I nternet and L ibraries

Internet and LibrariesInternet and LibrariesInformation Access:Information Access:

Florangel Rosario- Braid, Ph.D.President Emeritus, Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication

Chair, Communication, UNESCO National Commission

Florangel Rosario- Braid, Ph.D.President Emeritus, Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication

Chair, Communication, UNESCO National Commission

IFLA Internet Manifesto of 2002

Access to information is essential to freedom, equality, global understanding and peace.

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to hold and express opinions and to seek and receive information.

It is at the core of library service.

Freedom of access to information regardless of medium and frontiers, is a central responsibility of the library and information profession.


Access to the Internet by libraries and information services supports communities and individuals to attain freedom and development.

Barriers to the flow of information should be removed, especially those that promote inequality, poverty, and despair.


Good governance and accountability depends on free flow of information, a vital safeguard against corruption.

Right to information enhances capacity of the people to provide timely feedback thereby promoting more responsiveness by government agencies.

Promotes constructive and informed debate builds consensus around policy goals and priorities.


Public Library Manifesto of 1994

Public library as a living force for education…and as an essential agent for the fostering of peace and spiritual welfare…

The School Library provides learning resources to enable the community to become critical thinkers and effective users of information in all formats and media.


From the more passive role of archiving and provision of traditional services, the school librarian is now a part of the team learning system where teachers, learners, and multimedia specialists collaborate to achieve the learning goals.


Information literacy is the competency to generate process, evaluate and utilize information.


It allows one to know when information is needed to solve a problem; make a decision; articulate information needed in searchable terms and language; search efficiently for the information, retrieve, interpret and understand information; organize, evaluate credibility and authenticity; assess relevance; communicate to others if necessary; then utilize it to accomplish bottom-line purposes.


ICT literacy includes

mastery of the language of the computer and the skills to use the attributes of the digital domain in enhancing learning – interactivity, networking, processing, etc.

Balancing Public Domain and Intellectual Property Rights

Public bodies should have an affirmative responsibility to make public information more widely available on the Internet and to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the information


UNESCO concentrates on the “content” aspects of the Information Society

Info-ethics – access to information, privacy, confidentiality, security of information

National information policies and legal framework or codes of practices


Fostering access to diversified contents for the “info-have-nots” by developing a strong public domain of information accessible online and off-line

Promoting cultural and linguistic pluralism including access to the virtual Memory of the World programme

Promoting standards of cooperation in information categorization, labeling and filtering


Training in the information age and in the context of globalization with particular attention given to needs of information professionals and trainers (journalists, librarians, archivists, documentalists, computer specialists, user communities (educators, scientists, members of social and cultural organizations, and governments.

Participating in the global cyber-culture with special attention to youth needs

eKnowledge Public Domain

Public Domain Information emerged from the realization that not everyone has access to information due to barriers of geography, economics, illiteracy, social, and economic factors.

encourage the use of information for the common good where knowledge is available, accessible and shared by all who needs it.


there is need for regulation to prevent the aggrandizement of the knowledge commons by commercial interest groups


PDI is information generated by government, the academe from public fund, research institutions funded by development agencies and available through print and electronic data including the Internet. It is publicly accessible information, the use of which does not infringe proprietary rights.


UNESCO’s programmes include the digitization and dissemination of public domain information through projects such as virtual libraries of classic world literature, electronic collection of texts related to the development of archives

UNESCO’s policy issue in the management of knowledge assets is not so much under-provision of knowledge as insufficient or unequal access to knowledge

Status and ChallengesStatus and Challenges

The Rights of Access to Information bill (HB 3732)

Towards a rationalization of an Internet Access Policy The Philippine government should adopt a Universal

Internet Access policy

Towards a rationalization of an Internet Access Policy

The policy should have these elements:

Pro-Competitive Market Policy Environment Technology Neutrality – Government must allow the private

sector to determine which appropriate and cost-efficient technologies are to be deployed

Competition Policy Framework Law for the Information Economy

Open Communications Policy Broadband Bill of Rights


Broadband Bill of Rights

Choice Nondiscrimination Privacy Open systems Interoperability


Broadband Bill of Rights

Public interest Obligations Civic content Educational opportunities Children’s programming Digital Divide

The Information for All Programme (IFAP) Philippines Committee The vision is a world where people have effective access to

information that is relevant to them and where they have the opportunity and skills to use this information in creating better societies

The Information for All Programme (IFAP) Philippines Committee

The mission statement

IFAP seeks to narrow the gap between the information rich and the information poor by promoting universal access to and management of information and knowledge through information literacy, information preservation and awareness on the ethical, legal, and societal aspects of ICTs.


The main programme thrust

human resources and capabilities for the information age;

strengthening institutions as gateways for information access;


developing information processing and management tools and systems; and

information technology for education, science, culture and communication

Memory of the World

facilitates preservation, universal access, increase awareness

Asia Pacific Network which facilitates exchange of information collaboration in projects on national information policies,

human resources development, information literacy and community-based initiatives such as telecentres

Global Development Initiatives

Millennium Development Goals, ICT4 development, and universal clamor for transparency

Some Statistics on Internet Penetration

Yahoo estimated that in April 2007, there were 14 million Internet users in the Philippines (16% of population). By 2008, this is expected to increase to 21.5 million users (IDC, 2004)

Internet population is urban, young and sophisticated, and belongs to the upper and middle class economic strata. (AC Nielsen, 2005)


More women (58%) go online than men. However, men are more advanced in their Internet use (The Filipino Internet User Part 2)

Online gaming is the activity of choice among Filipino young Internet users. By 2008, there will be an estimated 6.3 million gamers out of the 21.5 million Internet users


Online gaming is the activity of choice among Filipino young Internet users. By 2008, there will be an estimated 6.3 million gamers out of the 21.5 million Internet users

There are over 58 million registered Friendster users worldwide. The biggest percentage of users in Asia is from the Philippines at 39% of the sites traffic


There were five million Filipino Friendster members as of 2005

31.6 million blogs have been created on such services such as BlogSpot, LiveJournal, Xanga and MSN Spaces (Perseus Development Corp.). Technorati.com estimates that a new blog is created every seven seconds

The Philippines ranks 7th among the top 15 countries where blog hosting is popularly used

The hungry cannot eat computers. But neither can they eat plows that are extremely useful tools that help feed the world. Information and communication technologies are powerful tools in helping us solve basic problems on education, health, nutrition, livelihood and environment.

The hungry cannot eat computers. But neither can they eat plows that are extremely useful tools that help feed the world. Information and communication technologies are powerful tools in helping us solve basic problems on education, health, nutrition, livelihood and environment.

Paraphrased from Olav Kjorven, State Secretary for International Development of Norway

I nternet and L ibraries

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