Censorship impedes intellectual freedom: the librarianship dilemma

Intellectual freedom is fundamental for the development of society and democracy. It is well articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration states in Article 19 that, “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas though any media and regardless of frontiers.” Equally important and at times controversial is censorship, to a greater extend that limits, although purely restrict access to materials deemed inappropriate to societal, political and religious values. In that context the subject of censorship has come under spotlight in libraries, conferences, families and at national level debates. This work endeavours to discuss the relationship that exists between intellectual freedom and censorship citing relevant examples from the global perspective. However the terms intellectual freedom and censorship are to be defined. Issues to be discussed include intellectual freedom as the cornerstone of the library profession, its mechanism for socializing society and forging cultural and economic unity among other issues.

According to Cain (2006) “intellectual freedom is the right of individuals to express freely ideas and beliefs without restriction from government or other authorities. It includes the corresponding right of individuals to have unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used . . .” Bryne (1999) opine that intellectual freedom encompasses academic freedom but extend beyond the academy to the essential principles of freedom of thought, freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression. ALA (2007) in Pooley (2007) attests intellectual freedom in the right to freedom of thought and of expression of thought. It further mentions that it is a human right. The basic definition given by IFLA (2002) in Fitzsimmons (1996) is that;

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restrictions. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause, or movement may be explored . . . . Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas.”

Fitzsimmons (1996) corroborate that intellectual freedom is the fundamental right . . . to have access to all expressions of knowledge, creativity and intellectual activity and to express their thoughts publicly. According to Draper (2001) intellectual freedom is understood to be the right of all individuals to formulate and articulate their own understanding of the character of the world and of society, and to have unrestricted access to the information necessary to develop this understanding.

The author deduce that intellectual freedom constantly describe the free access and publishing of intellectual material at will without any strings attached and is well articulated in various declarations and conventions as a basic human right.

Censorship on the hand is denoting, according to Fitzsimmons (1996);

. . . effort by a government, organisations, groups or individual to prevent people from reading, seeing or hearing what may be considered as dangerous to government or harmful to public. It further entails efforts to ban, prohibit, suppress, prosecute, remove, label or restrict materials.”

According to Staples (2001) censorship is the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society. ALA (2004) attests that censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons – individuals, groups or government officials – find objectionable or dangerous. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom refer censorship to the deletion or excision of parts of published materials but also efforts to ban, prohibit, suppress, proscribe, remove, label or restrict materials. Sens (2010) discuss censorship at length and coined that “in a democratic society it is not just removal of information, it is also an attitude that is counter to the notion of an open society, as it discourages informed participation, honest dialogue and criticism and results in conflict that for the short-term benefit of a false sense of security actually hampers the peace and happiness of individual and is counterproductive to their institutions. A more vivid understanding of censorship was discussed by Byrne (1998) who pointed out that censorship may be broadly be defined as any action that works against a climate of intellectual freedom. He went on to mention that censorship is both the process and the practice of excluding material that is deemed by someone to be objectionable. In the closing Byrne (1998) coined that censorship is the most powerful nonmilitary tool that is available to governments. Interesting contributions by Ristarp (2000) states that in modern thought, censorship is an effort by a government, private organisation, group, or individual to prevent people from reading, seeing, or hearing what may be considered as dangerous to government or harmful to public morality. Ristarp (2000) further attests that in a restricted sense censorship refers to the work of a person or agency with the authority to come between the producer to publish, and the consumer to acquire knowledge of, the censored materials.

From the above it can be deduced that censorship is both a process and practice that is suppress intellectual freedom through varied means, some perpetuate law and enforcement agency. It is considered to be a negative act which denies access to information.

Several authors (Pooley, 2007; Fitzsimmons, 1996; Cain, 2006; and Draper, 2007) share that in every society, in every age – from ancient Rome to modern American – the climate of intellectual freedom has been constantly threatened by acts of censorship. The threat referred to speaks volumes of the perspective that intellectual freedom and censorship are comparable to water and oil. In scientific terms water and oil do not share similar atom formation therefore they do not bond either by electron transfer or sharing.

The definitions given specified that censorship is diabolic as it denies access to intellectual imaginations that are crucial in society to institute development. Information by its nature is a crucial commodity critical in national political, economic, scientific and technological (PEST) growth. It is available through freedom of expression that is a key element as articulated in the e in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1950 that clearly states that;

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers (Ristarp, 2000).

There is widespread condemnation of censorship as a restrictive, undesirable practice that suppresses ideas and information to impose [the censors] view of what is truthful and appropriate (Pooley, 2007). It is the restrictions that spur the water and oil relationship as the other is trying to provide unlimited access as far as possible, and the other component is restricting and at some instances completely bans the item. The general public requires information for different purposes, of which in a democratic society it is functional requisite. Failure to have access to information is tantamount to authoritarian rule. Censorship has been used by several governments to restrict spread of information that seek to clarify the position of the political warfare in a nation. This is normally instigated through suppressing the media both electronic and print. The destructive results were penned by Bryne (2000) who stated that; “In a nation in which we cannot express an opinion for or against a government, ideology or dogma, we do not have the freedom to select a government, ideology or dogma.” It is the failure to democratically make a choice that is bemoaned at in censorship.

Information per se is imperative as a primary mechanism for socializing children and forging a sense of cultural unity in society. In this context Draper (2000) opined that libraries and schools play an instrumental function of inculcating in the society an understanding of the complexity of human systems and interaction to provide an environment in which critical thinking and effective problem solving skills (both moral and practical) can be effectively developed. Socialisation is possible to the fullest were intellectual freedom is not interfered with. The basis of societal growth and purveying of a culture pivot on freedom of expression of ideas that are transmitted from one generation to the next. ALA in Ristarp (2000) signify intellectual freedom is the basis of a democratic system that leads people to be self-governors but to do so citizenry must be well-informed.  The significance of intellectual property has been outlined that is being threatened by censorship in the pretext that we are protecting soceity yet in actual fact they are disadvantaging the new generation. Most of the cultural materials are enshrined in books that are housed in libraries but are censored thereby pulling them off the shelves depriving the public what is fundamental. This clearly put forward the undesirability of censorship to deny what is right others. Instances in the United States of books banned and pulled off the shelves are tip of an iceberg of how censorship can be draconian. In Zimbabwe too books and musical recordings have been pulled-off air as they are considered insulting on moral, political and religious grounds. The album by Hosiah Chipanga “Xenophobia” was pulled of the air as well as other musical recordings of Thomas Mapfumo and Learnard Zhakata among others.

Ward (1990) articulated that censorship is wrong because it makes it less likely that truth will be discovered or preserved and it is wrong because it has destructive consequences for the intellectual character of those who live under it. The aspects that it separate people from the truth and information, censorship make it difficult for information reach to all people. Therefore it becomes an enemy to intellectual freedom, so to say. This further affirms to the notion that intellectual freedom and censorship are like water and oil. Staples (1996) testify that reading what she liked to read helped her learn whom she was and where she fit into the world. The testimony outlined how critical intellectual freedom is in shaping society and the individual in pursuing their goal. Censorship may be preemptive (preventing the publication or broadcast of undesirable information) or punitive (punishing those who publish or broadcast offending material) (Pooley, 2007). The identifies forms of censorship provoke the intellectual property rights, creating an unconducive environment to write, act and do theatre as whatever theme being portrayed in the scene is subject to censor. Censorship restricts creativity, imaginations, and largely suppresses academic freedom. Instances in Zimbabwe that have negatively affect academic freedom are when the political situation has fundamentally negative impact on academic freedom and has significantly reduced the scope of free inquiry (Moyo, 2009). The actions stifled academic development in universities as intellectual capital fled to exile as Moyo (2009) highlighted that the high levels of human rights abuses has put scholars at risk negatively affecting operations of universities.

Libraries are avenues that promote intellectual freedom through acquisitions of information sources to implement the IFLA and UNESCO manifestos on public and school libraries and the internet and multicultural manifesto.  These efforts are met with resistance from government bodies and local activists who from time to time monitor what books, internet resources and discussions are held in public libraries. The librarians are faced with an ethical dilemma that eventually would be superseded by circumstances. To avoid confrontations with law enforcement agents and parents, librarians end up neglecting controversial books. Staples (1996) noted that by far the most common type of censorship involves books quietly disappearing from libraries and frequently a librarian removes the controversial book to safeguard their jobs. This is  what Staples (1996) termed “stealth censorship.” Examples of books that have been banned due to moral and religious concerns are Satanic verses, Daddy’s roommate, Scary Stories to tell in the Dark  and a local book by Edgar Tegere. Sens (2010) noted that censorship from the professional perspective of a library professional is not only a moral issue, it is also practical issue, because the practice of censorship puts a real constraint on the selection of materials . . . a librarian could decide to avoid acquiring materials that represent a risk. From Sens (2010) point of view library collections should contain materials representing a variety of perspectives on subjects that may be considered controversial. Censorship practice does not foster a sense of open dialogue and infantilizes patrons in direct contradiction with “critical thinking” expectations discussed Sens (2010).

In modern society there is widespread support for intellectual freedom. Malley (1990) in Pooley (2007) identified intellectual freedom as the essence of the profession of librarianship a view also shared by other authors, Bryne, (2000), Sens (2010), Fitzsimmons (1996) and Bryne (1999) noted that intellectual freedom is a responsibility for librarians. Despite the above assertion censorship may be practiced on political, religious, moral and legal ground making the offence one of treason, heresy, or obscenity, according to Rispat (2000). Thus censorship has little or no respect for intellectual freedom as noted by Bryne (2000) that China has an appalling record of intimidating activists for democracy and practice strong censorship. This has been substantiated by a recent event reported by CNN that China has blocked all  social media and blogging website to slow down peoples communications. The event has demonstrated that true indeed, intellectual freedom and censorship are water and oil. Similar instance are happening Zimbabwe were journalists are arrested and criminalised for publishing stories that are considered degrading and likely to cause or facilitate efficiency of the Rwanda genocide wrote the News Day. News Day (2010) concluded that it is the freedom of the press and intellectual freedom on trial. The situations vividly portray the water and oil circumstances under scrutiny in the discussion.

The comments on censorship apparently state that it is an undesirable practice that restricts access to information thereby stifling development and impeding freedom of expression. The practice of censorship is still controversial in modern society as it was in the early years considering that declarations and covenants having been passed to promote intellectual freedom. The thought was expressed by Malon (2010) that the universal philosophical embrace of free expression is reflected in the many covenants and declarations that have been passed in support of freedom and human rights; these include the UN Charter (1945), the UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966), the European Convention on Human Rights (1953), the Helsinki Final Act (1975), and the American (Western Hemisphere) Convention on Human Rights (1978). The internet, a tool designed to allow free flow of information is under threat from censorship and already terms such as “internet censorship” are finding their way into the censorship terminology. Bryne (1999) observed that censorship battles have shifted to the internet with propositions to erect barriers to the intellectual frontiers, filtering what people may access. According to Bryne (1999) such measures strike at the right to know, our right to freely access information and to openly express views . . . they strike at the core universities, at academic freedom itself. The water and oil is registered here as the impositions of internet censorship would limit access to information for research and study.

However, Malon (2010) also observed that despite its many disreputable uses, censorship also serves a more benign end. The argument is that many suggest that censorship is necessary for a healthy society and in some cases may be for the protection of the public highlighted Malon (2010). One such example is in the broadcasting of explicit material, be it violent or sexual in nature even it may be argued that broadcasters should be free to broadcast content, parents should also be free to have their children watch television without the fear that they will see inappropriate material. Another benign use of censorship is that of information that is secret for national security purposes. Malon (2010) maintains that governments should uphold a level of secrecy in regards to much pertaining to the national defense so as not to reveal weaknesses to any security risks.

The foregoing underpinned the standoff in modern literature concerning intellectual freedom and censorship. It emerged that censorship suppress intellectual freedom due to political, moral and religious pressure in the name of creating a habitable intellectual climate though punishing though giving birth to the controversy. Intellectual freedom has been identified as a necessity and a human right to foster development and create informed citizenry. Information has been identified as the avenue for sustainable development thus needs to be made available as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Right. The picture of water and oil referred to has been fashioned  by the fact that censorship restricts and in some instances completed ban the circulation of intellectual property whilst intellectual freedom advocate for free and uninterrupted flow of information in any medium and form. The restrictions threaten media freedom, academic freedom and any other freedoms articulated in the declarations and covenants. It also emerged that censorship is a tool used by governments; however it is not as bad as it has been portrayed as it necessary for a healthy society.

Reference

American Libraries Association (2004) “Intellectual freedom and censorship Q and A.” Available at http://www.ala.org/. (Accessed 12/4/2011).

Byrne, Alex (1999) “See librarian.” Australian Academic and Research Libraries, vol. 30; no. 2. Available at http://archive.ifla.org/faife/papers/others/byrne2.htm (Accessed 5/4/2011).

Byrne, Alex (2000) “Promoting intellectual freedom globally through libraries: the role of IFLA.” Libri. Vol.50; no. 50, p. 57 – 65.

Cain, Charlene C. (2006) “Librarians and censorship: the ethical imperative.” Louisiana Libraries, p. 6 – 8.

Draper, Lincoln (2001) “Intellectual freedom, censorship and the schools: an American values conflict.” Available at http://pages.swep.com/~ldraper?slum/biblios/draper.html (Accessed 10/4/2011).

Fitzsimmons, Richard (1996) “Censorship, intellectual freedom, librarianship and the democratic state.” Paper presented at the international conference: “Libraries, Books, Ideology During the Second World War (1939 – 1945), National library of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. October 8 – 12. Available at http://archive.ifla.org/ (Accessed 5/4/2011).

Malon, T. (2010) “What is censorship?” Available at  http://gilc.org/speech/osistudy/censorship/. (Accessed 12/4/2011).

Moyo, Jabulani (2009) “Academic freedom and human rights in Zimbabwe.” Social Research. Available at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/. (Accessed at 14/4/2011).

News Day, 14 June 2010, Harare.

Pooley, Alexandra (2007) “Ethical training: censorshiop and intellectual freedom in public library.” A Master of Arts in Library Science, University of Sheffield. Available at http://idagda.shef.ac.uk/dissertations/2006-07/External/Pooley_Alexandra_MALib.pdf. (Accessed 15/4/2011).

Ristarp, Jan (2000) “Libraries and the intellectual freedom.” A Key note paper at the conference “Literature to Politics – Politics to Literature,” Copenhagen, 10 – 11 November. Available at http://archive.ifla.org/ (Accessed 5/4/2011).

Sens, Jean-Mark (2010) “Not I” said the pig: who detects intellectual freedom for librarians?” Library Philosophy and Practice. Available at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/. (Accessed 14/4/2011).

Staples, Suzanne-Fisher (1996) “What Johnny can’t read: censorship in American libraries.” The ALAN Review, vol. 23; no. 2.

Ward, David V. (1990) “Philosophical issues in censorship and intellectual freedom.” Library Trends, vol. 39; no. 1 and 2, p. 83 – 91.

Competitive intelligence the new information science funtion

Competitive intelligence (CI) is critical for organisations to stay abreast of changing market conditions and avoid costly mistakes. CI is not a new phenomenon but can be traced back to the writings of Sun Tzu who several centuries ago wrote, The Art of War, which provided a detailed description of how to develop intelligence for military applications (Sun, 1988 in Calif and Wright, 2008). To date CI has gathered much momentum as a valuable strategy to provide valuable knowledge rather, for making decisive decisions. Oder (2001) mentioned that CI has long been practiced in some form and its increasing importance may be seen in the growth of The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), which has increased from 150 members in 1986 to nearly 7 000 in 1999. Equally vital is information science that has dramatically changed due to CI even though they encompass similar activities. This work endeavours to discuss the values of CI in the perspective of information science practice. However the terms competitive intelligence and information science are to be defined to provide working definitions for this work.

Oder (2001) opined that CI involves not only the collection of information (from both primary and secondary sources) but also analysis of how that information affects the company’s competitive environment and communication of that anal to decision-makers. According to Kahaner (1996) CI is a systematic programme (sic) for gathering and analysis information about your competitors’ activities and general business trends to further your own company’s goals. A more elaborate definition of CI was coined by Gilad and Fuld (1998) in Alexandra, Andreea and Anca (2002) that CI is the action of ethically and legally gather, analyse and communicate information about third party players in one’s competitive arena – from competitors, to suppliers, customers, influencing parties, distributors and so forth to be used by companies in their planning and decision-making. In addition Prescott and Gibbons (1993) in Trimberger (2010) maintained that CI is the “evolving process by which the management teams assess the evolution of its industry and capabilities and behaviour of its current and potential competitors to assist in maintaining and developing a competitive advantage. A working definition by Santos and Corriea (2010) that CI is,

. . . the conversion of data and information, gathered by an organisation from its external and internal environment, into intelligence that supports the organisational decision-making process. . . . process of monitoring the competitive environment and analysing the findings in the context of internal issues, for the purpose of decision support.

It can be summerised that CI is an ongoing activity that gather intelligence with the aim to categorise it for dissemination to users in an easily interpreted form to influence decision-making. The concept of CI has its roots in marketing where it is commonly used to gather data to map marketing plans.

According to Bates (1999) information science (IS) is a field devoted to scientific inquiry and professional practice addressing the problems of effective communication of knowledge and knowledge records among humans in the context of social, institutional and/or individual uses of and needs for information.  He further outlined that IS is the study of the gathering, organising, storing, retrieving, and dissemination of information. The IS wiki identified IS as consisting of the knowledge and understanding of how to collect, classify, manipulate, store, retrieve and disseminate any type of information. The Wiki maintained that IS focuses on understanding problems from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and then applying information and other technologies as needed. According to the Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science (2004) IS is the systematic study and analysis of the sources, development, collection, organisation, dissemination, evaluation, use, and management of information in all its forms, including the channels (formal and informal) and technology used in its communication.  According to Zins (2006) IS is;

An interdisciplinary field concerned with the theoretical and practical concepts, as well as the technological, laws, and industry dealing with knowledge transfer and the sources, generation, organisation, representation, processing, distribution, communication, and uses of information as well as communications among users and their behaviour as they seek to satisfy their information needs.

Simply stated information science is the practice that is concerned with the gathering, manipulation, classification, storage, and retrieval of recorded knowledge.

The given definitions show similar activities in CI and IS that are critical in pronouncing them as meta-disciplines that collect, analysing and disseminate information for utilisation. The fact that is shared between IS and CI is that they recognise information as a critical aspect of life in the 21^st century contributing immensely in the knowledge economy. Above all the disciplines adhere that information is contributing as the fourth key component driving economies of several nations and that there is need to develop information systems that can acquire, organise, maintain and disseminate information with minimum effort and costs to users through adjusting the traditional perspectives substantially. Aspects of CI that are common in IS are related to information retrieval which in the disciplines play a critical if not a substantial role in the quest for locating the information fundamental in the emergence of an information-based economy. Moon (2000) maintained that few organisations have truly integrated information into their strategies and planning processes in a substantial way to obtain sustainable competitive advantage.

According to Mooers (1951) in Saracevic (1995) information retrieval (IR) embraces the intellectual aspects of the description of information and its specification for search and also whatever systems, techniques or machines that are employed to carry out the operations. IR is relevant in the age where information explosion has continued unabated with the evolution of sophisticated electronic databases, texts and networks that has prompted information professionals to incorporate CI to better manage information for competitive advantage in organisations. CI becomes invaluable in the collecting of information for use in organisation to support and lead management in the decisions and actions. Trimberger (2000) identify IR as the selection of resources, the evaluation of the quality, biases and authenticity of those sources, finding data that is useful. Due to sophisticated methods of IR demonstrated in CI, “ it has been seen as a critical function by senior management at firms as it harness the information, within and external to an organisation, and culls it down to nuggets of intelligence – intelligence that is delivered to management for action” (Moon, 2000). The value of CI has been articulated by Havenga and Botha (2000) who stated that;

In order for organisations to remain globally competitive, new tools for decision-making are required. Of these tools, it is internationally recognised that Competitive Intelligence (CI) is fast becoming a norm rather than the exception to assist management with decision-making in the modern knowledge-based organisation.

To numerous organisations CI is generally relevant to the competitiveness through providing sustainable competitive advantage. The value of CI in modern IS can not be overruled as a synergy between the two promotes availability of intelligence critical for organisations to remain or become truly globally competitive. According to Santos and Correia (2010) CI can be seen as an information processing routine that looks forward to prepare the organisation to compete (and win)  in changing environments, whose dynamism is the result of systematic monitoring. Santos and Correia (2010) further maintain that the process of acquiring, and structuring information and knowledge are central as an activity within broader planning process. The practice of modern IS can be enhanced through CI to enable organisations to “identify new opportunities leading to innovation and ultimately benefiting the competitive status of the organisation” (Havenga and Botha, 2000).

Miller (1996) identified that the components of the intelligence process include identification of users and their needs, the collection and analysis of information and dissemination of intelligence to decision makers and for strategist. It become clear that CI is a narrow activity in IS that sieve for relevant information from both primary and secondary sources to capture and communicate this information on a consistent basis with minimal cost. With the increasing need for information in organisations information professionals are required to be competitive information leaders utilising both CI and IS to communicate information for strategic purposes and remain purposeful in their capacities. Chochrek (2000) opined that CI is the ability to gather the facts, see into the future, and convince your audience that you hold the key. Perhaps a definition of information professional would make an impact in discussing the value of CI in modern IS practice. According to Lindsey-King (1998) in Havenga and Both (2000), “an information professional can be defined as the individual who is primarily responsible for harnessing the organisation’s information sources and information capabilities to enable it to learn and adapt to its changing environment. In most cases the information professional add value to IS through employing intelligence to provide information by responding with a sense of urgency to critical information needs. However, in order to accurately assess the exact extent and nature of the information professional’s involvement and responsibility towards the delivery of competitive intelligence it is necessary to consider the existing skills of the information professional in comparison to the skills needed by the competitive intelligence professional (Havenga and Both 2000).  Correia (2005:38) in Chisita (2011) observed that the new information driven economy presents insurmountable challenges to information professionals as they have to rebrand, redefine their roles and titles, developing skills and identifying functions and tasks to adopt and eliminate, developing relationships with different categories of clients and colleagues, establishing a new process and gathering and applying new resources and techniques. Nevertheless, the instrumental participation of the information professionals in CI and IS relate to the communicating of the information to the users despite their skills and competences.

The value of CI is attributed to the communication of intelligence that is required by managers which is an enhancement to IS which communicate mainly information which when collected form knowledge or intelligence. Communicating intelligence is the prime function of CI that is necessary in the knowledge-based economy for decision-making particularly. Miller (1996) noted that the final phase of the intelligence process consists of communicating the analysis effectively. Trimberger (2000) also noted that communicating the CI product to the customer is comparable to delivering information to a client must be done in a timely fashion and in an effective format. Saracevic (1995) noted that social and economic roles of information [intelligence rather] activities are becoming more and more pronounced; their strategic importance in increasing. Further contributions by Saracevic (2000) are that there are fundamental economic and social changes afoot in which knowledge and information is becoming the base, the prime valuation, for economy and even society as a whole. This is further expounded by Drucker (1994) in Saracevic (2000) that;

The basic economic resource - “the means of production” to use the economist’s term – is no longer capital, nor natural resource (the economist’s land), nor “labour.” It is and will be knowledge . . . . Value is now created by “productivity” and “innovation” both applications of knowledge at work. The leading social group of the knowledge society will be “knowledge workers” – knowledge executives who know how to allocate knowledge to productive use, just as the capitalist knew how to allocate capital to productive use; knowledge professionals, knowledge employees . . . .

In this view the communicating of intelligence should be well calculated distributing the intelligence product to those who requested it as it is “critical to understanding of competitors’ actions and customers’ desires” (Moon 2000).

IS been drastically changed by information and communication technologies thereby increasing the capacity to store information with out the need for physical object. Several authors opine that IS comprise “library without walls”; its “collection” is the entire world of information and the “information scientist” acquires, organises, and disseminates that information to help people meet their needs. In actual fact, this purpose can be seen as a defining characteristic of both IS and CI. However the significance of CI is that it identifies threats. Havenga and Both (2000) suggested that CI should be positioned in the organisation to identify threats in the external environment capable of impacting negatively on the future of the company or organisation. Intelligence is required definitely to give the organisation a competitive advantage over other companies for example a joint venture partnership, innovation and probably for research and development.  According to Havenga and Both (2000) a new intelligence process is required, keeping in mind the fundamental differences and understanding the needs of business to be proactive and to search for new opportunities.  The understanding that CI supports the strategic process in companies addressing to top-level management if the company is still competitive provide value to modern IS functions. At most the intelligence is used to defend against competitors attempting to achieve surprise, the creation of new advantages, the changing of the rules of engagement and the luring of partners (Havenga and Both, 2000).

The usefulness of CI in modern organisations can not be overstated bearing in mind that the knowledge-based economy require knowledge to remain competitive and for informed decisions. CI and IS share similar characteristics that allow information professionals remain relevant to the organisations to play the influential information role more in a fashionable manner of resenting the intelligence in helpful format. Basically the value of CI is critical to the survival of the organisation and to compete with other companies in a sound more informed position.  In most cases CI may be subsumed under the broader concept of IS even though CI analyses business events outside the company. However the bottom line is that intelligence is gathered, analysed and disseminated to the end user more similarly as the IS processes. The perfect features of CI and IS are that the information professional do the gathering then the CI professionals do the cool neat stuff like placing it in the bigger picture (Oder, 2001). The work summarise that CI is an ongoing process that support the decision-making at top level management.  It further summarise that CI has an imperative value in the practice of IS that require information professionals to have immaculate skills and good knowledge of internal and external sources of intelligence. An interesting observation was that the knowledge [intelligence] continuum is from data to information, critical in IS to knowledge [intelligence] which is the basis of CI.

Reference

Alexandru, G; Andreea, Mora and Anca, S. (2002) “Competitive intelligence.” Studies in Business and Economics, p. 101 – 102.

Calof, Jonathan and Wright, Sheila (2008) “Competitive intelligence: a practitioner, academic and interdisciplinary perspective.” European Journal of Marketing, vol. 42; no. 7/8, p. 717 – 730.

Chisita, C. T. (2011) Information science module LIS101. Harare: Zimbabwe Open University.

Havenga, Johann and Botha, Deonie (2000) “Developing competitive intelligence in the knowledge-based organisation.” Available at http://www.sveiby.com/articles.htm (Accessed 23/03/2011).

Kahaner, Larry (1996) “The Basics of competitive intelligence.” Available at http://www.kahaner.com/ (Accessed 24/03/2011).

Miller, Jerry (1996) “Information science and competitive intelligence: possible collaborators?” Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, p. 11 – 13. (Accessed 21/03/2011).

Moon, Mary (2000) “Effective use of information and competitive intelligence.” Available at http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/infoonline/2000/feb00/moon.cfm (Accessed 19/03/2011).

Oder, Norman (2001) “The Competitive intelligence opportunity.” Library Journal, p. 42 – 44.

Saracevic, Tafko (1995) “Interdisciplinary nature of information science.” Cie`ncia da Informacia, vol. 24; no. 1, p. 34 – 37.

Santos, Miriam and Corriea, Ana (2010) “Competitive intelligence as a source of competitive advantage: an exploratory study of the Portuguese biotechnology industry.” Proceedings of the European Conference on Knowledge Management, p. 867 – 879.

Trimberger, Karen (2000) “Preparing for the CI role: a student perspective.” Information Outlook Online. Available at http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/infoonline/2000/feb00/trimberg.cfm (Accessed 23/03/2011).

Zins, Chaim (2006) “Redefining information science: from “information science” to “knowledge science.” Journal of Documentation, vol. 62; no. 4, p. 441 – 461.

Using E – resources for research in university libraries

“It is regularly noted that, in much of sub-Saharan Africa, a lack of up-to-date journals is a major constraint on research. The advancing open access movement is regularly hailed as offering new opportunities for Africa and other southern researchers to gain access to better scientific knowledge, but what of the vast body of important work still published on ‘traditional’ subscription journals?” – Harle 2010

The information explosion has seen a proliferation of information sources on the internet. It has caused the information overload to a multitude of challenges to researchers who on a daily basis require information. However, the electronic resources available through the open access platform have provided a wide range of information sources for study. Meanwhile librarians have spearheaded the formation of conglomerates to augment the existence of open access.

Libraries world over have formed consortia’s to alleviate reading resources shortage and increase access to scholarly information in academic institutions. According to Vernagula and Kelkar, “A Consortium could be described as a group of organisations who come together to fulfill a combined objective that usefully requires co-operation and the sharing of resources.” The primary aim is to deliver “more than the sum of the individual parts”.  The premise of library Consortium formation states that they can be local, regional, state, national and inter institutional level. The library consortium has a number of advantages that are full utilisation of funds, opportunity to build up digital libraries, access to a wide range of electronic resources at substantially low costs and helpful to improve library services.

Electronic resources have improved the manner in which information is made available and shared in libraries and in numerous countries they are available through library consortiums. In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Universities Library Consortium (ZULC) was formed to change the way university libraries in Zimbabwe operate. It is a formation of 11 local universities that is working toward improving access to information through the e – resources platform. The major activities of the consortium vary from conferences to workshops and training activities. The ZULC members participate in the workshops to enhance their projects in individual libraries. Several projects that were initiated by International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications  (INASP) include providing funds for training on building institutional repositories (IR), e – resources use training and making the electronic resources available to the consortium through Programme for the Enhancement of Research information (PERii).

The researching community of the consortium is benefiting from the full text journals that are available 24/7 outside the library environment. A major recognition of the programme is that current information is available in the library. Undergraduate and post graduate students are making use of e-resources in university libraries apparently the statistics in most libraries reveal that a number of users prefer e – journals to print resources. The proposal to make e – resources available in the libraries was at a larger extend stimulated by budget cuts that saw libraries failing to restock. In most cases the results were failure to satisfy user information need.

The open access (OA) movement also provides alternative information sources for library users. OA refers to “access to material (mainly scholarly publications) via the Internet in such a way that the material is free for all to read, and to use (or reuse) to various extents” (Wikipedia). According to the University of Zimbabwe library website, “Open Access (OA) is the free online availability of digital content. It is best-known and most feasible for peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly journal articles, which scholars publish without expectation of payment.” Many librarians have been vocal and active advocates of open access probably having envisioned the benefits to the library amid the budget cuts. These librarians believe that open access promises to remove both the price barriers and the permission barriers that undermine library efforts to provide access to the journal literature. Librarians also educate faculty, administrators, and others about the benefits of open access. Library users are comfortable using e – journals outside the library. The library has removed the limitations to access library resources for users that have seen a rise in the use of e-resources in a number of university libraries in Zimbabwe. Scientific information is critical in enhancing research in local universities through providing valuable information for literature review.

The significance of e – resources in libraries particularly in east and southern Africa has been prioritised in universities to allow access to a growing body of literature for academic purposes. Several initiatives are in place to avail   an impressive range of high-quality peer-reviewed materials. A study conducted in east and southern Africa in four universities studied had 79% of the top 20 journals across 15 subject areas in 2009. According to the findings whilst the availability of journals has improved significantly the usage amongst staff and students does not appear to be keeping pace. Despite the efforts propelled by librarians to devote funds for journal subscriptions, use of e – resources remains “stubbornly low” regardless of libraries having an excellent e – journal collections in wide disciplines that are comparable to those in Western university libraries. Under ZULC university libraries in Zimbabwe have access to INASP – PERii and UN sponsored schemes HINARI, AGORA, OARE (in health, agriculture and environment respectively) which offer high huge volumes of high-quality scientific information.

The bottom line for acceptance of e – resources in libraries is the currency of information that is critical for academic excellence to students and that keep the scholarly community abreast in their field of study. The subject of information currency in information and library practice is crucial and has been debate in numerous forums in a bid to emphasize the significance of up to date information sources for research and study. The currency of information is identified by the date of publication the more recent the date of publication the more up to date the information.

Availability of information 24/7/365 days out of the library environment is a major strength for e – resources against other sources of information. Information utilisation outside the library environment provides freedom and flexibility to users giving a platform for constructive debates. The major setback probably maybe the restrictions of passwords usage outside a specified IP address but however arrangements can be done by the librarians, publishers and e – resources providers to make the passwords access from any IP. Information in universities is a critical component that at a regular basis scholars require access to and its availability outside the library building becomes an eminent priority. Today’s information collectors are interested in promoting access rather than holdings. The concept of access is the major objective of libraries but due to a wide range of challenges associated with book resources and accountability, collection of resources for holdings is slowly losing its grip in promoting access as compared to e – resources that are accessed outside the library as long connection to internet is available.

Due the nature of e - resources a possibility to search numerous database using different search terms give them strength over print resources. Researchers require accessing a number of literatures in their field of study to have conclusive information for discussion and relate to in class. The possibilities of multiple searches give the researcher opportunity to select from a wide range of information that strengthens their findings. Several other factors that librarians has considered for recommending  e – resources has been faster and easier access to information that are provided by the nature of internet.

The Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) like other members of the ZULC has taken a major step of promoting awareness to e – resources within its community to promote access to information. A number of awareness programmes has been launched to make sure that the academic and student population make use of the e – resources for research and scholarship. A number of training workshops has been conducted with the objective of creating awareness, acquaint and demonstrate on the step-by-step procedure for accessing the e – journals. Harle (2010) has noted that researchers are simply not aware of their own holdings. ZOU has defied the notion and commerce training workshops to create awareness of the virtual library holdings.  The training programmes largely targeted the academic population and are continuing to cascade to students starting with DPhil students. The University Library Acting Director has taken every opportunity available to acquaint DPhil students on the existence of e – resources and an influx of the students to the library for personalised information literacy skills training. Information literacy skills are offered by the senior library assistants who also have gone through an intensive e – resources use training sponsored by INSAP as a mandate to their PERii programme. Through ZULC, ZOU has access to a wide range of e – journal databases that have helped to minimize reading material challenges in thee university for various programmes. Among the databases are jstor, EBSCOhost (which host a number of databases namely Eric, Business Premier, among others), Emerald, Agora, HINARI, OARE, and Cambridge journals among others. According to Harle (2010) the availability problem has been solved – not entirely of course, but to the point that attention can now be refocused elsewhere. Perhaps what may need to be done is to include the e – journals in the library catalogues to make them more accessible. He further noted that the initiatives have hugely successful in (virtually) restocking libraries across the higher education and research sector.

The valuable resources are critical in academic work as they are published by authoritative publishers and bodies that contribute immensely to the world research literature. Through these initiatives it is hoped that academic communities in Africa shall also contribute immensely to the ever growing research literature body.

Reference

1.        Growing knowledge: access to research in east and southern Africa. http://www.acu.ac.uk/member_services/professional_networks/libraries_network/growing_knowledge

2.        Harle, J. (2010) “The Availability of scientific journals in eastern and southern Africa: misunderstanding the problem?” Bulletin. No. 170 May.

3.        Open accessing. http://en.wikipedia.org

Library jobs in Zimbabwe

Library jobs in Zimbabwe

Library jobs have been advertised since time immemorial. Libraries require trained personnel to mann them for effective service delivery. Library jobs in Zimbabwe are frequently advertised in the local newspapers particularly in The Sunday Mail, The Herald and The Financial Gazette.

A good number of library jobs are advertised by universities requiring to fill post in the university library structure. Several other library jobs require to be filled in the public service and the Government chief recruiting office - Public Service Commission (PSC) work towards the recuitment process. The PSC recruit for Government departments and agencies. Recruitment for colleges and polytechnics is also done through the PSC. The other sector that has library jobs is non-governmental organisation (NGO). However NGOs are more of specialised information centres that provide services to a minority clientele. Public libraries also provide jobs for librarians and their remuneration is well above what most government agencies are paying.  The university library structure absorb more personnel as compared to other institutions due to the wide range of services they offer to the diverse university clientele. Public libraries also require library personnel who are encyclopedic in nature because of the community they serve which is diverse.

The remuneration of librarians is still a challenge for a number of institutions since the change to multi-currency system that was effected around 2009 by the government of Zimbabwe. The major contributing to that effect has been the failure to realise the significance of the librarian in information management function. Several other factors has influenced the poor salary scales of librarians over the past years in Zimbabwe among them the economic downturn, operational costs of libraries and a lack of association that accredit qualifying librarians and set standards of operation. The Zimbabwe library Association (ZimLA) way back did pave way to put measures and  lobby for librarians recognition. However the association could not stand the economic situation that bedeviled the nation and died a sad death. As the librarians work towards resuscitation of the association the issue of salaries and remuneration is on the top of the agenda. NGOs and embassies are among the top paying institutions for librarians and recognise the importance of the librarian.

University librarians are well paid too; however, as the structure decent to low level jobs, remuneration tend to dwindle due to the technicality of the positions. The structures tend to fail to recognise technical responsibilities of the librarian. Jobs in universities cover a wide range of activities that are departmentalised to effectively meet the mission of the library. Library jobs cover positions such as Sub-librarian, Cataloguer, Classifier, Reference librarian, Systems librarian, Acquisitions librarian, Senior Library Assistant and Library assistants among other posts. A reveal of the website http://www.zimbabwehumancapital.org for library jobs in Zimbabwe yield 13 positions, a number of them available for university libraries. The majority of the positions required degrees in library and information science and post graduate diplomas in library studies for senior positions. Low ranking positions of library assistants require National certificate in library and information science.

The work experience requirements differ with positions as more senior positions require more post experience on similar positions. Sub-librarian post require up to five years working experience and the assistant librarian jobs require at least 3 years working experience. The technical jobs of senior library assistant require at least two years of working experience. The library jobs extend to personal assistant to librarians, library IT support and library door guard as well as data capture clerk. New trends of library jobs now require information technology education to incorporate ICT strategies in information handling.

All the jobs found at the website were also simultaneously published in the local newspapers – The Sunday Mail and The Herald. Online announcement are prevalent in the developed world such that in third world countries the majority will fail to access the vacancies.

Libraries for economic development

Certainly, it is indisputable how information plays a critical role in improving economies of nations. Information by its nature is a commodity relevant in the knowledge economy. The significance of information in helping decision makers in mapping strategies for the survival of economies is imperative.

In view of the above it become important for economies to support libraries and continue oversees their survival in times of hardships. History has revealed that support awarded to libraries has been dwindling over time due to a number of reasons, among them poorly performing economies, lack of funds and issues relating to priorities as determined by mother body. Budget cuts for libraries, especially national and public libraries have detrimental reparations to the services offered by the library. The information role played by libraries need to be supported at every level. That is the library functions should be espoused by the funding body be it a government agency, department or private company. The effectiveness of a library in an economy is determined by the collection it house, thus more efforts should be done to evaluate the library collection and the user requirements to enable the information function to be played effectively. Probably the emerging of open access would improve the role of information in improving the economic standpoint of a country.

The library is an interactive institution that, besides holding a collection, should offer conference and training facilities to provide a platform for discussions and further researching areas that require critical attention such as policy implementation and industry productivity. At national level economies may fail to perform to expectations because the industrialists lack information - information on standards, information on processes, information on specifications and information on human capital management. The knowledge economy survives depends on the availability of current information to allow decisive decision making. In knowledge economy organisations are encouraged to have libraries that facilitate information collection handling, collection, management and dissemination as well as archiving. This practice is known as knowledge management.

The consumers of information in organisation are the human capital that performs functions that changes the company’s fortunes through their input in production. If the human capital is starved of information the productivity of the company is likely to be drastically affected. Generally the collection of information is the mandate of the librarian in consultation with the management and through that exercise plans are changed into information and later into production after consumption. The collection development function played by the librarian is more of transforming the company expectations into information so that the employees would read and improve performance in their roles. Economic development is achieved with information. One in many times corporations has failed to achieve economic development because they lack information.

The most current information is available in journals that provide research information in a wide range of discipline. Information to be useful for national-economic development should be current and research based. Libraries are critical for economic development as they play an information function. Information is easily transformed to action and that is when the benefit is realised. The support given to libraries should be enough to play the information role effectively if libraries are to remain critical in economic growth. Libraries are relevant in economic growth and the community should start to recognise their role in information dissemination. Due to the fact that libraries have circulation functions that allow equal access to the collection, human capital should make optimum use of the collection to foster economic growth.

The role played by libraries in economic development is a crucial one. The information economy or knowledge economic thrives on the availability of information to prosper and achieve economic targets.