Dr. Toni Samek

Toni Samek is Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta, where she has been a scholar and educator since 1994. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Library and Information Studies) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto.

Her teaching, research, and service interests include critical librarianship, intercultural information ethics, global information justice, human rights, intellectual freedom, social responsibility, library history, and library education.

She is the author of numerous scholarly articles and essays, as well as Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974, (McFarland & Company, 2001), a historical work examining the American Library Association's profound and contentious professional identity crisis during the Vietnam conflict. She is currently working on a new monograph for CHANDOS (Oxford) Publishing titled Librarianship and Human Rights: A 21st Century Guide. The intention of this book is to encourage 21st century librarians around the world to increase their participation locally, nationally, and internationally in dialogues, practices, policy making, and coalition that promote inclusion, identity, place, and belonging for all peoples. This work focuses on elements of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) that relate particularly to core library values and the related field of global information ethics.

Dr. Samek is Chair of the Canadian Library Association's Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom, the Convener of the Association for Library & Information Science Education, Information Ethics Special Interest Group, and an Advisory Board Member for Information for Social Change.

Information Ethics on Our Global Library Streets

Dr. Toni Samek

Closing Plenary - Friday, May 12 @ 11:00 am

Toni's closing plenary session will locate early 21st century information literacy discourses within the urgent contexts of intercultural information ethics, global information justice, and critical librarianship. Toni will advocate for increased attention to local, national, and international dialogues, practices, policy-making, and coalition that promote human rights. Special attention will be given to the "Position Statement on Information Ethics in LIS Education," now under development by the Information Ethics special interest group of the Association for Library and Information Science Education. The new statement underscores the universal core values promoted by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and other professional organizations and world bodies, such as the United Nations General Assembly 2005 World Summit. Toni will make the case for the deep infusion of information ethics in the study, discussion, development, and practice of information literacy by highlighting some of the challenging questions and issues that need to be examined and revisited through the lenses of individuals, institutions, and societies. These may include: intellectual freedom; intellectual property; preservation; balance in collections; post 9-11 surveillance; cultural destruction; censorship; cognitive capitalism and its resistance; imposed technologies; public access to government information; commercialization; privatization; academic freedom; workplace speech; serving the poor, homeless, and people living on fixed income; anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality; the global tightening of information and border controls; transborder data flow; and, information poverty.