Changes in user rights and core values of public libraries?
Anita Sandberg - Ph.D fellow
Advisor
Professor Ragnar Andreas Audunson
Project period
Spring 2006 - autumn 2009
New information technologies increase our abilities to turn information and cultural goods and services into public goods, but these possibilities are neglected as the same technologies create new market opportunities for private actors. As a result intellectual property rights are frequently expanded, and the changes cause increased tension between user rights and private ownership. Public libraries are forced to deal with international trade agreements concerning immaterial rights, and this is likely to challenge the traditional values of the profession, such as free and equal access for all. Such principles are stated in the IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, and they build upon Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Norway these principles are embodied in The Public Library Act, which is related to Article 100 in The Constitution.
As many lawyers world wide are warning about the long term negative effects of the changes on user rights, it is reasonable to ask if and how public libraries are to remain defenders of freedom of speech and freedom of information. Building on Norman Fairclough and his theories on discourse analysis, I aim at identifying how international judicial research and critical debate are reflected among librarians in Norway and Denmark. My project may identify possible solutions resulting from the debates, but my main task is to identify how the core values of the profession are affected by the changes, and to what extent public libraries in the two Scandinavian countries have a unified approach to the complex problem of intellectual ownership versus public access.