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Libraries and Open Data

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7 March marks the 10th Open Data Day, an annual international event to promote open data and explore the ways it can be used to address societal challenges. The goal is to push for more data – whether cultural, financial or scientific, data on the weather or the environment, or data produced by statistical offices – to be available in convenient and usable (machine-readable) formats for anyone to use, reuse or redistribute.

Data can be conceptualised as “the lowest level of raw material from which information and knowledge can be derived”, and opening access to data means that more and more people can make meaningful use of it – whether for societal benefit, self-empowerment, innovation, or other valuable ends.

Libraries have a natural affinity with the goals of the open data movement. One of their key aims is to provide access to information – as widely as possible, to as many people as possible. Libraries’ expertise in helping people find and access the information they need – as well as their efforts to promote citizen engagement and digital inclusion – makes them a natural partner for open data initiatives.

Libraries as stewards, educators, publishers and partners: from traditional functions to new roles

Given this affinity, more and more libraries are supporting various open data initiatives. More governments are developing open government plans, moves towards Open Science entail support for Open (research) Data as one if its key pillars, and the OpenGlam initiative seeks to ensure open access to cultural heritage – also a source of data. Libraries can play an important part in realising the full benefits of open data in all these spheres, often simply through traditional library tasks and services.

Consider for example the role libraries – particularly academic libraries – can play in promoting Open Data. As the materials prepared by the EU FOSTER project point out, libraries can support Open Data, inter alia, by training and supporting researchers in their institutions to help them make wider use of and contribute to Open Data.

There is also a large scope for impact through libraries’ Research Data Management (RDM) practices: they can play an important role by improving the availability, findability, re-usability and curation of research data sets. Both of these roles can be seen as an evolution of the traditional roles of academic libraries, but crucially, FOSTER points out that libraries could need to develop new processes and skills to assume these new functions.

Libraries as educators

More broadly, providing inclusive learning opportunities for the public is also a role that many libraries (especially public libraries) traditionally take on. Here, too, libraries can draw on their experience to promote Open Data understanding and awareness in their communities. Robinson and Mather (2017), for example, point out the importance of supporting the demand-side of Open Data – engaging the wider public and non-expert users in Open Data initiatives and helping them make meaningful use of the available data. They make the case that libraries can be well-suited to act as intermediaries and support this demand.

We can already see such initiatives in practice: there are several libraries and library organisations working to raise awareness and equip people with the skills needed to engage and make use of Open Data. For example, in the United States, the Kinder Institute and the Rice University Fondren Library have worked together to deliver a data literacy training for youth in two under-served communities.

Meanwhile, California State Library and the Washington State Office of Privacy, with the help of public and academic libraries in California and Washington, have developed a curriculum to teach open data literacy and awareness to both librarians and community members. Such initiatives are key to generating engagement among the broader public and making sure that a lack of skills is not a barrier for engagement and use of open data.

Taking on new roles

Government and civic data, generated by national, regional and local government and other civic organisations, are at the heart of the Open Data movement. As pointed out in a 2017 White Paper prepared by Temple University Libraries, libraries have often assumed the task of collecting and preserving local government data, beginning with paper formats. Building on this role, some libraries have partnered with various agencies and organisations to curate, host or otherwise improve access to their data.

For example, the Chapel Hill Public Library manages the Chapel Hill Open Data site, providing easy public access to datasets released by the local government departments. The web portal encourages community engagement – users can download, use and reuse data, build chats, maps or visualisations with the build-in tools.

Libraries’ unique competencies could help them effectively assume such roles. Their expertise with metadata, preservation and curation can be very valuable for such undertakings – and so is their expertise with ethical handling of data and information – as pointed out, for example, by Throgmorton, Norlander and Palmer, 2019.

Cultural heritage and open data

And of course, libraries themselves can be sources of valuable open data as well. Consider, for example, the experience of the Hamburg State and University Library with ‘culture hackathons’. During the 2016 Coding da Vinci Nord, software developers and engineers and culture institution specialists came together to create new and inventive ways for the public to access, interact with and make use of digital cultural collections, from interactive mobile city tours to quiz apps or social media tools.

In short, the roles libraries can play in open data are truly diverse: from community engagement and capacity-building to curation, publishing new data, supporting local organisations and agencies and more. The Civic Switchboard Guide has developed a classification of different roles libraries can take, and offers advice , inspiration and resources for each of them!

Celebrating the Open Data Day

Given the important roles libraries can play in the Open Data movement, their continued participation in the Open Data Day comes as no surprise! This year, two recipients of the Open Data Day mini-grant are from the library field: a Malawi librarian at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources is organising a training for librarians about open data and its benefits, and the Zimbabwe Library Association will host an event focusing on the ways open data can be used to support and empower women and girls.

Other libraries – for example, in Finland and Canada – are hosting events and taking part in the celebration. Open Data Day is an opportunity for your library to highlight the work you are doing around access to data, get inspired to take action, and find likeminded partners to cooperate with.

Take a look at the map of planned events around the world, Open Data Day event resources, and share your work!

2019 Internet Affordability Report: the Case for Public Access

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Who is able to go online today – and how many can afford to access the internet? In October 2019, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) released a new installment of the annual Affordability Report – a research and analysis of how policies in lower- and middle-income countries affect the costs of internet connectivity for the population.
This year’s report emphasises that healthy broadband markets together with public access solutions – free or low-cost internet connections available in places such as libraries and telecenters – can expand connectivity and promote digital inclusion. As such, it is a great potential resource for library advocacy around public access.

The costs of connectivity remain a crucial barrier for those who do not have internet access. A4AI – a global coalition of businesses, governments and civil society actors – works to help deliver affordable internet access for all through research, advocacy, and engaging with governments and partners in different countries around the world.

The 2019 Internet Affordability report released by A4AI notes the progress that lower-income countries have made in bringing down the costs of internet access through various policy changes. However, overall progress is slow, and we are likely to be years or decades away from affordable and meaningful internet access for all.

The report suggests three key policy measures to bring down internet costs for end-users. Two focus on building a competitive and stable broadband market, but the third measure puts emphasis on public internet access as a crucial complement to these measures.

The case for public access

As the report explains, public internet access in places such as libraries and telecentres has several crucial advantages:

Bringing more people online and fostering digital inclusion

Public internet access offers connectivity for those who cannot afford retail prices. Public access facilities can help reach and accommodate the needs of specific groups which may have fewer opportunities to get online, such as rural residents, women, indigenous populations or people with disabilities.

It can create more demand for internet access: public access offers first-time users a way to get familiar with and learn the benefits of the digital world, and many users may later choose to get individual subscriptions.

For those who purchase data packages, public access can offer a way to lower the data costs: for example, many users choose to do data-intensive tasks (e.g. uploading pictures to social media) through a public connection, and only use their own data bundles for less data-heavy tasks (like chats) to keep the charges down.

Financial and commercial benefits

People can take advantage of public connectivity to make use of e-finance services and engage in e-commerce. Public access facilities create opportunities for people to engage in the digital economy (for example, offering people a way to make e-payments), and can also provide assistance and related services – for example, helping and training local entrepreneurs and helping them create websites for their businesses.

Health and education

Public access enables people to access educational and training opportunities, especially for those who many not have the opportunity to attend traditional classes and courses in educational facilities. Public access also allows more people to connect with the growing e-health systems – from making online appointments to accessing medical information and advice online.

The importance of ICT skills

The report highlights that it is crucial to provide public access solutions and simultaneously promote inclusive support for digital skills. It points to libraries and post offices as community spaces where such support can be provided.

Libraries work to realise the full potential of public access

The experience of many libraries shows how these benefits of public access can be realised in practice.

Public access remains an important part of the road towards achieving universal access. Public access can provide new opportunities and make a difference – the report offers stories of people connecting through university campus WiFi or a community network to access study materials, carry out their business online and connect with people.

Libraries deliver public internet access alongside ICT workstations, provide guidance for new users, and, in many cases, offer ICT skills training. That is why they can offer a low-cost and high-impact way to provide public internet access and realise its full potential in many areas, from e-health to digital and financial inclusion.

Media and Information Literacy for All: Libraries and the 2019 Global MIL Week

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Changing digital media environments, the growing abundance of information available online, rapid technological developments – the information ecosystems of today are increasingly complex. From verifying a piece of information you come across to safe and ethical behavior online, people need a particular set of skills and competencies to succeed in an increasingly information-rich world. This includes the ability to effectively search for, evaluate, meaningfully use and create information.

These competencies fall under the broad umbrella of Media and Information literacy (MIL), and October 24th marks the beginning of the annual Global Media and Information Literacy week. Led by UNESCO and GAPMIL, it brings together actors which help people develop these competencies.

Libraries have a long history of promoting information literacy. In part, it has to do with some of the key tasks of librarianship: libraries offer access to information and help users make the most of it – from helping them understand what information they need, to finding the most relevant sources, checking and evaluating them.

Particularly important is a library’s ability to reach vulnerable populations. Open to everyone, they can offer MIL learning opportunities for groups at risk of exclusion – for example, those that do not have access to formal educational programmes, or internet and computer access at home.

This year’s theme is “Media and Information Literate Citizens: Informed, Engaged, Empowered”. Empowering citizens requires particular efforts to include more vulnerable groups – both youth and older people, women, cultural or linguistic minorities, and many others.

To mark this year’s MIL week, we would like to highlight the work that different libraries around the world do to help the more vulnerable groups strengthen and develop their MIL competencies.

For rural communities:
The “In4skill Program” is an information literacy training module developed by the National Library of Malaysia. The module is designed to address key information search and usage skills – from teaching Malaysians to identify their information needs, to finding, evaluating and organizing information, to its ethical use and dissemination.

Recognising the particular informational needs of rural communities and a knowledge gap between urban and rural dwellers, the National Library made a concerted effort to reach rural communities with its information literacy initiative.

It upscaled the program and collaborated with community and non-governmental agencies in rural areas, as well as schools and state or village libraries. The result was a series of informational literacy programs implemented in different rural communities, as well as “training for trainers” workshops to help rural librarians, teachers or educators organise their own information literacy initiatives.

For older learners:
Libraries in Lithuania actively work to help their communities develop their media and information literacy skills – through many different initiatives, projects and partnerships. Several projects have focused on helping older learners develop their MIL competencies – such as Kaunas County Public Library’s “Changing Media World: Developing a Responsible User”, Kudirka Public Library’s “Academy of Media and Information Literacy”, or Pasvalys M. Katiliškis Public Library’s “Information in the World: Understand, Evaluate, Use”.

These three projects introduced a wide variety of lectures, workshops and training sessions, covering many crucial information and media literacy competencies – from critical engagement with information on both digital and traditional media, to personal data protection, to social media use and creation of their own media content, in a safe and ethical manner.

These projects, recognising the information needs of older residents, aimed to improve their quality of life and encourage their active (and informed!) participation in the digital society.

For people with disabilities:
Other initiatives introduced by Lithuanian libraries have focused on the MIL competencies of persons with disabilities. For example, the Kaunas County Public Library have recorded and made available educational videos about media literacy in sign language, as well as organising and live-streaming lectures for persons with disabilities on such topics as hate speech, online content creation, fake news and augmented reality.

For lower-income families:
In the US, the Wash and Learn initiative launched by Libraries without Borders brings digital and physical library assets and information services to laundromats, which they identified as a spaces particularly well-suited to engage with lower-income families and underserved communities.

Through this program, visitors get access to curated collection of information sources (selected daily), tailored to the local community’s needs – e.g. on relevant health, educational or legal matters. Librarians or para-librarians are there to help visitors navigate available information, refine their search questions and identify their information needs – and, importantly, reinforce and develop their own information literacy skills.

As such, they can offer guidance in finding and assessing, for example, basic health or legal information, and helping visitors find answers to their own questions.

For children and youth:
One of the areas the School Libraries Network Programme in Portugal works on is developing literacy skills and capacities of school children, subdivided into three categories: reading, information, and media. Noting that there had been comparatively less activities focusing on media literacy, the Network organised an intervention with the aim to raise awareness and encourage teacher librarians to help develop their student’s media literacy.

This prompted the creation of teaching resources and activities for both librarians and students. For example, the MILD Manual de Instruções de Literacia Digital website was created as a resource for media literacy teaching materials and activities for students between ages of 14 and 18. It offers materials for both formal and informal learning, in different settings, on topics ranging from media news and content to social networks to digital citizenship.

Another example is the annual Media@ção contest, where primary and secondary school students are invited to explore different issues and themes surrounding internet and digital media in their entry submissions – e.g. a video or a podcast. Examples of such themes include “media, democracy and tolerance”, or dealing with fake news.

How does your library celebrate the Media and Information Literacy week, and help people become informed and active digital citizens? Share your inspiring examples on social media using the hashtag #GlobalMILWeek, or send us an email to let us know what you are doing!

Intellectual Freedom in Turkey

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Over the last few months, FAIFE marked the 20th anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom with a series of blogs outlining the debates on intellectual freedom in different countries. Today, Ahmet A. Sabancı – a freelance writer, journalist and social critic who focuses on issues surrounding freedom of expression, journalism and the internet – shares an essay about the threats to freedom of information that exist in Turkey.

The essay is based on a presentation he gave during the 2019 World Library and Information Congress session “20 Years of the IFLA Intellectual Freedom Statement: Constancy and Change”. You can find a recording of the session on the website of WLIC 2019.

 

The Many Faces of the Freedom of Information Threats in Turkey

Ahmet A. Sabancı – ahmet@ahmetasabanci.com

In recent years, the state of freedom of information in Turkey has become a well known and discussed topic all around the world. Government censorship and control over media becoming more ruthless every passing day, the situation in Turkey has become an example for many. Especially with the rise of similar developments in different parts of the world, understanding how it works in the countries where the situation is already a concern becomes more important.

To understand and analyze the current freedom of information situation in Turkey, I propose a three-layer explanation of the threats against this freedom. These three layers will both help us to understand the levels of the threats and how one type of threat intensifies another.

  1. Government Censorship and Control

Internet Censorship

Law 5651, the infamous law that regulates the Internet in Turkey, has been used actively to censor the Internet in Turkey. With the latest update in 2014, this law gives the government an unlimited power to censor the Internet and surveil Turkish internet users.

According to latest research, there are 245,825 websites blocked in Turkey. This number has increased even since. Some of the well-known websites blocked are Wikipedia; Imgur, an image sharing platform; Pastebin, a text file sharing platform for coders; and Tor Project, a tool for people to use the Internet anonymously. As well, many VPN services have been blocked in Turkey in recent years. This leaves many people without safe options to circumvent the censorship.

The list of censored websites also includes many political websites and news platforms. The most famous one is sendika.org, which is a labor-focused left-wing news site. The courts have ordered access to this site be blocked 63 times: the owners are now using the domain sendika63.org. There are many political news sites or alternative media projects that experience similar situations.

The Turkish government also sends take-down requests to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Turkey is usually at the top of their quarterly take down request lists. For example, Turkey sent 5014 removal requests, specifying 9155 accounts between July-December 2018. This puts Turkey on top of the list of countries that ask for content removal. In the same period, Russia comes after Turkey with 3344 requests for 3391 accounts. For comparison, during the same time period Germany sent only 42 requests with 44 accounts specified, and Canada sent 6 requests with 9 accounts specified.

There is also a new regulation that gives the governmental body that regulates television and radio new powers over Internet-based dissemination platforms such as Netflix and YouTube. Currently, Turkish television is heavily controlled and censored, and subjecting these platforms to similar controls might cause most of them to leave the country.

Censorship of Books and Journalism

The Turkish government uses Presidential decrees for censorship. Since the 2016 coup attempt, more than 30 book publishers and 100 news outlets have been shut down and all of their books have been collected. This has resulted in the removal of more than 135,000 books from Turkish libraries.

Journalism is also under heavy pressure in Turkey. Any journalist who writes news articles critical of the government risks arrest and imprisonment. The most-used excuses for the suppression of journalism are alleged links to terrorism or the revealing of government secrets. Right now, Turkey is the number-one jailer of journalists in the entire world. There are in addition ongoing incidents of violence against journalists, which usually comes from random groups because of what journalists have said or written.

  1. Media Ownership and Economic Control

One of the most important threats in Turkey to freedom of information is the concentration of media ownership. Most of the mainstream media, including book publishers and distributors, are owned by a small group of conglomerates which have close ties with the government. The current media ownership situation and its effects in Turkey can be read about in detail on the Media Ownership Monitor Turkey website.

This ownership relationship results in censorship, limiting readers’ access to only information produced by politically approved groups. This forces many minority or opposition groups to search for alternative means of disseminating information. It seriously limits their reach to the general public. The other current censorship mechanisms sit atop this limitation.

Already controlling mainstream media and information distribution through ownership, the government also uses other means of economic pressure over the opposition media, such as reducing advertising revenue. Many corporations buy advertising only from media organizations that are unofficially “approved.” The government also uses official announcements and press releases, distributed through Basın İlan Kurumu, which is an important revenue for print media, only to newspapers that are politically close to the government.

  1. Self-Censorship and Other Pressures on Intellectual Workers

These two layers of control have created an atmosphere in Turkey that results in self-censorship and an avoidance of “dangerous topics,” a widespread phenomenon. Self-censorship occurs in many ways. This can be publishers avoiding some content, libraries or bookstores not distributing books about “dangerous topics” or people afraid of talking about such issues. One of the main reasons for this situation is the legal pressure, mentioned as the first layer of censorship in this blogpost.

There is also the social pressure side of this, which can easily be manifested as people “doxing” (unauthorized online disseminating of identifying or personal information about someone) writers and journalists or reporting them to the police because of their work; or reporting teachers because of the books that they have recommended. This kind of pressure also forces many people to self-censor.

This social pressure is perceived by everyone. Whether they’re sharing something on a social media platform or talking with a group of friends, people feel the need to self-censor. This pressure even blocks the spread of information between small groups of people.

Can Libraries Help?

Unfortunately, the current situation of libraries is not good in Turkey either. Limited library budgets and shortage of library personnel leaves many libraries in a bad shape. There is also a serious lack of libraries in general across Turkey. In addition to these economic pressures, there is political pressure that affects librarians, inasmuch as a librarian might be demoted because of their support for an opposition candidate. Filling librarian positions with unqualified workers also weakens libraries.

Although the current situation seems bleak, librarians can help the public to fight back against the threats to the freedom of information. Promoting libraries and hosting events to help people to learn how to find more diverse information sources or how to navigate online when there are many untrusted sources can be an important mission for libraries. In these conditions finding, fact-checking and organizing information is vital for every person. Librarians can help people to learn how to do it.

In Conclusion

Freedom of information and intellectual freedoms in general are in a dire condition in Turkey. This is caused by different actors using diverse tools and tactics to restrict the information that the public can access. A fight against these pressures on the legal front continues, but its effects are unfortunately limited.

Because of this pressure, many people prefer to use the Internet for accessing information, but the Turkish people face new problems on that front. Internet censorship, blocking of access to privacy and anonymity tools and many people lacking Internet literacy leave people in a disadvantageous situation.

It is hard to say how and when this situation in Turkey is going to change, especially because we are seeing similar trends gaining traction elsewhere the world. Many people in Turkey just accept the situation and adjust their lives to it, instead of fighting back. Because we are living in a time in which we must struggle to defend the freedom to access information (and even information itself), the work of organizations such as IFLA becomes much more important and vital. Without our intellectual freedoms, we put everything we humans have created in danger.

Ahmet A. Sabancı is a freelance writer and journalist and a social critic who focuses on issues around internet, freedom of expression and information and technology. He’s also working to improve the situation of journalism in Turkey in the platform called NewsLabTurkey, of which he’s one of the co-founders and its Newsletter Editor.

Intellectual Freedom in Croatia

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In 2019, FAIFE is marking the 20th anniversary of the Statement on Intellectual Freedom. Over the last few months, we have covered a series of contributions from FAIFE committee members highlighting various perspectives on intellectual freedom in different countries. Today, Davorka Pšenica – a Library Advisor at the Department of Croatian National Bibliography of the National and University Library in Zagreb – is presenting a perspective from Croatia.

1) What do you and your colleagues understand by ‘intellectual freedom’ in Croatia?

Intellectual freedom in the Republic of Croatia means the right to freedom of thought and expression, the freedom to promote ideas and beliefs, and the right of an individual to be informed.

The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia regulates the right to freedom of expression by the provision of Article 38 which reads: “Freedom of thought and expression shall be guaranteed. Freedom of expression shall particularly encompass freedom of the press and other media, freedom of speech and public opinion, and free establishment of all institutions of public communication. Censorship shall be forbidden. Journalists shall have the right to freedom of reporting and access to information. The right to access to information held by any public authority shall be guaranteed. Restrictions on the right to access to information must be proportionate to the nature of the need for such restriction in each individual case and necessary in a free and democratic society, as stipulate by law. The right to correction is guaranteed to anyone who constitutionally and legally established rights have been violated by public communication.”

2) How important an issue is it for libraries, and for the general population, in your country?

One of basic tasks of libraries in Croatia is to ensure free access to information to all citizens –this fundamental role is stated in all the main documents of the Croatian Library Association (CLA). It also underpins the activities of the CLA Committee for Free Access to Information and Freedom of Speech that for 20 years has organized roundtables on free access to information on International Human Rights Day.

At these roundtables, topics related to problems of free access to information, freedom of the media, freedom of speech and censorship, copyright, intellectual freedom and education, and transparency and openness of the organizational and socio-political system in Croatia have all been discussed at all levels.

It is important to highlight the efforts and involvement of the library community in a multi-year process of adopting the first Law on the Right of Access to Information in Croatia. The law was created due to encouragement of the academic community and civil society; its acceptance was preceded by a long-term public campaign led by a coalition of 17 non-governmental organizations, with the participation of the Croatian Library Association. The law has undergone a number of amendments and harmonization with relevant acts of the European Union and has been in force since 9 August 2015.

3) What have been the biggest questions and controversies in recent years?

In Croatia there is a problem of harmonization between, on the one hand, legal regulations concerning free access to information, freedom of the media and speech and regulations concerning free access to the internet, copyright protection, and on the other, a market-based, neoliberal economy that gives priority to capital and large companies. The neoliberal economy can, by introducing collection and citizens’ control systems, impair to a great extent free access to knowledge and information.

4) What do you think are the biggest challenges for intellectual freedom in the coming years?

The greatest challenges are those in the area of intellectual freedom protection, i.e. those relating to free access, accessibility and openness of information. More specifically, the business sector is not legally obliged to provide information to the public, that is, private companies and organizations are not subject to any legal obligation. Moreover, international institutions, such as the World Bank and other financial organizations, have their own rulebooks on providing information about their work.

The regulation of the right of access to information depends on individual national laws. For example, Freedom of Press Act of 1766 in the Kingdom of Sweden is regarded as the first law on the right of access to information. Acts introducing an obligation on public authorities to make their information available to the public mainly only date from the second half of the 20th century. The United Nations has encouraged drafting of the mentioned Acts on the grounds that the right to seek, receive and impart information also implies an obligation of states to allow access to information in their possession.

In Croatia the Right to Free Access to Information Act is a key anti-corruption tool requiring authorities, administration and the public sector to be responsible and report about their work to citizens, i.e. to report how they work, how much and what they spend public money for, how they make decisions, and who participates in this process.

This is how citizens and especially media and associations, as guardians of democracy and promoters of public interest, can hold the government and administration and make them remember they are here for citizens and for the public interest. Progress has been achieved at the level of the state administration, as the result, among other things, of bigger capacities to prepare, publish and provide information to the user. According to analyses, 60 to 80% of statutory information in Croatia is published, depending on the state institution.

The biggest problems appear in small municipalities, some of which continuously ignore citizens and fail to fulfill their legal obligations. This is a problem for public libraries too, because they depend on local authorities and therefore operate under harsh conditions in terms of limited procurement power, availability of library materials and information in the online environment. As a result of insufficient libraries funding and a lack of clearly expressed libraries policy, there is therefore a limit to the free flow of information flow more broadly.

5) What role do you see libraries playing in relation to intellectual freedom in 10 years’ time?

Librarians in Croatia are aware of the important role of libraries in promoting fundamental human rights such as intellectual freedom, freedom of thought and speech and the right to free access to information, but the state and local government’s support for, and understanding of, library programs and tasks is still insufficient.

That is why it is extremely important for the library community to take a proactive role in the society into the future, in terms of advocacy and lobbying for libraries and library programs as well as activities at all levels. This should include a focus on ensuring adequate funding for the acquisition of materials and equipment, and efforts to balance conditions under which different categories of users can use the library.

Librarians must actively and publicly advocate the defense of intellectual freedom whenever freedom is in danger of being limited or diminished. Intellectual freedom means the right to freedom of thought and expression, based on which the right of an individual to be informed is derived. The librarian must provide users with the information needed for communication about a topic and must actively prevent any attempt to obstruct a transfer of information to users.

 

You can read more about the work of Croatian libraries to promote access to information, intellectual freedom and other human rights in IFLA’s submission to the Universal Periodic Review in Croatia.

Right to Information Recognised in New European Court Rulings

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Image: Group of scholars studying books. Text: A Right to Information: Finding a Good Balance with the Right to Be ForgottenTwo much anticipated rulings have come from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Both are ‘preliminary rulings’, effectively requests to the Court to offer clarification on what EU law – in this case the ‘right to be forgotten’ doctrine created by the Court in 2014 and placed in legislation in the General Data Protection Regulation of 2016.

As a reminder, the right to be forgotten refers to the right of individuals to ask that particular stories not be included in search results for their name. The idea is to ensure that there is a way of avoiding that search engines automatically give prominence to information that is unduly invasive of privacy.

IFLA has released a statement on the subject, underlining that the right to remove search results risks undermining access to information for internet users. While the IFLA statement notes that in some situations, a right to be forgotten may make sense, it argues strongly that this should be the exception, not the norm, and stresses concern about the impacts of leaving this choice to private actors.

The two cases in question come from France, and its Conseil national de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) – the national digital data protection authority. In the first (C-507/17), the CNIL itself was in dispute with Google about whether, once there had been a decision to award the right to be forgotten, this should only be applied within Europe, or whether Google should be obliged to apply it on all versions of its search engine, around the world.

The second (C-136/17) asked whether the ban on ‘processing’ (doing things with) certain types of personal data, such as that about religious beliefs or politics, should also apply to search engines.

 

The Right to Information

In the first case, the Court decided that there was no obligation to remove relevant links from search engines around the world, rather than just in France or the EU (global delisting). This is an important decision, and one that IFLA itself supported, given our own statement on the subject.

Significantly, the Court explores the question of the costs of global delisting: ‘However, it states that numerous third States do not recognise the right to dereferencing or have a different approach to that right. The Court adds that the right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right, but must be considered in relation to its function in society and be balanced against other fundamental rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality. In addition, the balance between the right to privacy and the protection of personal data, on the one hand, and the freedom of information of internet users, on the other, is likely to vary significantly around the world.’

This definitely a welcome point for libraries, and one that underpins the final decision of the European Court, given its explicit recognition of a right to information of internet users around the world.

In the second case, the Court does note that the bar on processing highly personal information applies also to search engines to the extent that they process it.

However, it also argues that the exceptions to this bar do too – in a case where including a link in search results is essential if a balance is to be found between the rights of individuals and of information seekers, then this can be OK.

Therefore, in cases where the subject of the information has a prominent role in public life, it may well be acceptable to maintain search results, in order to ‘protect[…] the freedom of information of internet users potentially interested in accessing that web page by means of such a search.’

 

But No Resolution Yet

In both cases, the final decision rests with the French courts. The European Court has given guidance on how to take this, but leaves enough margin of appreciation the judges in Paris. As a result, in the case of global delisting, despite all of the arguments to suggest that this is a questionable move, the judgement still says that there’s nothing saying that this cannot still be requested.

Similarly, the judgement on highly personal data suggests that it is for the French judges to determine whether Google has taken sufficient care in working out whether it was necessary to include the relevant links in its search results. As a result, we will not know the final results for a while yet.

Clearly Google itself is a lightning rod. Its size and reputation make it a bogeyman for many. However, it is worth noting that the judgements apply not just to Google, but also to any other company or information service offering search functionality.

As seen in the Le Soir judgement in Belgium in 2016, the idea of the right to be forgotten can also be applied to a service offering search into digitised old newspapers.

Crucially, while Google may be in a position to apply the rules set out, it may be harder for others to do the same. For example, in the judgement on highly sensitive data, the Court argues that a search engine should be able to rearrange results about court judgements in order to ensure that the most recent information comes first.

If the rules around offering search services become more complicated, the risk is that it’s the smaller players who will fall foul of the rules, not Google, reducing the choice of information seeking tools available to users around the world.

 

Facial Recognition, Libraries, and Intellectual Freedom

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FAIFE is marking the 20th anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom. As part of this, Jonathan Hernandez-Perez, a FAIFE member from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has shared the below blog on the subject of facial recognition technology, and what it means for libraries and their values. 

 

Facial recognition is one of the current obsessions of the tech industry, with regular high-profile product launches meaning that it is also high on the public agenda. It has developed rapidly over the last years, making it possible to undertake tasks that usually take hours in just the blink of an eye.

Yet as the number of public spaces that use this technology keeps rising, so too do the public’s concerns about privacy and surveillance, leading to many  more negative media headlines and an intense social media debate. This blog explores what facial recognition technology is, the questions it raises, and what this means for libraries.

 

What is Facial Recognition?

Facial recognition is a type of technology that allows the verification and identification of a person through analysis of his/her facial features. This technology has been with us since long before the coming of the internet.

With the intention of obtaining a definition of the “criminal face” during the 19th century, several facial patterns of ex-convicts and criminals were gathered. Fortunately, the idea that the measurements of someone’s head are associated with criminal tendencies has long been rejected.

However, some of the techniques involved have been enriched and improved, involving a greater number of actors and interests, leading to current technology that makes our daily lives more comfortable, from the basics of unlocking our cellphones or automatically “tag” a friend in a picture, to the more complicated issues, such as airport check-ins, tools to validate our identities at ATMs, or even means of gauging emotional responses. It turns our face, our emotions, and expressions into a bar code.

Furthermore, facial recognition has the potential to be combined with other technologies in order to combine and enhance the tracking that happens in the digital and physical sphere.

 

Enabling Surveillance, Hidden Bias

The convenience allowed for by facial recognition comes with a price, and in the digital era the cost is our privacy. This is because nowadays, our facial expressions – the very essence of human social and emotional interaction – have become an object of experimentation, propaganda, and database development. Arguably, we are only partially aware of the extent and consequences this technology could have in a very short time period, particularly because biometric technologies are still not widely understood.

A particular worry is the degree to which facial recognition technology enables mass surveillance. In 2013 the IFLA Trend Report stated that expanding data sets – for example of faces – held by governments and companies will support the advanced profiling of individuals, while sophisticated methods of monitoring and filtering communications data will make tracking those individuals cheaper and easier, warning that serious consequences for individual privacy and trust in the online world could be experienced. This now appears to be coming true.

In 2014, Insecam demonstrated the possibility of illicitly obtaining images from security and surveillance cameras that use weak passwords. This poses a particular threat to public privacy since they are placed in public spaces. Meanwhile, in 2016, a Russian photographer carried out an experiment to show how easy it was to identify strangers in the streets using only one picture to identify them. More recently, FaceApp, which takes your photo and gives an idea of how you’ll look decades from now, put back into focus the privacy vulnerabilities of mobile applications.

The consequences of the implementation of facial recognition technologies have come into the spotlight with the recent protests in Hong Kong, showing how our faces can become a weapon either for persecution or prosecution. Responding to public pressure, some cities have begun to ban the use of facial recognition software by state agencies; San Francisco, Somerville, and Oakland are the first cities in the United States with a regulatory law over this topic.

A further concern is around the risk of bias in facial recognition technologies. These systems are usually trained on a different number of faces from specific groups of people with similar facial characteristics (Mostly Caucasian) which could lead to the failure of people recognition in a more diverse environment, and in a legal way, this could lead possible mistaken identification entailing people to crimes they didn’t commit.

This matter involves race, gender identity, and sexual orientation issues which makes it more threatening and harmful, there are a number of examples of how this technology is developing an automated racism.

 

Impacts for Libraries

This year IFLA celebrates the 20th anniversary of the “IFLA Statement on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom”. It is as crucial as ever to underline one of its key principles:

Library users shall have the right to personal privacy and anonymity. Librarians and other library staff shall not disclose the identity of users or the materials they use to a third party.

This principle is relevant at the moment because today, privacy and mass surveillance are some of the most pervasive and threatening issues we face. Certainly, we risk seeing facial recognition turn from being a “fad” into a normal practice and would eventually be part of a new common sense and part of our mainstream culture. This would imply an important loss of privacy.

Libraries have always worked to keep up to speed with new technology and to make best use of the possibilities it offers. Therefore, facial recognition will also impact in their services.

Facilitating the registration, loan, and access to information resources could be a very attractive reason to implement this kind of technology in libraries. Companies are already selling biometric software for book loans and some libraries have been using these systems for a couple of years now.

In the near future, libraries may be able to offer material based on our facial expression, then, our face could become a personal card that does not belong to us, associated with all the data about books read, web pages consulted, and topics we are passionate about. If we are not aware of the extent of this information, it could become a big threat to our privacy.

As a result, the use of this technology in libraries is a matter that should be analyzed in the light of user freedoms and rights, and the potential damage it could do to privacy and intellectual freedom, values that libraries have defended for years.

Therefore, libraries must provide digital secure spaces where our movements are not tracked and develop privacy programs for librarians and their community. An interesting example is the Library Freedom Institute, which teaches librarians and patrons how to protect their privacy online and how to influence public policies on this matter.

 

Conclusion

Although we may share similarities with other people all over the world, every face has its own interesting and unique features. Thousands of databases are daily fed with biometric information and we are taking part into this dynamic through our daily digital behavior. But the problem shouldn´t be attached to the user. Knowing the value of our data or agreeing on the terms and conditions companies impose it’s not enough, neither is derision or banning some apps or software.

What is required is having strong legal frameworks and policies that protect individual rights for limiting such tracking. Libraries can both lead the way in their practice, and push for the right laws and regulations in their advocacy.

Intellectual freedom in Syria

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FAIFE is marking the 20th anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom. To understand where the debate on intellectual freedom stands today, we are talking with the members and expert advisors of the FAIFE Committee. Today, we’re getting the perspective from Inaam Charaf, originally from Syria, and who is now Assistant Regional Director at the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour of New Brunswick, Canada. 

 

 

For us, as librarians, intellectual freedom (حرية التفكير والتعبير) is the right to access and receive information it without any restriction. In short, it’s freedom of expression, thinking, providing, reading and receiving knowledge, ideas and information.

Intellectual freedom in Syria is seen and interpreted in many ways, depending on someone’s  political, social and individual status or orientation. However, the importance of this issue has led the general Syrian public who, for decades was deprived of this right, to revolt against the dictatorship and claiming a democratic system where people have the right to autonomy as well as the right to self-governance.

For this cause, since March 2011, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands more have lost their freedom and have been reported as cases of enforced disappearance, and have been either detained or died under torture and behind bars, in addition to the millions of Syrians who faced and suffered from forced migration, including myself and hundreds of other librarians.

For libraries, in a healthy and democratic country, intellectual freedom is a vital issue. In Syria, the level of awareness about the importance of this issue, is very high. However, on the practice front, libraries and librarians are deprived of the right to provide people with information and knowledge of all kinds, nature and intellectual content.

The biggest questions and controversies that librarians facing in Syria today are: “what is the future of Arab spring revolutions? What is the cost of intellectual freedom and how can libraries and librarians deal with these questions and controversies? How to be just a librarian?”

The answer to these questions, from a personal point of view and as a librarian, is to keep fighting for our profession and to deal with intellectual freedom as a vital historical process as well as a supreme goal to which we need to attend. Intellectual freedom has been associated, historically, with the claim to political freedom, and pursued with the aim of breaking the walls of intellectual exclusivity and other restrictions. The status of intellectual freedom was controlled by the state and the Church. These two authorities interfered in every aspect of life, faith, daily practices, art, science, etc.

“The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco is a novel which takes place in the 14th century, but which is somehow linked with our era, with all of its social and political events. That medieval library run by young novice librarians, and where many monks were found murdered in mysterious ways, is the perfect example of the status of intellectual freedom, libraries and librarians in Syria today, but in different forms and tools.

In the novel it turns out, at the end, that all those terrible crimes were committed for a supreme ethical and intellectual reason: the second part of the ”Poetics”, a manuscript by Aristotle containing his theory of comedy and laughter, thought to be lost, had been found in the library. Somebody was willing to do anything – even kill – to prevent the circulation of this manuscript.

The many and different events in ”The Name of the Rose” reflect in a way or another the contemporary Arab spring revolutions and the severe repression of those revolutionary movements. Authorities have been ready to go to any lengths to prevent the emergence and spread of ideas.

The biggest challenges for intellectual freedom in the coming years in Syria could be briefly described in the following statements:

– A peace plan for Syria to put a stop to the spread of violence

– A drive to help a whole generation of Syrian children who were forced to displace with their families and living today either in displacement camps or European countries to make up for the lost years of education and literacy

I believe that libraries have a key role and very strong relation to intellectual freedom. By providing all information resources, in all formats and methods, and equally to all users in all their categories, without any discrimination based on cultural, ethnic, religious or sexual background, libraries could play a vital role in changing the status of intellectual freedom in Syria, in the next 10 years.

Libraries can also lead awareness and social mobilization campaigns to defend intellectual freedom and freedom of expression, as well as to advocate for individual freedoms and for others’ freedom and privacy, to limit interference in individual and daily life, and respect for personal choices.

IFLA Statement on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom, 20 Years On – the UK Perspective

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FAIFE is marking the 20th anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom. To understand where the debate on intellectual freedom stands today, we are talking with the members and expert advisors of the FAIFE Committee. Today, we’re getting the perspective from the United Kingdom from Louise Cooke, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management at Loughborough University.

 

This year we celebrate twenty years since the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom was prepared by IFLA FAIFE and approved by the Executive Board of IFLA on 25 March 1999 in The Hague, Netherlands.

This seems a good point to stand back and reflect on where we are now as a society in terms of intellectual freedom, and some of the challenges facing this critical human right.

Of course, our perspectives will differ according to where in the world we are living, not to mention our own subjective views: therefore, this blog can only be written from my own perspective as a UK citizen. However, comments and reflections from your own personal and geographical perspective would be welcome in the comments section below. Please feel free to contribute!

The term ‘intellectual freedom’ can mean many things even to a single person. Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that relates to intellectual freedom, states:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” (United Nations, 1948)

Although not explicitly using the term ‘intellectual freedom’, this is a useful starting point for a definition.

It is inclusive – everyone has an equal right to this basic civil liberty. It also acknowledges the right to hold opinions without interference, whether or not we choose to express them.

In addition, it does not constrain itself to freedom of expression (i.e. the right to speak, write or publish controversial opinion) but also highlights the importance of freedom of access to information, in whatever form it takes and wherever we may be in the world.

In the UK this right is all too often taken for granted: albeit that it is restricted by numerous legislative instruments (such as the Obscene Publications Act 1964, the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 and the Public Order Act 1986) and social norms that proscribe potentially offensive or harmful speech, there is a general belief that we are relatively free to voice our opinions and to access information without constraint.

The UK Human Rights Act 1998 Article 10 reflects the UN UDHR in asserting that everyone has the right to freedom of speech, including the right ‘to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers’. Since 2005, we have also held a legal right to request information held by public authorities via the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

However, it must be borne in mind that these rights are qualified, for example in the interests of national defence and security and, in the case of the Human Rights Act, also for ‘the protection of health and morals’, all of which exemptions seem sufficiently broad (and vague) as to raise questions about the validity of the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of access to information in practice.

The UK is currently undergoing a period of turmoil, change and uncertainty, in particular with regard to the proposed exit from the European Union.

A recent ‘Democracy Audit’ (Dunleavy, Park & Taylor 2018) carried out by scholars at the LSE highlighted the adverse impact of divisions over Brexit and chaotic political party relations, the polarisation of debate and the damaging impact on small parties inflicted by the ‘first past the post’ electoral system, and the damage caused to public services by the austerity agenda pursued between 2010 and 2018.

Public libraries have been hit particularly hard by this agenda, with nearly 130 public library closures in 2018 alone, and many local libraries being ‘deprofessionalised’ and left to community groups to run.

This is a concern for intellectual freedom: whilst well-meaning volunteers may prevent a local area from being left with no library service, volunteers are not usually professionally trained and may not hold the same awareness of, and commitment to, the professional body CILIP’s commitment to the principle of intellectual freedom and rejection of censorship and its newly revised Ethical Framework.

Meanwhile, work carried out at Loughborough University between 2012 and 2014 on UK public libraries’ management of internet access, found that, while the use of filtering software appears to be ubiquitous in UK public libraries, most professional and frontline library staff regarded the expediency of this to be of greater import than the potential adverse impact of filtering on intellectual freedom.

In addition to the impact of public library closures, increasingly restrictive anti-terrorism legislation, and the use of filtering software, public libraries in the UK are, as elsewhere, subject to challenges from members of their local community regarding appropriateness of material held by the library.

Censorship challenges to books held in Scottish public libraries are detailed in a 2012 paper by Taylor and McMenemy, which also discusses the actions taken by the libraries concerned in response to the challenges.

Although this study is also a good example of the use of Freedom of Information legislation to shine a light on the extent of censorship in libraries, and the protection that can be offered by a carefully developed and implemented collection development policy, it also reflects the fact that there is no room for complacency with regard to the state of intellectual freedom in UK public libraries.

Moreover, as new challenges and threats arise in line with new technological developments that offer ever greater opportunities for surveillance and more sophisticated and widespread data collection and analytics, the need for librarians to be constantly aware of their ethical responsibilities with regard to protection of user privacy and the protection of intellectual freedom will only become more acute.

Intellectual Freedom in Japan

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FAIFE is marking the 20th anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom. As part of this, we had a chat with Yasuyo Inoue, expert advisor to the FAIFE Committee and Professor of Library Science at Dokkyo University, to find out more about intellectual freedom in Japan from her personal perspective.

1) What do you and your colleagues understand by ‘intellectual freedom’ in Japan?

知的自由 means ‘Intellectual freedom’ in Japanese. It includes free expression, free access to information at libraries and free access to information at national/local government offices. It is linked to the same concepts as those discussed in IFLA FAIFE and is essential for libraries in Japan.

2) How important an issue is it for libraries, and for the general population, in Japan?

The Japan Library Association adopted in 1954 its own statement on intellectual freedom in libraries. The Association has furthermore noted the IFLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom at Libraries, given that this concept is a core value for Japanese libraries including public, school and academic libraries.

Generally speaking, people in Japan are often more interested in free expression rather than free access to information in libraries. In Japan people think that libraries are only a place for studying and are mainly for students. It is difficult for many to imagine that libraries – especially public libraries – are public spaces for communication and information flow.

3) What have been the biggest questions and controversies in recent years?

There have been several cases of intellectual freedom being threatened in Japan.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that libraries have the right to decide which books or documents are to be selected and provided. This was related to the case of the Funabashi Library, where a librarian made available more than 100 books with rather right-wing content without following the appropriate method.

In 2013, the manga book titled “Barefoot Gen”, as well as elementary school libraries holding copies of this book were attacked by an extreme-right wing group. The group claimed that the book included excessive violent expression and were not suitable for small children. The group insisted that the book should be removed from the shelves of all school libraries! It later came out that the group wished the book banned, not due to the violence, but because of the main character disliked the Emperor of Japan because of the war and the atomic bombs. Even so, still more and more people are signing petitions to local governments to ban this manga book from the shelves at school libraries.

In January, the copyright law was changed because of the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to which Japan is a signatory. The issues of digitisation, notably in order to preserve materials was addressed, with a decision to wait a further 20 years to start the process of digitisation. Though public libraries are an exception, private companies, NGOs and other organisations are facing many challenges. This is a huge issue, in particular for disabled people and to free access to information in general.

Furthermore, the Japanese government has planned to raise the sales tax rate to 10%. Publishers are demanding books and other media commodities should be excepted from this raise. To this the Government answered that if the publishers stop making “harmful books”, they may be ready to act. The publishers insist that this reaction is against free expression.

We have also recently seen several cases of library users’ private information being compromised.

Earlier this year, the police of Tomakomai city searched library users’ reading records without warrant. The library had agreed to show the documents, though the act by the police was illegal.

Also the company CCC has publicly admitted that they provide clients’ private information to authorities. This company manages several public libraries and provides its own card, for which clients can get points every time they buy something or use it as library card.

4) What do you think are the biggest challenges for intellectual freedom in the coming years?

I see the biggest challenges as big data and the protection of private information. This is a huge issue for libraries, and it is important that we get involved. Participating in Internet Governance Forum activities is a great way to do this.

I also see copyright issues and free access to information, especially related to AI as big challenge.

Furthermore, is the lack of full-time professional librarians who are trained in intellectual freedom in libraries an issue, as well as the increase in privatised public libraries.

5) What role do you see libraries playing in relation to intellectual freedom in 10 years’ time?

In Japan, future librarians will be more like social workers and educators who make services for the people facing difficulties to get access to the information they need. There will also be more services for reading-challenged people, seniors and foreigners/immigrants who cannot read Japanese.