To what extent can libraries ensure free, equal and unhampered access to Internet-accessible information resources from a global perspective? Stuart Hamilton PhD thesis from the Department of Library and Information Management Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark http://www.ifla.org/faife/index.htm Hamilton, Stuart To what extent can libraries ensure free, equal and unhampered access to Internet-accessible information resources from a global perspective? Stuart Hamilton. Copenhagen: Department of Library and Information Management, Royal School of Library and Information Science/FAIFE, 2004. 264 p. + appendixes. Available: http://biblis.db.dk/uhtbin/hyperion.exe/db.stuham05 ISBN: 87-7415-287-4 2 Acknowledgements To begin with, I would like to thank John McIlwaine, my former tutor at the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at University College London for encouraging me to undertake trips to library conferences in the Caribbean as a way of broadening my LIS horizons somewhat. Without his support and advice my interest in the international aspects of librarianship may have never been able to be realised, and for his help I am truly grateful. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Niels Ole Pors, my tutor at the Royal School in Copenhagen for the length of my PhD research. Niels Ole has been extremely supportive of my work all the way through the project, offering advice when most needed but also allowing me the time and space to focus my own thinking. He has been able to point me in the right direction at exactly the right moment, and consequently has led me into areas most appropriate for the project. I owe equal gratitude to Susanne Seidelin, the Director of the FAIFE office. For three years we have worked together at the Royal School in Copenhagen and at conferences around the world, and Susanne has been a great colleague, advisor and friend. Her enthusiasm for the work of FAIFE, and her continuing efforts to make the best of the office in sometimes difficult financial circumstances, has been inspiring. Some of the best moments of the past three years have been spent in the company of Susanne at various conferences and meetings, often pondering how best to do the work of FAIFE as situations change all around us. I wish to particularly express my gratitude to all of the staff at the Royal School of Library and Information Science for all of their help over the past three years. The move from England to Denmark was made a lot easier as a result of their friendliness, generosity and advice, and I am extremely grateful for everything they have done for me. In particular I would like to thank our departmental secretary Annette Engelund Madsen for helping out where my Danish feared to tread, my Head of Department, Carl Gustav Johannsen, and the Director, Leif Lørring, for their help whenever I needed it. Also at the school, I would like to send a big thank you to all of my fellow PhD students who have always been available to lend an ear whenever I have needed one. The Royal School is one sponsor of this PhD project to whom I am very grateful; the other is the International Federation of Library Associations. This arrangement means I have been blessed with a further set of colleagues and advisors for the past three years. Special thank yous must be paid to the two Chairs of the FAIFE Committee I have worked with, Alex Byrne at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Professor Paul Sturges from the University of Loughborough in England. The members of the FAIFE Advisory Board and Committee have also been a fantastic and interesting group of people to work with for the past three years, often helping me out with contacts and advice when needed. Many thanks to all the people who have helped with the data collection and interviewing process: Loida Garcia-Febo in New York for her advice and Spanish translating skills; the questionnaire pre-testers Marianna Tax Choldin, Jasmina Ninkov and Aleksandra Horvat; Kelly Moore at IFLA Headquarters for all her hard work 3 finding hundreds of email addresses to send the questionnaires to; and all those who took the time to respond to the survey or attend the roundtable discussion sessions in Berlin. The interviewees: Dejan Ajdacic, Phil Archer, Sheila Corrall, Vanessa Hayward, Mirko Markovic, Jonathan Peizer, Geoff Smith, and J.K. Vijaykumar – many thanks indeed for your insights. Finally I would like to thank some of the great friends I have made in Copenhagen in the past three years. Andrew Cranfield, formerly of the library school, has always been available for a discussion, whether about the joys and pains of LIS, or our shared fascination for an average football team. Likewise, to all my housemates I was lucky enough to move in with in our wonderful house in Søborg - I appreciate your patience as I occasionally vented spleen regarding the future of the Internet. Oh, and Michael, Mikkel, Jez, the Bloomsday (and all of the people back in England) - much appreciated! 4 Abstract This dissertation examines the extent to which libraries can provide equal and unhampered access to Internet-accessible information resources on a global scale. It is concerned with restrictions on access to information via the Internet in libraries, and it specifically investigates access to Internet-accessible information through web sites and online databases, and via communication-based mediums such as email. The overall aim of the dissertation is to identify a set of barriers that exist on a global scale, and to examine these barriers and assess the extent to which the international library community is able to overcome them. The research takes as its starting point the rapid growth of the Internet as an information provider in the last ten years. It takes place against a background of uncertain global security and a globalised economy that is increasingly taking advantage of Internet technologies to facilitate its operation. In light of this, the first part of the dissertation constructs a theoretical framework which allows for an examination of the role of the Internet as an information provider in a global arena where the forces of the nation state and big business are able to influence Internet development. Libraries are incorporated into this framework as providers of access to information via the Internet. The rights of library users to access information on the Internet are examined from a human rights perspective which enables the dissertation to assess differences in freedom of access to information on the Internet around the world. The second part of the dissertation empirically examines barriers to Internet-accessible information resources in light of this framework, using a combination of survey and interview work to expose differences in levels of Internet access and development across countries. These differences are then analysed to address the extent to which access barriers exist on a worldwide scale, as well as the extent to which they affect libraries as providers of Internet access. It is argued that as Internet infrastructure and use within a country develops, more obstacles to accessing information become apparent, and the extent to which libraries are able to overcome these obstacles is dependent on their ability to influence decision-making processes at a number of levels, from the local community up to levels of international governance. 5 6 Contents Page Introduction 13 • The PhD project and the institutional setting 13 • Brief characteristics of the Internet in 2004 14 • Formulating the Problem 15 • The structure of the dissertation 19 • Methodology 21 Chapter 1 – The ‘Information Society’ and the Nation State 33 • The informatisation of society 35 • The ‘Network Society’ and informationalism 37 • Computer-mediated communication 43 • The Nation State and Modernity 47 • The role of information in the nation state 53 • Surveillance and its risks 57 Chapter 2 - Globalisation and the Promise of the Internet 63 • Global capitalism and the informational economy 65 • Alternative drivers of globalisation 67 • The concept of simultaneous globalisation and fragmentation 70 • The promise of the Internet 75 • Inequality and control 81 • The end of neutrality 84 Chapter 3 – Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Access to Information and Libraries 91 • Freedom of expression 92 • Freedom of access to information 95 • A library framework for freedom of access to information 96 • Unhampered access and censorship 98 • Developmental differences in access to information 103 • Cultural differences in access to information 105 • The global library community and freedom of access to information 106 Chapter 4 - The Effects of the Internet on Freedom of Access to Information in Libraries 113 • Access to the Internet 113 • Access to Internet-accessible information resources 119 • New forms of access and their effects on libraries 121 • The extent of Internet access in libraries worldwide 129 • The Digital Divide 146 • A route to basic access for libraries 149 7 Chapter 5 - The Filtering and Blocking of Internet-accessible Information Resources 153 • How do filters work? 155 • Problems with filtering software 160 • Filters and libraries 163 • Filtering and freedom of access to information around the world 165 • The extent of Internet filtering in the international Library community 172 Chapter 6 – Data Retention and the Surveillance of Internet Use 179 • Digital surveillance 181 • September 11th, the Internet and the PATRIOT Act 184 • Global anti-terror legislation and