Chapter 1
https://pmongeon.github.io/information-in-society/content/ch1.html
Information management can go in a lot of directions, not just libraries. Spans organizational hierarchy, from end users to organization-wide initiatives, from day-to-day information activities to education to research to culture (organizational culture, but also the culture of the information (DEIAD)?). Direct and indirect educational roles for students/users, peers, and superiors, including information literacy and tool training. Privacy and ethics.
Long list of potential fields of employment when one is an information management professional.
Lecture 1
Everything everywhere all at once. See the world through an information lens and make the world better that way. Since information permeates all of life, every problem or decision or circumstance has an information component.
Free association with the word Information. Data, facts, citations, history, hypothesis, lifecycle, poverty, AI, management, privacy, propaganda, interdisciplinary, preservation, essential, database, tools, taxonomy, bureaucracy, misleading, interpretation, overload, bias, discovery, news, storage, galleries, education, bridges, narrative, value, democracy, satire, republic, dangerous, DNA, security, equity, analysis, prison.
Conceptual foundation, information and individuals, info in organizations, and finally in society at large. Similar levels described in Knowledge Management.
Be open, kind, respectful. No stupid comments or questions. It's okay to have your own thoughts and disagree (respectfully) with others. Discussion of values. Discussion about sustainability (digital and not).
Discussion of how much time we expect to spend on assignments. I think I'll spend 4 hours on assignment 1, 6 on the essay plan assignment 2, and 12 on the essay assignment 3.
Chapter 2
What is information? Very difficult to define, lots of dictionary definitions, free association exercise from last lecture. Depends on context and field; complicated diagram linking fields with information-related terms.
Big names in the definition of information for IS
"Birger Hjørland and Marcia Bates on whether understanding information as an objective phenomenon is helpful for the field"
Bates: very broad definition of information, list of forms of information (embodied, expressed, genetic, enacted, etc). Info: 1. The pattern of organization of matter and energy. 2. Some pattern of organization of matter and energy to which a living being has given meaning.
Hjørland: objective information (it exists), subjective information (it makes a difference). Argues that only subjective information is worthy of study within information science, because information that doesn't make a difference is irrelevant. Also argues that computers can process information and therefore the requirement of a living meaning-assigner is too narrow.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea that computers can assign meaning.
Buckland: Information as thing (dare I say document?). Information systems can only handle some types of things, need to be domain-specific. Information as process, the transmission of information from one person to another such that it changes what the other knows. Information as knowledge, existing inside a mind (human?) within the context of the mind, can't be observed or measured, intangible.
The DIKW pyramid
Indicates a compositional relationship. Information is comprised of data, knowledge is comprised of information, wisdom is comprised of knowledge. Rowley (2007) suggests data is objective discrete observations, information is data that is processed and given meaning, knowledge is information within the mind of the knower (and generates "justified and true beliefs about the world")
The compositional process by which data becomes information and so on up the pyramid can be problematic. Data can be erroneous, analyses can be flawed, understandings can be biased. Neither the contents nor the process are neutral.
Lecture 2 2025-10-07
ISSA presentation about elections.
Becomes knowledge when applied. There's just a discussion about what is information. Again. Bates vs Buckland vs Hjørland.
Whiteboard activity, graphical representation of what is information? Ungraded. Chaos. Presentations are useless.
Chapter 3
Five "dimensions" of an information society:
- Technology (eg smart phones)
- Economy (info as goods/services rather than physical wares)
- Spatio-temporal (transcend physical constraints, attend events in other countries remotely)
- Cultural (role of info in individual and cultural identity)
- Theoretically knowledge (evidence based practice drives action?)
Five "issues" for us to address as info pros:
- Access
- Quantity
- Quality
- Behavior
Access can mean physical access to a resource, digital content behind paywall, etc. UN's declaration of human rights 1948. Digital divide, equity. The information explosion and technological advancement have exacerbated a lot of equity of access problems. Access also includes literacy (digital, evaluative, elementary reading, etc).
Quantity is a double-edged sword. Having too much information results in overload. Information scarcity is still a problem though. Too much information, too many choices, reduces satisfaction and can also result in worse decisions.
Quality is a challenge in the age of unprecedented misinformation and disinformation. False negatives and false positives in our bullshit filters both have repercussions. Information pollution: unwanted info getting spammed at us. And algorithms shaping which information we encounter. "Information anxiety" is when we feel uncomfortable with the gap between what we know and what we think we should know.
Behavior refers to how we interact with and use information. People evaluate information, make decisions using it, seek it out (or don't), etc. Intent matters:
We may produce and disseminate a lot (quantity) of free content (access) with catchy titles but a low informative value (quality) to attract readers (behaviour) and generate ad revenues (intent).
Some fiction to try to ground what we're learning into real life experiential context.
Lecture 3 2025-10-14
Remaining presentations from last week, a short lecture, and group discussions today. One looks like a layer cake, knowledge with information between. Plate it's on is power dynamics (underlies everything). Data is the ingredients. Knife to cut it is experience. I'm sure this is useful to someone but bombing me with metaphor is not a good way to help me learn. Also I'd rather have the metaphor be crafted by someone who is an expert in the subject and an expert communicator rather than.... this.
1 hour 20 minutes of student presentations, break, 20 minutes of lecture, 50 minutes of undirected group discussion "I don't care what you talk about, but here are some suggestions. Just get to know each other." And now we're going around the room to talk as a whole class about what was discussed within the group.
Chapter 4: Humans in an information society
Webster (2014) argues that people have a compulsion to proximity, an impulse to meet up with people face to face regardless of their virtual relationships. Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic might have changed that somehow?
I didn't have that before c19.
We interact with data, data circulates in networks, networks connect us to other people. We're different people for different audiences. Connections can be the space we live in, places we go to meet up with people (classroom, church), or person-based (online friends independent of physical space).
Lecture 4 2025-10-21
- In what ways might Wren’s online persona be authentic? In what ways might it be curated?
- Should workplaces punish people based on the content on their social media channels?
- Is it OK for companies to look at personal social media accounts in the hiring process?
- Would you consider social media and online platforms a private or public environment?
- What online communities are you a part of? How do you manage your identity in these networks?
- What information do you share online? Does this change based on the online space you are in?
- Consider how technology facilitates or inhibits your ability to interact in your in-person and online networks?
- Consider the differences (or similarities) in how you interact with friends, professional colleagues, or other groups online versus in person. What are the benefits or drawbacks of this?
What a worthless class period.
Chapter 5: Work in the information society
People use information at work. We don't always have perfect information to base our work on.
Chapter 6: Information in organizations
Some organizations are learning organizations. Some of them use Choo's knowledge model (see Knowledge Management). People need information to make decisions.
Chapter 7: Capitalism is bad
Discusses the role of capitalism in the information disparity and classism, identifies publisher oligarchies, and talks about forms of open access journals.
Lecture 6? 2025-11-04
Capitalism is bad. Power dynamics. We have to understand capitalism before we can engage in malicious compliance and dismantle it. Sell yourself/your labor, sell your information/knowledge, trade your info to other info (facebook). Is not-free information actually higher quality, or is that what capitalism wants you to believe?
Chapter 8: Attention economy
If you have too much information, you won't have enough attention to pay all of it. This leads to attention scarcity. In economic terms, when things are scarce the price for them goes up. If information is "free," attention is the currency with which we pay for it.
Is it possible to not participate? At least in terms of social media I think the answer is yes. I deleted all of mine basically. Advertising is how they're able to give content away for "free," if you're not buying a product you are the product.
Why would we choose one competitor over another? Immediacy, personalization, interpretation, authenticity, accessibility, embodiment, patronage, findability (Kelly, 2008).
When you're the product, information about you is collected and sold. What you watch, or read, or who you interact with, or the contents of your posts, or what you buy, or who you are, how much you make, what you're interested in, etc. This information becomes a commodity that is sold, and is used to shape advertising but also to optimize algorithms to keep you on the data collection platforms.
Digital resignation (Draper & Turow, 2019), the feeling that trying to control your data is futile.
Sometimes data collection can be good, like for health studies and censuses. Useful to policy makers, public health, and we all need to base our decisions on data of some kind.
A library director could review circulation numbers to help them determine what books/movies/resources their patrons enjoy the most, and what they should aim to buy more of, and weed in the future.
It could also show what patrons are avoiding, what isn't accessible, where people don't feel safe, and who is a minority.
Data access exists in contention with privacy.
Lecture 2025-11-18 Guest lecture
Platform Power and Libraries by Christine Smith (buy this)
Why did this book get written?
Ben Tarnoff Internet for the People 2022. "One of the strangest things about capitalism is [that] the capitalists...do not really control it. They are like characters in a play. They have a role to perform... Fortunately, there are communities actively engaged in constructing an alternative...an internet where the people rule."
You see a poignant film and it stays with you throughout undergrad, decide grad school to study it, but when you get to grad school to study it it's no longer legally available. No physical copies, license holder decided not to make it available. In 2020 physical collections weren't accessible without digital equivalents and the licenses are oof. "Platform-mediated."
The power of platforms (ganter, nielson) 5 things in chapter 1
Overview of chapters
- Theoretical basis (capitalism, platforms, libraries) (combining them creates more power differential than the sum of its parts)
- Standards are a power, when platform owners are the ones who decide them that's even worse, power to make connections (and recommendations), scale (libraries aren't a big enough economic factor so platforms choose not to support them), asymmetry (election information, paywalls), power to operate across domains (globalization and monopolization, diverse IP ownership)
- Digital property regimes Elena Rowan (ebook licensing, ethnographic approach)
- Streaming media, content providers reshaping research and learning Lisa Iisa? Hooper, circumvent the library and positioned themselves as the cultural heritage institution
- Kieran Hegarty digital heritage after platformization, legal deposit libraries, "double binds", legally required to have the collection, challenges because of the TOS of social media/digital platforms.
- The closed loop: academic publication and data surveillance
What can we do about it? Make choices. What is our role? Do we have mandates for access and long-term access?
Which of the academic publisher conglomerate is the worst offender? Does anti-trust or regulation play a role? Is open access a solution?
Bundling is bad.
Chapter 9: Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news
These are all bad things and it's only getting worse. Information literacy instruction is a good tool to combat it.
Chapter 10: Democracy
Public sphere. Public libraries. The internet. Algorithms and echo chambers. Decentralized social media. Activism.
Lecture 2025-12-02 Democracy
Informed electorate with good information literacy skills and baseline education. Plurality of parties, accessibility for voting, ranked choice voting and direct democracy. Propaganda and echo chambers.
Undirected discussion for an hour.
What is hashtag activism?
Giant discussion about prosocial vs antisocial media, the role of information professionals, multiple personas in different social contexts, controlled vocabularies, migration friction, activism around information issues and technology. The Sapling Cage? Decidim, loomio, pol.is, fediverse, let's find more! We can run a conference entirely on FOSS, can we do that with a journal? A working group? Why is chat still the biggest problem to solve?
Chapter 11: Information Justice
Matthieson's 3-foci informational justice (lens for social justice). Distributive (equitable distribution and access), participatory (actively involved in navigating, using, shaping information environment), recognitional (represents people in society fairly).
Lecture 2025-12-09 Information justice
Panel with Paola Gonzalez and Alison Brown And Stacy Allison-Cassin.
Alison Brown focused on maternal incarceration, MotherChild Read Aloud Program. Books read and recorded, recording and book go to the children, 4-6 times per year. Helps bond/connect, literacy benefits a bonus. Matthieson's 3-foci informational justice. How can we get involved in programs like this? What role can info pros play in bringing iJustice to incarceration? Currently on hiatus, efforts to get that going again, contact her for more details. HPL book club Burnside? on remand called Pageturners, Books behind bars. Canada has a constitutional right to access library services.
Stacy Allison-Cassin equality vs equity, health equity. Matthieson focuses on equality, doesn't address the equity underlying structural/systemic issues. Power imbalances. Doesn't like EDIA acronym because those things are pretty different. Reconciliation Framework (steering committee on canada's archives) and Reimagine Descriptive Workflows (OCLC)(community-informed agenda for reparative and inclusive descriptive practice). Role of participatory work for addressing-- Respectful terminology platform project: open online platform participatory terminology and vocabularies https://respectfulterminology.ca/. What other areas can we use community participatory focuses to correct some of these systemic injustices? Match the tool to the job; don't do for, do with. Staff capacity is often a limiting factor, look for associations that might have more resources. History of forced participation in research, over-researched. Your positionality as a researcher/librarian/archivist matters, doesn't mean you're the right person to do it. Not everything needs to be participatory but you definitely need to consider it. Autonomy, the group can decide not to participate, and if they say no you should think very hard about why. Lack of co-creation in system design increases odds of the system failing.
Paola Gonzalez advancing equity through inclusive design (EDIA and medication safety research insights). Digital Nova Scotia promotes EDIA in tech companies. Medication incident reporting for community pharmacies reporting tool, punitive feeling needs to be overcome. Representation and inclusive design, accessibility, real-world impact. Both of these are focused on information collection/access and driving results, but there's a lot of overlap with psychology (changing culture, persuasive design to promote participation). How do you build projects like this in collaboration with people in other fields?
Philippe, distribution: access to literature, funding, positions. Participation: knowledge dissemination (conferences, publications), peer review and editorial roles. Recognition: in scientific literature (clinical studies have ignored women), in databases (non-English non-Western in bibliometric databases) It's a problem, what do we do about it?
Individual action is possible in some things, but big problems often need collective action. Professional organizations, volunteer groups, NGOs/NPs, drop in to randomly chat with a prof what they're involved in. And just by embodying these principles you are making a difference. Even if you can't be a major player, just be an encouragement and support to the people who are. A conversation isn't a commitment. Don't underestimate your power as a student.
Pages that link here:
- ⇄ Knowledge Management
- ↤ Learning
- ↤ root