Bridging Information Worlds

Abstract

The topic of global inequities in scholarly communication is complex and may be viewed from different perspectives depending upon multiple variables, including where you live in the world. This “Report from the Field” presents the author’s experiences and reflections on facilitating formal discussions of this topic at the Monteverde Institute (MVI) in Costa Rica. The Monteverde Institute (MVI) is a Costa Rican non-profit organization that provides infrastructure and support for education abroad programs focused on community engaged scholarship, as well as support for both international and locally based researchers who focus their study in the area. Its middle vantage point provides unique advantages for engaging multiple constituencies in conversations about the inherent inequalities of our current scholarly information universe from both Global North and Global South perspectives. This report focuses on the author’s experiences and reflections on discussions about equity issues in scholarly access and production, with North American students as well as local researchers and community members in Latin America that took place between 2017-2019. The richness of engagement with this topic was facilitated by the opportunities afforded by the ability to hear multiple perspectives, backgrounds, and lived realities in this single space.