Civic Space Cyberspace

Quintessentially American institutions, symbols of community spirit and the American faith in education, public libraries are ubiquitous in the United States. Close to a billion library visits are made each year, and more children join summer reading programs than little league baseball. Public libraries are local institutions, as different as the communities they serve. Yet their basic services, techniques, and professional credo are essentially similar; and they offer, through technology and cooperative agreements, myriad materials and information far beyond their own walls. In Civic Space/Cyberspace, Redmond Kathleen Molz and Phyllis Dain assess the current condition and direction of the American public library. They consider the challenges and opportunities presented by new electronic technologies, changing public policy, fiscal realities, and cultural trends. They draw on site visits and interviews conducted across the country; extensive reading of reports, surveys, and other documents; and their long-standing interest in the library's place in the social and civic structure. The book uniquely combines a scholarly, humanistic, and historical approach to public libraries with a clear-eyed look at their problems and prospects, including their role in the emerging national information infrastructure.

How computer professionals and communities can work together to shape sociotechnical systems that will meet society's challenges. Information and computer technologies are used every day by real people with real needs. The authors contributing to Shaping the Network Society describe how technology can be used effectively by communities, activists, and citizens to meet society's challenges. In their vision, computer professionals are concerned less with bits, bytes, and algorithms and more with productive partnerships that engage both researchers and community activists. These collaborations are producing important sociotechnical work that will affect the future of the network society. Traditionally, academic research on real-world users of technology has been neglected or even discouraged. The authors contributing to this book are working to fill this gap; their theoretical and practical discussions illustrate a new orientation—research that works with people in their natural social environments, uses common language rather than rarefied academic discourse, and takes a pragmatic perspective. The topics they consider are key to democratization and social change. They include human rights in the "global billboard society"; public computing in Toledo, Ohio; public digital culture in Amsterdam; "civil networking" in the former Yugoslavia; information technology and the international public sphere; "historical archaeologies" of community networks; "technobiographical" reflections on the future; libraries as information commons; and globalization and media democracy, as illustrated by Indymedia, a global collective of independent media organizations.

Democracy in the Digital Age is a fascinating philosophical exploration of how the emerging information and communication technologies are impacting political participation in the United States. Rather than being the antidote to democratic ills, the political conversations occurring online are neither inclusive nor deliberative, suggesting that new technologies, as currently designed and used, are as much threats to progress as they are vehicles of progress. Wilhelm finds that there is often an appearance of progress, but negligible advancement of the human condition. He discusses the four features of digitally-mediated political life (resources, inclusiveness, deliberation, and design) and demonstrates the need for a strong public policy.

The purpose of this study was to explore the issue of participation and civic engagement through the investigation of cyberspace as public space. The research systematically studied the development, nature, operation, and impact of k2k, a local cybergroup based in Knoxville, Tennessee. While the emergence of cyberspace as public space is no panacea for the ills of democracy in America, it is clearly a potential antidote to counter the more virulent dimensions must move beyond electronic discourse into the realm of action. This study found that as people participated in the cybergroup, they became more informed from the interaction with others and were motivated to bring more information to the group. This increased the knowledge of others in the group as well as the group's overall perception of efficacy within the community. As more people participated and disseminated both knowledge and strategy for community action, the greater community itself was affected. As a result, more people participated: passive participants tended to participate more actively, and active participants were more likely to increase their participation. Finally, this study considers the implications of the findings and proposes areas for further study.

Discover collaborative possibilities for your library beyond mere memberships in bibliographic utilities Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work illustrates the remarkable range of cooperative activities in which libraries are engaged in order to provide the best possible service. Increasingly, librarians recognize the need to link their institutions to the world around them as part of their obligation to enhance the integration of digital information, not only for students in academic settings, but also throughout all levels of society. An excellent companion and complement to Libraries Within Their Institutions: Creative Collaborations (Haworth) from the same editors, this unique book examines the variety of ways librarians work with community organizations, government agencies, professional organizations, minority communities, and city governments in their efforts to serve not just students in academic settings, but all of society. Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work reflects the growing understanding of the key role played by libraries in the development of civil society. This unique book examines the variety of possibilities for collaborations outside institutions, including the ways librarians function in a variety of other campus settings, such as writing centers, teaching excellence centers, and academic departments in support of teaching, learning, and research; partnerships with graduate school, and information resources management to preserve theses and dissertations electronically; promoting civic partnerships; initiating a campus-wide information literacy resource; and partnering with government agencies to form a data literacy program. Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work provides practical information on: collaborative training programs to develop baseline competencies in academic libraries to support data services the Chicano/Latino Network and the Community Digital Initiative developing an international presence through digital resource sharing successful models of statewide library consortia technology-based partnerships promoting K-20 information literacy collaborations between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and patent and trademark depository libraries (PTDL) the development of AgEcon Search, an alternative method of delivering research results Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work is an invaluable resource for librarians working in academic, school, special, and public settings, and for library science faculty and students.

The Politics of Cyberspace provides an overview of the impact of the world wide web on the political process. Chris Toulouse organizes the articles according to their theoretical approach--those who take up Habermas's concern with civil society and those who take up the postmodern critique of popular culture. The book covers key issues such as the potential for electronic democracy, the use of the web by mainstream political parties, challenges to the First Amendment, inequalities of access, and new understanding of gender. It also calls for progressive intellectuals to embrace the Internet in their political struggles.

In Cyberdemocracy the arguments for and against "electronic democracy" and the potential for information and communication technology are closely examined. Theoretical analysis is supported by a series of empirical case studies.