Ruth Rikowski's 15th News Update

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