Digitization of the academic library in Brazil: A proposed model for successful information policy in developing nations Pre-proposal presentation SCILS/PhD.

Digitization of the academic library in Brazil: A proposed model for successful information

policy in developing nations

Pre-proposal presentationSCILS/PhD Department

Spring-2004Sergio Chaparro PhD Candidate

Sergio Chaparro/PhD Candidate 2

Exploratory Case Study of Brazilian Academic Libraries

• Introduction• Conceptual Framework and Theoretical Underpinnings• Literature Review and presentation of the problem• Research Questions• Methodology and methods


Introduction

• The developing world and the Digital Divide.

• The development of information policy.

• The need for a model that enhances access based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF).

• Brazil, library leaders, library associations and government officials (interaction).

• Brazil as a best case scenario.


Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF)

• Developed by Paul Sabatier and W. Jenkins in Theories of the Policy Process.

• This framework is useful for the proposed case study because it suggests multiple ways to address the relationship between policy implementation and technical information in public policy change over a relatively long period of time (Sabatier, p.118).


Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF)

• Investigates the relation between policy implementation and public policy change over time.

• Policy changes as a result of various actors at different levels. For example: Government officials responsible for library legislation and funding, academic library leaders and library associations advocacy strategies.

• Advocacy entities are in constant negotiation and have influence on the enactment of information policy.


Burger’s Global Framework

• Framework for the investigation of information policy issues in the international arena.

• Access, universal service, advocacy and equity in the international arena.

• Provides a conceptual setting within which information issues that affect information policy around the world can be better analyzed and understood.

• Framework designed specifically for international contexts.


Conceptual Framework

• Information policy comprises all the laws, regulations and public policies that encourage, discourage or regulate the creation, use, storage and communication of information” (Feather & Sturges, 2003, p.278). Digitization is “the process of converting analogue information into a digital format for storage and processing in a computer (Feather & Sturges, 2003, p.138).

• This research considers information policy as associated with the global information society and as potential promoter of national, social and economic development goals.


Conceptual Framework

• Advocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes including public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions.

• Academic Libraries are “libraries attached to academic institutions above the secondary or high school level, serving the teaching needs of students and staff” (Feather & Sturges, 2003, p.3)


Summarizing the Theoretical Underpinnings• Advocacy Coalition Framework

(ACF): The relation between policy implementation and public policy change over time.

• Policy changes as a result of various actors at different levels. For example: Government officials, academic library leaders and library associations.

• (ACF): Advocacy entities are in constant negotiation and have influence on the enactment of information policy.

• The (ACF) privileges the role of advocacy in the discussion of the process of digitization in the developing world.

• Burger’s global framework is complementary, and helps to analyze information issues that affect policy around the world.

• Information policy made in one nation will have effects elsewhere.

• Information policy is a dynamic process that is constantly refined on a global basis.


Fundamental precepts of academic librarianship for this exploratory case study

• Universal Service is defined as access everywhere. • Equity of Access is defined broadly as ”people having

the right to unlimited library services and materials” (Hayden, 2003, p.5), in this case within the borders of Brazil, to access electronic information.

• For the purpose of this research universal service and equity of access are analyzed in the context of Brazilian academic libraries.

• A main assumption is that in developing nations digitization has promoted the existence of coalitions and advocacy groups to influence decision makers.


Internet and Education

• The evolution of Internet use in Brazil has been constant since 1995 and its growth has affected multiple levels of the nation’s society. By the year 2000, the number of Internet hosts in Brazil was around 460,000 and Brazil was the 13th country in the world in terms of number of hosts. This does not seem surprising in a country where six out of ten taxpayers can file their taxes via Internet or lawyers can examine Supreme Court decisions via email (Sepin, 2000).

• By 1999, Brazil had around 155 universities with an approximate enrollment of 1,619, 734 (World Bank, 2002). Federal and State universities accounted for more than half of the public enrollment. The important fact is that between 1980 and 1999 university enrollment in Brazil more than doubled (World Bank, 2002) which makes it one of the fastest growing university enrollments in Latin America. This has enormous implications for academic libraries.


Higher Education

• Future figures suggest that demand for higher education in Brazil will grow by more than half a million students by 2010.

• The challenges faced by academic libraries then can be better addressed with continued introduction of adequate policies for information access and information digitization (Hauptman, 2002).


Higher education, librarianship and Internet

• The library sector in Brazil is strong and organized.Funding for librarianship comes from the Ministry of Education (ME) which makes this government institution a powerful element in the library structure of Brazil.

• The Federal Council of Librarianship(CFB) supervises the whole country with sub-regional councils in each state. The Brazilian federation of library groups, information scientists and institutions (FEBAB) that comprises all kinds library organizations in Brazil. The Brazilian association of education for information science (ABECIN) comprises LIS educators and researchers.

• The Information Society Program is planning and research initiative launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology to impulse information digitization and development to bridge the digital divide. One of its main targets is the education sector.


Higher education, librarianship and Internet

Ministry of Education

Federal Council of Librarianship (CFB)

Brazilian Federation of Library Associations, Information Scientists and Institutions (FEBAB)

Brazilian Association for Education on Information Science (ABISE)

Information Society Program


The Government

• Bastos da Cunha (1998) and Da Silva (2003) discuss the changing role of Brazilian academic libraries and their interactions with the policy process.This is at the core of the present study

• The Brazilian government has recognized the importance of the library and information sector for the development of the nation (Da Silva, 2003).

• Many researchers point out government efforts to recognize the importance of information as a national resource (Da Silva 2003; Ferraz, 2000, Miranda, 2000)

• Brazil was chosen for this case study because it represents an advanced state of collaboration among the major entities involved in the provision of electronic information services to academic libraries.

• Brazil represents a paradigmatic case regarding library institutions empowerment and advocacy.

• .


Education, library and government

• Brazil represents a case of constant change, where the library field, the government, and higher education sector interplay. There is a recognition of the dimensions of this interplay. (Thiesen & Severo 1998), and (Goncalves, 2001). That factor makes Brazil a best case study scenario in Latin America.

• This research takes a look at some aspects of this important dialogue as it relates to advocacy and its resultant effect on policy regarding the digitization of academic libraries.


The Problem

• Given this setting it is necessary to investigate the relationship among government officials and library and information leaders which results in legislation and digital information policies that advance academic libraries.


Research Questions

• RQ1: What are the perceived influences on Brazilian policymakers that led to the establishment of information policies affecting the digitization of academic libraries?


Research Questions

• RQ2:What were the positions and activities of Brazilian government agency officials, academic library leaders, and professional library associations in the enactment of digital information policy for academic libraries?


Research Questions

• RQ3:What elements of an advocacy campaign were in place when policy favorable to academic library digitization was enacted?


Research Questions

• RQ4:Has Brazil’s national legislation and information policy already served as a model for local counterparts? for regional jurisdictions? For other developing nations?


Research Questions

• RQ5: What is the overall perception of the Brazilian academic library sector regarding the future roles of the government, library leaders and library associations in the enactment of information policy favorable to the digitization of academic libraries? What obstacles need to be overcome for continued progress to be made? What forces are actively promoting future favorable policy?


Research Questions

• RQ6: Do the elements found and defined in the Brazilian case suggest a model for digital academic library development in other developing Latin American countries?


MethodsData Collection

• Survey• Interviews• Document Review


MethodsInstruments Description

Survey

Interview

Document Review

Web-based

Telephone and email

Collection and analysis of information policy legislation


MethodsOrganization Description

Federal Council of Librarianship (CFB)Ministry of Education

Brazilian Association for Education on Information Science (ABECIN)

Information Society Program

Brazilian Federation of Library Associations,Information scientists and Institutions(FEBAB)

Survey and telephone interview

Survey

Survey

Survey

Survey


Methods: Data CollectionDocument Review

• Archival evidence of information policies related to digitization of academic libraries in Brazil since 1995.

• High degree of authoritative and reliable Web-based legislation on information policies available from government, and library organization sources.


Methods


Methods


Methods: Data collectionSurvey

• Survey: Purposeful sample intended to reach a large audience with open and closed questions, and to collect data about the perceptions of those surveyed and the population they represent (Frey& Botan&Kreps, 2000). The participants have been chosen nonrandomly based on their condition of leadership in the field.

• Survey: Web based and mail survey.


Methods: Data CollectionIn-depth Interview

• The in-depth interview is intended to gain greater knowledge of advocacy and awareness at the national highest ranking national level.

• In-depth interviews conducted with information rich subjects.

• The in-depth interview will utilize findings of the survey to schedule relevant questions on the digitization of academic libraries in Brazil.


Methods

• Top leaders and those intimately connected to policymaking in the library field.

• Board members of the Ministry of Education.• Members of the Brazilian Association of Education on

Information Science (ABECIN).• Board Members of the Information Society Program.• Brazilian Federation of Library Associations, Information

Scientists and Institutions (FEBAB).• Board members of the Federal Council of Librarianship

(CFB).


Methods: Data Analysis

• The data will be analyzed using comparative qualitative methods. Perceptions gathered from responses to the major survey questions will be discussed and organized against a framework of techniques commonly used to analyze case studies: pattern matching, explanation building, and negative case analysis.


Pattern Matching

• Pattern matching involves the comparison of "an empirically based pattern with a predicted one (or with several alternative predictions)" (Yim, 2003 p.116).

• This research looks for the discovering of patterns that may evolve and develop along time, and that at the same time describe advocacy relations and events.


Explanation Building

• Explanation building for this case study will arise from the analysis of the data to depict the relationship among government officials, academic library leaders, and professional associations in the formulation of policy relative to the digitization of academic libraries. This research attempts to build an explanation about the case through the analysis of the data.


Negative Case Analysis

• Negative case analysis will be undertaken to search for evidence that lies outside the main patterns of explanation that have arise from the data. This will further amplify the advocacy forces at work on the policy making process.


Expectations

• To test the Advocacy Coalition Framework against the library environment in Brazil

• To gain a better understanding of the role of advocacy in the digitization of academic libraries in Brazil and to develop ideas for further research.

• To uncover the elements for a model that arises from the themes found in pattern matching, explanation building, and negative case analysis. The resulting model should serve as an example of interaction among institutions of advocacy in other Latin American nations.


Limitations

• Respondents knowledge of the problem.• Advocacy and awareness.• Private and/or political interests in the role played by the

government that may resist telling the complete story.• Sample size.• The perception of the informants (reliability).• Alternative explanations. An intervention other than the

target intervention.

Digitization of the academic library in Brazil: A proposed model for successful information policy in developing nations Pre-proposal presentation SCILS/PhD.

Documents

successful information

policy implementation

policy process

policy changes

information issues

public policy change

technical information

analogue information