Information Flows and Cultural Disruption

Every society depends on a pattern of communication, coordination, trust, and coercion. A change to its pattern is culturally disruptive. Currently attention is on ‘fake news’ in social media and the invasive use of data on activity. Disruption induces cultural change and/or is mitigated by regulation. Innovation in information services have social consequences. Authoritarian regimes resist open information sources, a free press and freedom of speech and travel. Efforts to change library services during the allied occupation of Japan (1945–1952) provide a starting point for asking what “American librarianship” (compared with, say, Soviet or Japanese librarianship) could mean — and why and how information access matters — and, more generally, relationships between technology choices, resource allocation, and cultural differences. Join us for a discussion.