Library Trends Call for Papers: Hyper-Connected Societies and Empowerment

In 2013, IFLA released a succinct and evocative document entitled, "Riding the Waves or Caught in the Tide? Insights from the IFLA Trend Report." It was part of a strategy that was intended to encompass "more than a single document — it is a selection of resources to help you understand where libraries fit into a changing society."

The IFLA Trend Report identifies five top level trends which will play a key role in shaping our future information ecosystem:

• TREND 1: New Technologies will both expand and limit who has access to information.
• TREND 2: Online Education will democratise and disrupt global learning.
• TREND 3: The boundaries of privacy and data protection will be redefined.
• TREND 4: Hyper-connected societies will listen to and empower new voices and groups.
• TREND 5: The global information environment will be transformed by new technologies.

IFLA gives some key indications of the ways in which the report and supporting materials are intended to promote discussion and further insights; see for instance:

• Building the Trend Report
• How to Use the Trend Report

This Call for Papers invites submission of papers that focus on Trend 4, which is concerned with empowerment of "new voices and groups" in hyper-connected societies.

The editors of this special issue of Library Trends invite contributions that take up this theme, developing it in the light of specific examples that address the ways in which "our future information system" does or does not listen to and empower new voices and groups.

Papers not centrally located in a library context but which impinge on, or have implications for, libraries are very welcome.  We are particularly keen to publish papers that focus on Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Other possible topics are suggested below, but there are many other appropriate ones, and we encourage a wide variety of subjects.

• The sense in which certain groups or forms of internet presence are "listened to," and whether this goes any further towards actual empowerment; also the extent to which certain groups are ignored, discounted, or worse
• Empowerment and disempowerment — the upsides and the downsides of empowerment
• The struggles for control and openness across the internet
• The internet as a site for struggles around class, raced, gender, and sexuality
• Issues for libraries and archives

SCHEDULE

This issue is scheduled to appear in mid-2017. Papers should be submitted by November 30, 2016, following the guidelines detailed on the publisher’s website. If you are intending to submit an article, or require further guidance regarding topicality or suitability, please contact Tony Bryant, issue editor.

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Cindy Ashwill
Assistant Dean for Communications
Managing Editor, Library Trends
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Mailing Address: 501 E. Daniel Street, MC-493
Champaign, IL 61820-6211
Telephone: (217) 244-4643
Fax: (217) 244-3302
www.lis.illinois.edu