The Pornographic Digital Divide: Libraries and Forbidden Knowledge

Introduction: This paper does not present solutions to the use of pornography in public spaces such as the library nor does it reflect the opinions of the institution that pays my salary. Instead, it presents a dilemma and problematizes the use of and access to pornography and other taboo information materials by library users. Background: Pornography is the graphic representation of sexual acts. While hard copy formats certainly still exist, pornography is increasingly digital, moving from print to film to videocassette to the internet and DVD. Each of these digital formats requires the use of special equipment (VCR, computer with internet access, DVD player) that has its own associated purchase or rental costs. Information users without their own machines must either do without the information available only in these formats or seek out publicly available technology, such as that provided in the library. Dilemma: Librarians are the defenders of free speech and free access to information. We audibly hiss at the mention of CIPA, internet filters, and banned and challenged books. We follow a populist model of providing our user communities with the titles they want—even if we personally find romance novels trashy and the Captain Underpants series repugnant. So why do we treat porn as a special case? One of the most common statements librarians make about pornography begins: I don\u27t care what people do at home, but in a public place\u2026\u27 Does this mean that people without homes or private places do not have the right to access sexually explicit materials? Is sexual self-expression reserved for the upper/middle class who can afford privacy? If not, who provides the access, if not the library? If so, is there a line of what constitutes acceptable? Where is it drawn? Does the reason someone is looking at the information matter (e.g. Is looking at a penis for medical information somehow a \u27better\u27 use of the information than looking at it for sexual satisfaction?), and are we supposed to police the ways in which information is used/perceived, such as whether people get sexual satisfaction from a particular piece of information/image? If librarianship claims to be about providing people with the information they need without passing judgment, no matter what it happens to be for, can our anti-porn stance coexist with our ardent disapproval of censorship?\u2

After the literature review and before the manuscript - supporting the middle of the research lifecycle with data, GIS, and digital scholarship services

Traditional library advisory services focus on the beginning and end of the research lifecycle, but what about students and researchers who need help with the steps in the middle? This talk will highlight UC San Diego\u27s public service support for data collection, management, analysis, and visualization. In particular, we will highlight our Data & GIS Lab; Digital Media Lab; Digital Scholarship services, including KNIT, our digital commons; Software/Data Carpentry and other workshops; and consultation services for students and researchers

The Personal, Political, and a Little Bit of Everything Else: Girls, Grrrls and Perzines

Using her own zine story as a vehicle, the author relates the history of the riot grrrl subculture, describes the girl zine genre and its history, and examines zinester subculture and networking. She also explores zinesters’ motivation and discusses the purpose girl zines fill in female zinesters’ lives

The Generative Power of Teamwork: Using Collaboration to Support GenAI Literacy

The potential impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on the academic community raises numerous questions and answers, many of which have yet to be discovered. As a new and innovative technology, GenAI poses questions about functionality, training data integrity, ethics, intellectual property, and research functionality capabilities. With so many questions and little specific GenAI expertise, librarians at UC San Diego saw an opportunity to bring together experts in various disciplines to address the literacy needs of a campus community and fill the gaps where the campus had no official policy or guidance. In this poster presentation, you will learn how librarians used teamwork and collaboration within and outside the library to create a centralized repository of GenAI information that has been viewed over 7,500 times since its creation in July 2023. The guide focuses on addressing the many questions the campus community has about GenAI in academic work. We will also share information on how to address academic integrity and support GenAI use without encouraging academic integrity violations. In addition, we also describe how a library-wide community of practice and communication channels aid collaboration and help unite our collective efforts to be a resource for the community. We will also discuss the challenges of keeping resources up to date in an involving information environment

Tribal College Library Web Sites: Provision of Health Information Sources

Tribal colleges and universities (TCU) are institutions managed by Native American tribes and typically housed on reservations. This study evaluates the health information and general content of TCU library web sites. The web sites of the fifteen TCU offering programs in the health sciences were examined for representation of library services and information, research and reference tools, instruction tools, functionality and design, and health sciences information tools. The results were compared with previously published data for other kinds of academic libraries. Most TCU library web sites have a strong collection of library information and links to free research tools but lack instructional tools, but many need to update their sites more frequently and improve their organizational schemes

Remixing the Government:Mashups and Government Information

Library and information science (LIS) scholarly communication is rife with discussion of web two-point-this and library two-point-that and how we can dramatically change the library paradigm with new technology. As trendy-and (two-point-) oh-so-easy to poke fun at-as the new jargon is, Web 2.0 is fundamentally about web technology giving users individual choices in how they access and use information. This is embodied in interactive tools like blogs (users publishing information themselves), wikis (users creating and editing information they access), personalized portals and widgets (users customizing their online services), and social networking (users sharing their content with others who are somehow like them)

The Pornographic Digital Divide: Libraries and Forbidden Knowledge

Talk presented at Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, April 7, 2004Introduction: This paper does not present solutions to the use of pornography in public spaces such as the library nor does it reflect the opinions of the institution that pays my salary. Instead, it presents a dilemma and problematizes the use of and access to pornography and other taboo information materials by library users. Background: Pornography is the graphic representation of sexual acts. While hard copy formats certainly still exist, pornography is increasingly digital, moving from print to film to videocassette to the internet and DVD. Each of these digital formats requires the use of special equipment (VCR, computer with internet access, DVD player) that has its own associated purchase or rental costs. Information users without their own machines must either do without the information available only in these formats or seek out publicly available technology, such as that provided in the library. Dilemma: Librarians are the defenders of free speech and free access to information. We audibly hiss at the mention of CIPA, internet filters, and banned and challenged books. We follow a populist model of providing our user communities with the titles they want—even if we personally find romance novels trashy and the Captain Underpants series repugnant. So why do we treat porn as a special case? One of the most common statements librarians make about pornography begins: “I don’t care what people do at home, but in a public place…” Does this mean that people without homes or private places do not have the right to access sexually explicit materials? Is sexual self-expression reserved for the upper/middle class who can afford privacy? If not, who provides the access, if not the library? If so, is there a line of what constitutes acceptable? Where is it drawn? Does the reason someone is looking at the information matter (e.g. Is looking at a penis for medical information somehow a “better” use of the information than looking at it for sexual satisfaction?), and are we supposed to police the ways in which information is used/perceived, such as whether people get sexual satisfaction from a particular piece of information/image? If librarianship claims to be about providing people with the information they need without passing judgment, no matter what it happens to be for, can our anti-porn stance coexist with our ardent disapproval of censorship