Information As A Privilege
In the past couple of weeks, I have come to value something I took for granted for so long, and that is information. Learning about the vast amount of information that exists via the internet has been mind-blowing; and, also learning how to decipher what is true and credible has also taught me that not everything found on the internet is. Which you would think I already know that, but it’s important to deeply dig through websites because those that look real can sometimes can be faux!
Furthermore, another thing that has come up a lot in my learning has been the ability to have access to scholarly information. As much information there is on the internet, scholarly journals and articles are your pots of gold. They hold years and years and YEARS of research and can be the most reliable and credible pieces of information. Though there is one thing…they are not free. People who are not found in an academic institution or have a huge chunk of change cannot have easy access to these scholarly journals, or much less afford them. This puts people at a disadvantage and keeps them from not having access to good, reliable, and credible information. Those that do have access can be defined as people with information privilege.
As the librarian, Char Booth, states in her blog “the concept of information privilege situates information literacy in a socialcultural context of justice and access.” She also states that this is something that many people do not recognize as a form of privilege. Personally, if I was not made aware of this, I would fall into that category of not acknowledging the privilege I have as a college student. I didn’t know how much it cost to buy databases and subscriptions to scholarly articles. I also didn’t understand the blocking of information until one night I was trying to research for my Spanish project and I couldn’t access some information via the Oxford Encyclopedia without first paying for it. Seeing firsthand the denial of access to information made me realize what others feel when they can’t access. The worst part was knowing the information was there. To put it in simpler terms, it was like seeing a cup of water while being stuck in the desert, but not being able to drink it. After that experience, a question I now have is how do you make others become aware of the privilege being able to access information and can those who don’t have it obtain it?
Booth makes an interesting point when she says “presenting information literacy through a lens of privilege problematizes and connects individuals with that can easily become worn, procedural, and overly didactic series of concepts.” He also states that “[it] identifies hidden injustices…critiques the information-for-profit imperative, and demands the examination of personal and institutional privilege within scholarly (and not so scholarly) communication.” To summarize all of that, he says that he relates it back to his audience and teaches them the issues that are found behind the keepings of scholarly information. This is one way to go about it, but it is still important to take action steps in which this information can become affordable to the public.
