Information and Power

Library 1551-Information Skills for the Electronic Age

What is power?

Power tends to attract

more power…

What is information?

“…all the facts, conclusions, ideas, and creative works of the human intellect and imagination that have been communicated, formally or informally, in any form.”

-Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science http://lu.com/odlis

The Cycle of Information

Informal Communication

Semi-Formal Communication

Peer Reviewed

Professional Literature

Popular Literature

Summary Literature

(Reference)

Informal Communication

•Conversation

•Discussion lists

•Blogs

•Cutting edge

• Current

•Hard to findSemi-Formal

Communication

•Conference Papers

•Working drafts of research papers

Peer-Reviewed

Professional Literature

•Journal Articles

•Academic Books

•Dissertations

•Trade Journals

•Government Docs

•Professional Reports

•Can be hard to find

•Current

•Authoritative

•Well annotated

Popular Literature

Summary Literature

(Reference)

•Magazines

•Newspapers

•Free Websites

•Popular Books

•Encyclopedias/Almanacs

•Bibliographies

•Textbooks

•Made for a variety of users

•Easy to find

•Lacking authority/detail

Adapted from University of Washington Libraries’ Marine Affairs info lit cycle http://www.lib.washington.edu/uwill/cycle/marine%20sciences/

We’ve talked about power and information…Now what???

www.mediagogy.com.au

Who pays for research?

“Funding for the majority of formal research in the world today is provided by governments and corporations.”

-Brian Martin. Information Liberation. London: Freedom Press, 1998.

Page 125 i40.photobucket.com/albums /e226/thanate_tan

Top 10 academic recipients of federal funding for science and engineering research and development in 2004

University Funding *1 Johns Hopkins University 1,034,9152 University of Washington 589,6163 University of Pennsylvania 494,1944 University of Michigan 477,2845 Stanford 472,2976 UC Los Angeles 470,9827 UC San Diego 420,2518 UC San Francisco 395,5099 Duke University 393,61110 Washington University, St. Louis 386,432

* Funding is in thousands of dollars

From: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics. 2007. Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges and Nonprofit Institutions: FY 2004. NSF 07-316. Richard J. Bennof, project officer, Arlington, VA. Table 18.http://www.nsf.gov/statistics

Corporations that fund research usually do so for a reason…and researchers tend to find what they are asked-and paid-to find.

“We actively encourage companies to consider the

University of California as their ‘research and technology’

development partner.”

From: http://ucdiscoverygrant.org/sponsors/

Cigarette brands marketed by Phillip Morris USA

Which of these products could you buy without giving money to Philip Morris?

Altria Group, Incorporated

Philip Morris USA

•SA Miller 1970-Present•General Mills 1985-2007•Kraft Foods 1988-2007

•Philip Morris International March 2008

•Nabisco 2000-2007

Information from Howard’s Company Profiles Database