Peter Johan Lor

A Bacheloroppgave (bachelor’s thesis) on libraries and peacebuilding, by Natalia Bermudez Qvortrup, has recently been accepted by the Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, Institutt for arkiv-, bibliotek- og informasjonsfag, in Oslo, Norway. The title is “Libraries and peacebuilding: the role of public libraries in post-conflict societies: a systematic review”.  Here is the abstract:

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the roles of libraries in postconflict societies. It analyses the roles that public libraries have taken on to help re-build postconflict societies after the 1980s. This paper systematically categorises the collected information in a theoretical framework, which combines John Paul Lederach’s theories of peacebuilding, and Peter Lor’s concept of a scale of library roles in peacebuilding. Searches were carried out in seven different databases. 48 papers were identified, of which only 22 fit the initial criteria and only 16 fit the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) criteria. These articles show that there are roughly nine roles libraries take on in post-conflict societies, all of which can be directly or indirectly implemented for peacebuilding. The results show that there is a difference between countries and continents in their approach to, and their levels of interest in, peacebuilding. Some articles demonstrate that tensions and conflicts escalate when communities do not have access to libraries or information. On the whole, there is insufficient research measuring the impact of libraries that have taken on a direct role in peacebuilding. Theoretically, however, many of the core library roles fulfil the necessary requirements for successful peacebuilding implementation approaches, yet have been completely overlooked in the peacebuilding field.

For those interested in libraries and peace, this is a systematic and useful piece of work and well worth looking at. It is available online at: https://fagarkivet-hioa.archive.knowledgearc.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/1021/106.pdf?sequence=1. I congratulate Natalia and hope that she will follow this up with further research on this topic.

The “Welcome”, “About me” and “Presentations” pages have been updated. In “About me” my curriculum vitae has been abridged and updated, and my lists of publications and of  papers and presentations have been updated. Links have been provided for most of the items listed in “Presentations” for 2015 and 2016.

The new Chapter 3, Conceptual exploration, has been posted here. In it I attempt to tease out some key LIS concepts and explore some conceptual frameworks that may be useful for research in international and comparative librarianship.  This concludes the rewriting of Part I the book, “Conceptual Foundations”. As always, comments and questions will be welcomed.

Following up on my earlier post, here is a PowerPoint I presented at the School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, on 6 September, 2016.

In March I posted a message on IFLA’s listserv, IFLA-L, inviting colleagues to send me examples of library activities aimed at promoting peace. This was done with a view to a poster presentation at the 2016 IFLA Congress in Columbus, Ohio. I received interesting material from kind colleagues, for which my thanks. Unfortunately, a spell of illness and logistical problems have prevented me from producing the planned poster. Instead, I have used some of the responses to compiled the piece which you will find here.

The new version of Chapter 2 has been posted here.

In this chapter I outline the development of a scholarly field that came to be referred to as international and comparative librarianship, with reference to the themes, genres, motives, and values reflected in the literature. I then outline the structure and current state of the scholarly research and literature in the two areas within the field, and attempt to define and delimit the scope of these interrelated areas. I conclude with some reflections on the possible impact on them of globalization.

Good news for blind and visually challenged people everywhere: Canada has become the 20th signatory of the Marrakesh Treaty, the WIPO Treaty on Copyright Exceptions for the Visually Impaired. This means that the treaty, approved in June 2013, can now enter into force.

This is good news, but the absence up to now of so many countries that are major producers of print materials is a sad commentary on the on-going struggle for access to prevail over commercial self-interest. For the record, the countries that have ratified the Treaty to date are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, South Korea, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Israel, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Paraguay, Peru, North Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.  Where is Europe? Where is the USA? Where is South Africa?

For more information and background see Denise Nicholson’s blog post on the African Lii (African legal information) site, which participates in the free access to law movement.

At last. I’m in the process of rewriting the first five chapters of the book. Chapters 1 and 2 have been expanded to three. The ones that follow are being renumbered. The new Chapter 1 has been posted here. The next two will follow soon.

On 2 March 2016 I was privileged to present a “Lectio Magistralis” in Library Science at the University of Florence, in Italy. The lecture was presented in abridged form in Italian, but the full text has been elegantly published in Italian and English by the publishers Casalini Libri. It is also available on open access on their online platform, Torrossastore, at http://www.torrossa.it/, where it can be found easily by inputting “Peter Lor” in the search box. The Torrostore platform, incidentally, was an eye-opener to me. It offers access to a wealth of journal articles, e-books and e-journals in Italina, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Since 2015 I have been asking myself the question: given that libraries are dependent on peace for their existence, development and survival, can libraries contribute to preserving and making peace? In this lecture I reflected on the relationship of libraries to peace. I did this in three steps. In the first step I placed this relationship in a historical context, starting with the rise of internationalism and peace movements in the 19^th century. I related this to the coming of modern library science and documentation, and to how the role of libraries in building peace has been seen by UNESCO. In the second step I looked at the contemporary scene, asking what we mean by peace. In the third and final step I briefly explored what the implications of our understanding of peace are for the role of libraries in building peace.

The last step is still work in progress. In the Lectio I outlined some possible roles for librarians, using seven broad categories: informing, creating resources promoting, educating, empowering, healing and advocating. I placed them roughly in an order of increasing engagement of the librarian in the community, depicting them on a continuum. At the one end the librarian is detached from the conflict, adopts a (supposedly) neutral position, and is concerned with general information provision. At the other end of the spectrum the librarian is committed, and takes on an activist role with particular attention to the context of the community that is served:

LIBRARIAN ROLES IN RELATION TO PEACE-BUILDING

This model is an oversimplification. It needs to be fleshed out and tested using real-life examples of what librarians are actually doing. Currently I’m collecting examples with a view to a poster I hope to present at the 2016 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio, in August. Any examples that readers can contribute will be greatly appreciated.