Over the past fifteen years, the dramatic increase of online self-help legal re-sources, information, and tools specifically developed for use by low-income individuals without legal counsel has been promoted as one way to help those individuals who are caught in this “justice gap.” Unfortunately, however, opportunities arising from the Internet and related information and communication technologies do not accrue to everyone equally as physical, intellectual, and social barriers to informa...

This introductory textbook aims to provide undergraduate students in information science and related disciplines with an applied grounding in information behavior. The book’s primary focus is to provide explicit links between information behavior and the careers that students will pursue within the information professions. With a deeper understanding of information behavior, students will be better equipped to address the many types of barriers that frequently prevent people from effective...

Libraries, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Enabling Access and Promoting Inclusion examines the interrelationships between digital literacy, digital inclusion, and public policy, emphasizing the impacts of these policy decisions on the ability of individuals and communities to successfully participate in the information society. It is the first large-scale consideration of digital literacy and digital inclusion as policy problems and provides policy recommendations to promote digital lit...

Drawing on two decades of original research conducted by the authors, as well as existing research about the intersection of public policy, political discourse, and public libraries, this book seeks to understand the origins and implications of the current standing of public libraries in public policy and political discourse. It both explains the complex current circumstances and offers strategies for effectively creating a better future for public libraries.The main message is tha...

This latest volume of the Advances in Librarianship series presents original research exploring the modern state of democracies and social institutions, the contributions of libraries to the health and progress of democracies, and the political problems currently facing libraries as institutions. It details the best practices of library programs that provide political literacy education and promote civic engagement within communities. These practices include ways in which librarie...

Academic, public, school, and special libraries are all institutions of human rights and social justice, with an increasingly apparent commitment to equality, to ethical principles based on rights and justice, and to programs that meet needs related to human rights and social justice. Key topics at the intersection of information, human rights, social justice, and technology include information access and literacy, digital inclusion, education, and social services, among many others. Edite...