GSLIS Associate Professor Terry L. Weech recently discussed the importance of inclusion in his teaching and research with Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre. Weech’s remarks are part of the interview series Reflections on Inclusion, which explores the School’s efforts to respect varied perspectives and diversity of experiences.
Weech teaches courses and conducts research related to international librarianship, library and information science education, collection development, management and assessment of library services, government information resources, economics of information, intellectual freedom issues, and public librarianship.
The courses I teach most often—Libraries, Information and Society (502), International Librarianship (585), Library Cooperation and Networks (544), and Economics of Information (549)—represent different yet complementary elements of inclusion. First, and perhaps foremost, is the fact that inclusion is part of the essence of librarianship and related information professions.
Libraries, Information and Society (502), one of the two required courses for the American Library Association (ALA)-accredited master’s degree at GSLIS, focuses on professional policies and supporting documents from ALA as well as other professional organizations in the field of information. Issues related to collection development, information policy, and community services are central to the assignments in 502. Topics covered, such as intellectual freedom, professional ethics, social responsibility, and the history of the development of the profession of librarianship, cannot be discussed without attention to the concept of inclusion. From a pedagogical perspective, I try to provide a variety of assessment tools ranging from traditional exams, standard written papers, group discussions, and class presentations to capture a wide variety of performance measures in this and other courses I teach. Not only does the profession of librarianship dedicate itself to inclusiveness in the services and resources provided, it recognizes the potential of librarians to be contributors to pluralistic learning within larger education and information organizations. The institution dedicated to providing the most diverse pluralistic learning opportunities, the public library, provides the strongest model of inclusiveness in services and resources of any information institution in our culture. I try to incorporate a similar philosophy of inclusion in my teaching practices.
In my own experience as a librarian and a teacher, the distinction between professional ethics and personal ethics is one of the most challenging areas relating to inclusion. Research has confirmed that librarians frequently make decisions that limit inclusiveness in their collections or services. Much has been written about the distinction between “censorship” and “selection” in libraries as well as the challenges of not letting our personal ethical and cultural preferences and beliefs get in the way of sustaining inclusiveness of services and resources. Circumstances relating to the provision of access to materials that some might consider inappropriate because of racial, cultural, or socially inappropriate content (access to the book Huckleberry Finn is one example sometimes cited) has led some information professionals to participate in “self-censorship.” This is one of the most challenging and troubling issues related to sustaining and expanding inclusion that often occurs when political correctness seems to be an attractive alternative to the defense of inclusion.
The other courses I teach on a regular basis also provide opportunities to review the importance of inclusiveness in the content as well as in the pedagogical strategies used in teaching. In International Librarianship (585), students have a great deal of freedom in selecting topics for assignments in the class, providing them with opportunities to focus on one or two countries and cultural areas, if that is their preference. The challenge for information professionals from the United States and other developed countries is to obtain an inclusive understanding of local cultural and social contexts that are important to other parts of the world. Many information professionals and citizens from other countries criticize information professionals from the U.S. and other developed countries for not recognizing that ideas from local cultures may be a more appropriate option for promoting inclusion than those external to the culture.
Library Cooperation and Networks (544) also focuses on the importance of inclusion, especially the inclusion of all types and sizes of libraries in planning cooperative access to information that will make needed resources available to the greatest number of people. Inherent in the structure of 544 is the principle of inclusiveness and the gains to be obtained for all in need of information resources.
The Economics of Information (549) course, which is perhaps the most theoretical and interdisciplinary of the courses I teach, is also the most comprehensive in scope and inclusive in pedagogical options. I have often had students from other disciplines on campus (computer science, communications, business administration, and economics, to name some areas) take the course along with GSLIS students. It is a course that has resulted in a diverse set of research papers, some of which have been accepted for publication in a variety of professional and scholarly publications. So, in one definition of “inclusion,” this course may be the most inclusive in terms of the interests of the students and the resulting research projects.