Globalisation, Information and Libraries. The Implications of the World Trade Organisation's Gats and Trips Agreements

396 Pages·2005·2.28 MB·English

by  Ruth Rikowski (Auth.)

Globalisation, Information and Libraries
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Globalisation, Information
and Libraries
The implications of the World Trade
Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS
Agreements
R R
UTH IKOWSKI
Chandos Publishing
Oxford · England
Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Limited
Chandos House
5 & 6 Steadys Lane
Stanton Harcourt
Oxford OX29 5RL
UK
Tel:[phone] Fax:[phone]
Email:[email protected]
www.chandospublishing.com
First published in Great Britain in 2005
ISBN:
1 84334 084 4 (paperback)
1 84334 092 5 (hardback)
© Ruth Rikowski,2005
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying,recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the Publishers.
This publication may not be lent,resold,hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in
any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior consent
of the Publishers.Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may
be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The Publishers make no representation,express or implied,with regard to the accuracy of the
information contained in this publication and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability
for any errors or omissions.
The material contained in this publication constitutes general guidelines only and does not
represent to be advice on any particular matter.No reader or purchaser should act on the basis
of material contained in this publication without first taking professional advice appropriate to
their particular circumstances.
Cover images courtesy of Bytec Solutions Ltd (www.bytecweb.com) and David Hibberd
([email protected]).
Printed and bound by 4edge Limited (www.4edge.co.uk)
Dedication
I am dedicating this book to my late Aunt Sophia Lovice Olivia White
(née Vickery), who all the family lovingly knew as ‘Olive’ (1910–1993).
Without my Aunt Olive I would never have become what I am today.
Dear Aunt Olive–your inspiration, your love, your strength, your
depth, your warmth–these qualities have been and always will be
unforgettable and will remain with me throughout the whole of my life.
Your love of books, your search for an alternative world and your sense
of humour will remain with me forever. Dear Aunt–thank you for
giving me so much, for understanding me, for listening to me, and for
giving me the love and confidence as a child to set me on my path, which
made it possible for me to become what I have now become. I will love
you forever.
v
Foreword
Anders Ericson
My first contact with Ruth Rikowski was through her writing. This
should not surprise anyone, since she writes a lot. My first reading was
an article entitled ‘The Corporate Takeover of Libraries’, which can still
be found at the significant website and journal Information for Social
Change, of which Ruth is today co-editor.
It was June 2002. For some time I had been searching the Web for
material on the commercialisation of public services, in particular
libraries. I had with some effort gathered some bits and pieces from here
and there, but all of a sudden I found myself reading the lead of this 42-
page article by Ruth Rikowski. That was almost exactly what I had been
looking for! We librarians tend to make jokes about stupid students who
expect books to be easily available on just any topic their teachers may
cook up for their homework papers. Thus, my discovery of Ruth’s article
was like finding the tailor-made book I didn’t quite believe in. I have
returned to and quoted from this article more than any other article
throughout my whole professional career.
Today it is a pleasure to find that Ruth’s article has become part of a
printed book, namely this debut of hers between two covers. A revised
version of ‘The Corporate Takeover’ is a central part. Here it comes
together with a lot of other very valuable material and the author’s own
analysis. She has deepened her study of GATS from her 2002 version,
and her examination of TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights) will be remembered as an unquestionable pioneer work.
This is important stuff indeed. As a former librarian and today a
freelance journalist and consultant, the future of libraries takes most of
my time. My editors and employers (e.g. library authorities and
organisations, mostly in Scandinavia) are fully aware of the impact of
ICT, of the Internet, etc. on the future of libraries and librarianship, but
only very few ask me to write or talk about the fact that there are
companies out there with piles of venture capital who are already
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Globalisation,Information and Libraries
moving into library-like knowledge services and are even considering
getting involved in running actual libraries. We have had examples of
both commercial virtual reference services and pay-per-view e-book
libraries. Their limited success so far does not mean they will never make
a breakthrough. If general politics continues developing in the present
direction maybe just a generation from now governmental support of
today’s libraries may wither enough not only to open the way for
commercial solutions, but to make people demand them. How soon is
hard to tell, but what we know, and what Ruth Rikowski clearly shows
among other things, is that private companies who run library services
will give priority to the parts that make not only profit, but the most
profit.
The more social theoretical parts of this book are essential to fully
understand why the author seems so confident about her message. I
personally found the conclusive chapters with the Open Marxist
approach very challenging and enlightening. The opening ‘fact’ chapters
can be read alone or in conjunction with the more theoretical chapters.
Again, Ruth Rikowski has used much of her spare time to spread her
ideas of what she is convinced are some of our most urgent needs.
Hopefully a majority of the library and knowledge communities will take
her message seriously as her book is reviewed and quoted and Ruth
herself and others follow it up in smaller formats and in speeches and
debates.
Anders Ericson
Moss, Norway
31 October 2004
xiv
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank a large number of different people and organisa-
tions for their help, ideas, support and enthusiasm which all played some
part in helping to make it possible (either directly or indirectly) for me to
write this book.
First, I would like, in particular, to thank my husband, Glenn
Rikowski, for his continued inspiration, encouragement, devotion and
patience during the writing of this book, and indeed, in general. In
particular, it was during the reading of his book The Battle in Seattle: Its
Significance for Education, that I originally became interested in the
topic of globalisation.
Following on from this, the idea of considering the topic of globalisa-
tion and information specifically was first suggested to me by John
Pateman from Information for Social Change (ISC), which led to me
editing a special issue of ISC on the topic. So, I would like to thank John
for his support during the editing of the special edition, and indeed for
his continued support in general. I would also like to thank Matthew
Mezey, the News Editor of Library and Information Update, for his sup-
port and useful advice. I would also like to thank the other members of
the ISC Editorial Board: Gill Harris, Martyn Lowe and John Vincent. I
would also like to thank Rory Litwin for all the webmaster work he did
for ISC and, in particular, for putting the Globalisation and Information
issue onto the ISC website.
I would also like to thank Graham Coult, the editor of Managing
Information, and Paul Pedley, regular columnist in Managing Infor-
mation(the Aslib monthly journal), for their continued support in regard
to my writing in general. Also, for the interest they have taken in regard
to my work on the GATS and TRIPS, in particular.
Many thanks go to Clare Joy, the Campaigns Officer at the World
Development Movement, for the interest she has taken in the GATS
and libraries issue specifically, and for the article that she wrote on the
GATS for the special ISC issue on Globalisation and Information. Also,
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Globalisation,Information and Libraries
for providing me with the opportunity to speak on the You and Yours
programme on Radio 4, on the GATS.
I would like to thank those who contributed articles to the
Globalisation and Informationissue, namely Bill Lehm, Clare Joy, Fiona
Hunt, Glenn Rikowski, Anneliese Dodds, Shahrzad Mojab, Victor
Rikowski, Alex Nunn, Patrick Ainley and Jonathan Rutherford.
In addition, I would like to thank all the people that spoke at the fringe
meeting that I organised at the International Federation of Library
Association and Institutions (IFLA) Conference in Glasgow in 2002 on
the topic of the GATS and libraries. These were: Steve Rolfe, Paul
Whitney, Frode Bakken, Glenn Rikowski and Anneliese Dodds. I would
like to thank Gill Harris for her support during the organisation of the
meeting. I would also like to thank the UK Chartered Institute of Library
and Information Professionals (UK CILIP) for providing me with the
funding and for making it possible for me to attend the IFLA conference;
and for Jill Martin’s support in particular. I would also like to thank all
the people that came to the meeting and participated in the event so
enthusiastically.
I would like to thank the past and present members of the European
Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations
(EBLIDA) World Trade Organisation (WTO) Working Group, for the
work they have undertaken and continue to undertake with regard to the
GATS and libraries issue. The TRIPS is now also included in their remit.
Also, for the support that they have given me personally. In particular,
I would like to thank Frode Bakken (who invited me to be an observer
on the EBLIDA WTO Working Group), Teresa Hackett, Kjell Nilsson,
Toby Bainton, Maria Pia González Pereira and Britt-Marie Häggström. I
would also like to thank Barbara Schleihagen, from the German Library
Association, and past president of EBLIDA, for the interest she has
shown in my work on the GATS and libraries.
It was great that the Association for the Taxation of Financial
Transactions (ATTAC) gave me the opportunity to speak at one of their
meetings at the London School of Economics (LSE) on the GATS and
libraries. I would like to thank them also for enabling a one-day event to
take place at LSE on the GATS and public services in the UK. As part of
the ATTAC WTO Working Group I helped to organise this event and we
invited a variety of speakers from different public sectors to speak. I
would like to thank all these speakers: Niaz Alam, Benjamin Geer,
Markus Krajewski, Sally Ruane, Francois Ogliaro, Emanuele Lobina,
Hugo Lowe, Les Levidow, Glenn Rikowski, Sylvie Gosme and Kat
Fletcher. I would also like to thank, in particular, the following members
xvi
Acknowledgements
of ATTAC for their support, solidarity and help in regard to the
organisation of this event and in general: Francois Ogliaro, Markus
Krajewski, Helena Kotkowska, Matti Kohonen, Ben Geer, David
Whiting and Emma Dowling. I would also like to thank all the people
that came to the seminar and participated so enthusiastically.
I would like to thank Anna Weschke, a member of the World
Development Movement and People and Planet, for organising a very
successful evening session on the GATS and public services at Sussex
University. Also, for inviting me to speak at this event, on the topic of the
GATS and libraries.
I would also like to thank the editors of various journals who
published my different articles on the GATS and TRIPS and who gave
me the opportunity to develop my ideas in print. These include Stephen
Parker, the editor of the IFLA Journal; Tim Owen, the editor of Business
Information Review; Debby Raven, the editor of the Public Library
Journal (the journal of the Public Library Group of CILIP); and Ann
Irving, the editor of Focus(the journal for the International Library and
Information Group of CILIP). Also, Massimo de Angelis, the editor of
the Commoner (a left activist e-journal); Andrew Martin, the Chief
Editor of Relay (the journal of the University College and Research
Group of CILIP); Gill Harris, the editor of Link-Up: The Newsletter of
LINK: A Network for North–South Library Development; Michael
Peters, co-editor of Policy Futures in Education; Lennart Wettmark, the
editor of BIS(Bibliotek i Samhaelle–a Swedish left library journal); and
Graham Coult, the editor of Managing Information.
I would also like to thank Jane McKenzie, who at the time was the
News Editor for the Big Issue, for writing a piece in the Big Issueon the
GATS and libraries, for referencing my work and for raising awareness
about this important topic. I would also like to thank Anders Ericson, a
freelance journalist and librarian from Norway, for his enthusiasm and
support for my work. Also, for coming over to England to interview me
about my work on the GATS and libraries, for raising awareness further
about this topic and for the piece he wrote subsequently, which was
published in the Norwegian library journal Bok og Bibliotek (BOB). I
would also like to thank George Monbiot, columnist in the Guardian,
and Susan George for the interest they have taken in my work and for all
the work that they have undertaken on globalisation. I would also like
to thank Mikael Böök for the enthusiastic interest he has taken in my
work on the GATS and TRIPS. Also, for inviting me to speak at the
World Social Forum (WSF) in India in 2004, on the workshop on the
xvii