International Library Access

In all the recent conversations regarding technology, the direction of our libraries, and information access for the future, it is extremely easy for us to overlook the fact that our advances and expectations surpass the available services for many international locations.

Global Internet Access Graph

Growing up in the United States it is easy to take advantage of the local public library system, and I have never known a region without at least one local area library. These conveniences, even some of our worst ones, can surpass the provisions in some of the "Third World" regions of the world. While not every area is given the same extravagances we have in the United States, it is not to say that those areas of the world do not have the creative minds and capacities to develop meaningful technology and benefit from better access to information.

The TEDTalk with Anil Gupta perfectly captured the spirit of ingenuity and adaptation in order to better advance society. Gupta said, "minds in the margin are not marginal minds," and it would be beneficial for us to take note of that fact and recognize the value of that truth. Every individual every where has the capacity to develop creative solutions to their technological deficiencies. Just as "life will find a way," people too will problem solve and develop alternative methods. We are ALWAYS striving to be more efficient, more effective, and better served by the tools we use.

I had never considered Maslow's hierarchy of needs from the viewpoint Gupta captures in his lecture, but I am inclined to agree with him. I studied psychology for many years and we were always taught Maslow's hierarchy and told that no human could hope to achieve self-actualization or seek to meet higher level needs without meeting their basic needs first. Clearly, as Gupta points out, this idea is flawed. There are impoverished peoples living throughout the world and managing to live day by day barely meeting any of the "basic needs" and certainly not living as a majority of American citizens are living, but they struggle, strive, and survive by the sweat of their brows and the creativity of their minds. They make it work. They adapt and they problem solve in ways that many of us in "First World" countries would not be able to simply because our life situations challenge us differently.

This  same  point regarding the life styles and making ends meet also applies to individuals with differing abilities. Individuals with hearing, vision, mental or other impairments, have a host of other challenges that are not faced by many of those who develop new technologies and are responsible for providing open access to the public in libraries. Those with different abilities have many creative and adaptions to daily living and there are many more that could still be developed and need to be developed in order to provide open access to our modern technologies and services. With the fast-pace of society and our desires for ever more intuitive and flexible technologies, we need to be vigilant regarding our adaptions and adaptations for those with different abilities.

I greatly enjoyed learning about initiatives like Room to Read- providing libraries and new schools in areas like Nepal, but I must admit that I have questions and reservations about such initiatives. I always wonder how the individuals creating these programs go  about interacting with the students and their families. How do these programs actually change the lifestyles of these young girls? Does education offer them the chance to "go further"-- the way we would view it in the United States. Watching the videos of the Room to Read program I recalled the documentary film "Born into Brothels" and the challenges that those individual young people faced. I specifically recall the mother of one of the young girls in "Born into Brothels" being unsupported of her daughter's involvement in the program because she needed her daughter to be working and making money  for the family.

I have to wonder if the families of the girls in the Room to Read program are supportive of the girls' involvement or if they would prefer to have the girls helping in the home with their mothers and their siblings? I have to wonder how far some of those girls have to walk to reach their schools? I would like to see where some of those girls are in five or ten years from the time they begin the program. Do educated girls feel disconnected from their families- do they "abandon" their families? Even more importantly, how do the girls use their education? Is an educated woman of a certain poverty level less appealing to a potential spouse? If the culture is so regimented and hierarchically structured, I could imagine an educated wife being dismissed for a less educated wife who would be more obedient and better "prepared" to be a house wife. It's possible that none of these questions are problematic in reality, but there are many facets of living, culture, and lifestyle that are impacted by access to information and education. While "we" value education and equal opportunities for men and women, those values cannot be superimposed on other cultures.