at Guildhall since the 19th century, but big financial institutions have now built up their own databases. Meanwhile, the library costs the council £1.3 million a year, and visitor numbers have halved since late 1990s, and the lease on the building runs out in 2009.

So, once again, we have another library that is under threat. Do such matters concern us, or are we happy with a continued decline in actual physical library buildings? Where is all this leading to in the future?

Report in The Times, 2nd May 2007, ‘Is library past the point of no return?’ by Martin Waller.

9. CREATIVE METHODS NETWORK EVENT 3 PERFORMING DATA
Finally, here is something different!
The Creative Methods Network is holding an event focusng on performative data at Dartington Hall in Devon on the 18th and 19th June 2007, for an amazing £50.00, which includes accommodation and meals. There will be theatre workshops and a session on dramatising experience through playback theatre. See: http://www.creativemethods.org.uk/
This is educational, research-related.

Many thanks to Steve Fesenmaier, Helen Raduntz, Jia Liu, Paul Pandian, Bruce Lloyd and Pauline Brooke, for providing information for items 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 respectively.

Best wishes,

Ruth

5th May 2007