Information Poverty Research Articles

Clinical Ramifications of TB Stigma in Baguio City, Philippines

Objective. Stigmatization due to a disease is a complex process, particularly in the case of tuberculosis (TB) in Baguio City, Philippines. This article reveals findings important to healthcare professionals in the outpatient setting. Complex aspects of stigma vary among people and healthcare professionals in different roles and settings, facilitating behavior that controls TB in some cases and spreads it in others. Methods. With ethnographic and historical methods, Ladia analyzed a wide range of understandings of 36 healthcare providers and 14 persons affected by TB (PATB). These understandings shape clinical behavior with significant implications for patient outcomes and community health. TB treatment and control historically established concepts and behavioral patterns that have a significant bearing on public understanding today. Comparisons with national survey data supported the analysis. Results and Conclusions. Sources of varied understandings of TB include the history of sanitaria, poverty, and incomplete dissemination of current scientific information. While some behavior related to stigma could benefit the health of PATB and their household members, the struggle against stigma leads to counterproductive behavior in a number of cases, sometimes spreading disease and sometimes resulting in unnecessary labor and expense. Healthcare providers can provide accurate, accessible, detailed information to address patients’ problems.

Vulnerability and Information Practices: experiences of (Undocumented) latino migrants in the USA

This article presents the second part of a study that explores information practices (research, use and distribution of information) of Latino migrants, particularly those who are undocumented, on the border between Mexico and the United States, and in Seattle, Washington. In these contexts, different information practices are generated. At the border we find more information poverty practices of the kind “small world", which are expanding and consolidating insofar as the sense of belonging is strengthened, after spending more time settled than the estimated in the United States. However, vulnerability and transience are maintained by the permanent risk of deportation. The findings of the study in Colombian communities are presented in another complementary article, in this same volume. Through participative photography and unstructured interviews, we explore the experiences and information practices of marginalized communities, and relate them to how they experience transience along the different stages of the migratory experience. We also discuss how the stages of migration may not be sufficient to account about the constant changes and iterations on the experiences of the migrants that we studied.

Concluding Comments to the Debate

AbstractIn this final piece to the symposium for a special issue of Pacific Economic Review on the theories and applications of second‐best and third‐best theories, Richard Lipsey and Yew‐Kwang Ng provide their final comments to the debate. Several issues of agreement and disagreement are discussed. Most importantly, while both agree on the formal correctness of both the second‐best and third‐best theories, Lipsey believes the main proposition of third‐best theory (following the first‐best rules under Informational Poverty) is applicable only to a situation (status quo) where the first‐best rule (such as taxing a pollution at the marginal damage of $N) is already being followed; Ng regards it as applicable whether or not the first‐best rule is currently being followed. This also partly explains their difference on the practical policy relevance and the importance of that theory.

Towards a Theory of Third‐Best

AbstractThe theory of second best (Lipsey & Lancaster ) shows that the presence of irremovable distortions renders the second‐best conditions exceedingly complicated; by satisfying some optimality conditions, an improvement is not ensured. However, the complicated second‐best rules are neither optimal nor feasible if informational and administrative costs are taken into account. The simple first‐best rules are the optimal feasible in an important class of situations (Informational Poverty), implying that analyses based on first‐best assumptions are still relevant for practical policy‐making. This is so because, with a reasonable concavity assumption, staying with the first‐best rules maximises expected benefit. With more (but not perfect) information, third‐best policies are appropriate. Some informal illustrative applications of this third‐best theory are provided. In particular, average‐cost pricing for public utilities may not be far from the third‐best optimum and the necessity to raise government revenue through non‐lump‐sum taxes need not impose any real distortion.

Editors’ Introduction

AbstractThis paper presents the editors’ introduction for a symposium on Second and Third Best Theory forthcoming in The Pacific Economic Review, 22:2, May 2017. Unusual in such cases, the editors are the major protagonists in the debate. In the symposium Ng maintains that second‐best theory appears to preclude giving theory‐based policy advice because full second‐best optima can never be determined in practical cases. While agreeing about second‐best optima, Lipsey disagrees with Ng's conclusion regarding policy and discusses the development of context‐specific policies not based on the theory of optimal resource allocation. To allow for theory‐based policy, Ng offers his theory of third best. The major disagreement over this theory concerns its proposition: first‐best rules for third‐best worlds under Informational Poverty (not enough is known to determine the desirable direction of change of some the policy variable from the first‐best value). Lipsey argues that, if correct, this rule would upset the main result of second‐best theory that the sign of the change in the objective function may be either positive or negative when first‐best rules are fulfilled piecemeal in second‐best worlds. Woo supports Ng's third‐best theory and derives additional rules, while Boadway surveys the application of second‐best theory in several cases from the literature of public economics.

Theory of Third Best: How to Interpret and Apply

AbstractSix decades after the formulation of his (Lipsey & Lancaster, ) celebrated general theory of the second best, Richard Lipsey has written on the important issue of second‐best and third‐best theories. In particular, he criticizes the theory of third best (see Section 3 below). This paper explains our agreements and differences and reaches the following conclusions. First, several arguments provided do not invalidate the theory of third best, at least if correctly interpreted and applied. We may have useful piecemeal welfare policies after all, if appropriately used. Second, I did not and do not attempt to refute the general result of second‐best theory; both the second‐best and third‐best theories remain valid, if properly interpreted. Third, the usefulness of some general results (properly interpreted and used) and the importance of additional information (if available) on specific context need not be an either–or choice (Section 1). Finally, the third‐best theory is not completely non‐context specific; the distinction between cases of Informational Poverty and Scarcity itself depends on the context. However, it also provides some general guides useful for making piecemeal policies in different contexts (Sections 3 and 4).

Economic Policy with and without Maximizing Rules

AbstractThis paper contrasts the static neoclassical and the evolutionary views of the economy and economic policy. It responds to Ng's comments on Lipsey's original criticism of third‐best theory. Under a relevant definition of informational poverty and Ng's other assumptions, the expected value of any policy‐created divergence from the status quo is negative: If there is not enough known to determine what to do, nothing should be done, rather than establishing first‐best conditions as Ng's analysis has it. It is argued that Ng's analysis of his two other information states adds little to what common sense suggests. To address Ng's argument that policies using context‐specific objective functions lack the required welfare basis, the present paper studies how economic policy is actually pursued absent guides provided by welfare economics. Policies that follow from evolutionary economic theory imply that many things that are seen as ‘distortions’ in welfare economics are actually desirable forces that drive economic growth.

The Information Practices of the Fishermen in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

AbstractUtilizing de Certeau’s concepts of “tactics” and “strategies,” and Chatman’s “information poverty,” this study examines the information practices of the fishermen in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. Using faceto- face surveys, this study gathers data from 102 fishermen in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. The findings of the study reveal that the majority of fishermen (“fisher folks”) studied regularly need information on weather, fish buying and selling prices, daily consumable products, entertainment, and religion. Fisher folks in this study heavily rely on their informal information networks (e.g., family and friends) to meet their diverse information needs. The study also reports various information challenges faced by the participants. It is evident in this study that fisher folks, due to unwelcoming information environment of strategic institutions (e.g., various government agencies), tactically avoid services and information provided by them. A call for radical change in “information service culture” (i.e., offering information to only educated, the dominant group of the society) has been emphasized by the author of the paper. The study also highlights the importance of offering appropriate, need-based, welcoming information services to rural communities by various government information agencies including public libraries. It is expected that this study will help researchers design studies aimed at exploring the “tactical information practices” of various unprivileged groups such as victims of domestic violence, ready-made garments worker, sex workers, etc., who have diverse socioeconomic and political backgrounds.

Information Poverty and Reproductive Healthcare: Assessing the Reasons for Inequity between Income Groups

It is commonly known that in the United States women who are low income do not access reproductive healthcare services and information with the same reliability and regularity of women who are higher income. A qualitative research approach was undertaken to assess the root cause of this disparity. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 women divided among socioeconomic lines. The primary barriers to care for women who are low income are clinical staff attitudes, knowledge of care available and needed, and cost or lack of insurance. This study adds to the current understanding of the barriers to reproductive healthcare for women of different socioeconomic statuses.

Book Review: Overcoming Information Poverty: Investigating the Role of Public Libraries in the Twenty-First Century, Anthony McKeown

Book Review: Overcoming Information Poverty: Investigating the Role of Public Libraries in the Twenty-First Century, Anthony McKeown

Small Business Perspectives on the Role of Rural Libraries in Economic Development

AbstractPeople living in the Appalachian region, including its rural areas, face challenging economic, social, and cultural conditions with limited financial opportunities, information poverty and unemployment, and low levels of information literacy and educational attainment. The roles played by rural public libraries in small business economic development in this region require exploratory study of representative small businesses to refocus library services and resources on their information needs and information-seeking experiences. This article proposes a user- and use-based model to represent the information context and perspectives of such businesses in the state of Tennessee as a case study in order to apply the lessons and insights to other parts of the United States. It concludes with suggestions for the blueprint design of a public library small business tool kit, an ideal resource that Tennessee’s rural public libraries can develop for small businesses in the future.

Information seeking and use in the context of minimalist lifestyles

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe information seeking and use (ISU) within the context of minimalist lifestyles and connect characteristics of living with less to theories of information poverty and resilience. Design/methodology/approach Naturalistic methods of inquiry describe minimalist lifestyles in a remote, rural context through semi-structured interviews with 24 adults. Environmental scanning and visual methods extended data collection retrospectively and longitudinally to span almost 118 years of community history. Qualitative thematic coding and analysis proceeded inductively and reflexively. Findings Living minimally in this environment results in adaptive strategies that compensate for lack of resources in general, and information resources specifically. Positive psycho-social attitudes such as optimism, creativity, curiosity, resourcefulness, and self-sufficiency continue to be important factors in developing resilience in information seeking practices. Research limitations/implications Information poverty is usually defined relatively, and often in relation to formal, macro-level environments. Focussing attention on informal, local level ISU reveals alternate varieties of knowledge, ways of knowing and characteristics that create information resilience in the face of sometimes profound deficits. Practical implications Highlights of positive aspects to ISU in this remote, rural context will be of interest to researchers and practitioners serving rural library systems. Originality/value This study provides an historical and contemporary glimpse into the ISU patterns of a previously unexamined population and context, those who live minimalist lifestyles in a remote and rural location.

On becoming citizens: examining social inclusion from an information perspective

Increasing participation in social, economic, and community life is considered to be one of the defining principles of an inclusive society and a key aspiration for the Australian Federal Government. Central to this principle is the ability to build the capacity of individuals and groups to develop connectedness, and to engage in decision-making. Participation such as this improves individual well-being and the well-being and prosperity of the communities in which individuals learn, work and play. A prerequisite for participation, inclusion, and informed citizenship is the ability to develop knowledge from information about the social, economic, and community dimensions through which modern Australian society is constituted. While the concept of social inclusion is broad and extends to all sectors of the Australian community, this paper focuses on a particular sector of Australian society – new arrivals, termed settlers1 - and explores the concepts of social inclusion and exclusion and information poverty...

The information behaviours of disadvantaged and disengaged adolescents

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evidence and better understand adolescent information behaviours in disadvantaged and disengaged circumstances, and explore issues of social integration. Design/methodology/approach – Interdisciplinary theoretical framework bringing together theories of information behaviour with theories of social capital. Mixed method design incorporating observation, interviews, and focus group conducted in areas of multiple deprivations. Participants’ young people aged 16-19 not in education, employment or training (NEET); and their support workers. Findings – Heightened access and internalised behavioural barriers found beyond those common to the general adolescent population, the former influenced by technology and literacy issues, the latter by social structures and norms. There is evidence suggestive of deception, risk-taking, secrecy, and situational relevance in information behaviours, and a reliance on bonding social capital characteristically exclusive and inward facing. Low levels of literacy and self-efficacy are significant interrelated issues, with NEET youth dependent upon support workers when seeking and processing information, and demonstrating passive non-motivated information behaviours often abandoned. Research limitations/implications – Highlights the need for further interdisciplinary research to explore complex relations between social and affective factors, and that seeks to both understand and influence information behaviours in disadvantaged and disengaged circumstances. Practical implications – Remedial literacy education recommended as an immediate priority for public and third sector agencies. Originality/value – First study of adolescent information behaviours in disadvantaged and disengaged circumstances. Novel interdisciplinary theoretical framework evidences and draws attention to understudied and enduring information poverty issues of significant societal concern, potentially consigning a significant proportion of the youth population to a stratified existence within an impoverished (small) information world. Sets a focused interdisciplinary research agenda.

Roles, Responsibilities, Problems and Prospects of Medical Libraries toward Health Information Provision in Nigeria

A United Nation’s Administrative Committee has found that technology inequities and knowledge gap caused by misdistribution of information resources and poor access to information and its related opportunities in less developed nations has created a wide gap between the less developed and the other countries of the world. The gap so created has led to information poverty in many countries and Nigeria in particular which is besieged with the problem of poor access to health information. This paper is focused on establishing the expected roles and responsibilities as well as the problems and prospects of medical libraries in the Nigerian state vis a vis their capabilities in information services which could upscale the health literacy level of an ordinary rural Nigerian. The paper adopted a simple methodology of literature review to provide answers to the topic. The aim was to provide some leverage to accessing health information via good use of medical library services and resources in a country highly devastated by hunger, pandemic diseases and social ailments. It discovered that the state of health literacy in the country was poor even when medical libraries need to influence knowledge translation, foster communication and interpretation of health information, provide platforms for standards, encourage support for free access to information amongst others. A number of problems affecting performance of these roles like lack of support specialists, poor inventive thinking and cost of resources, inactive policies and language barrier were discussed. Areas of future potentials were given as the paper concluded that weaknesses noticed could be turned around into areas of strength for the medical libraries.

An author report: Elfreda Annmary Chatman

The main aim of this report is to become familiar with Elfreda A. Chatman and her major works and theories. She has contributed information science by producing several theories such as “the theory of information poverty,” “the normative behavior theory” and “the theory of life in the round” and implemented many studies about information seeking behavior of ordinary people. Although her major is library and information science, she focused on women in prison, the feminist movement, poor workers and janitors at large universities by using an ethnographic perception. She emphasized their information seeking behaviors in small communities and tried to describe their approach about information poverty. Also, she studied public libraries and the role of mentorship of the library leaders. The findings she found in her studies are useful not only for information science but also other disciplines such as sociology and psychology.

Dismantling information poverty in cultural production for young people

ABSTRACTThis panel, comprised of an international team of scholars, will address children's information poverty from three perspectives: 1) information poverty faced by populations who do not see themselves reflected within mainstream picture books; 2) information poverty faced by immigrant children who do not have access to appropriate learning materials; and 3) adults' cultural information poverty around the meaning of young people's encounters with art and culture as part of their everyday life experience.

Reference Services to Incarcerated People, Part I: Themes Emerging from Answering Reference Questions from Prisons and Jails

Incarcerated people face significant information poverty, both because of limited access to information resources and because incarceration itself produces information needs that cannot be easily met. Through a content analysis of reference questions directed to the New York Public Library’s Correctional Services Program, this study articulates the particular information needs of these users. Information needs cluster around self-help and re-entry information, along with general reference queries that typically go unanswered due to the lack of access to the Internet and robust general libraries in correctional facilities. Understanding these needs offers insight for librarians and libraries seeking to better serve incarcerated populations.

How is she? Information and the surgical waiting lounge

ABSTRACTThis paper describes an exploratory ethnographic study of the information‐seeking behavior of visitors in the Surgical Waiting Lounge at the UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion in December 2013. A model of information practice is examined in relation to existing information‐seeking behavior theories, frameworks, and approaches. The finding that visitors’ information poverty and inhibited information‐seeking behavior manifested in a process of information gleaning—notable for its hypervigilance and meaning inference—is discussed. Similarities are drawn between this behavior, crisis situations, and situational anxiety disorder. Finally, recommendations are described in the context of anxiety‐reducing interventions and established post‐operative information practices.

Needing NoDI (normal democratic information)? The problem of information poverty in post-industrial society

The paper addresses one of the main paradoxes of post-industrial society: information poverty. While digital divides of various types have been extensively theorized and researched, the actual condition of the information poor – those at the wrong end of socioeconomic information-divides – has not received sufficient attention. Yet if advanced nations have ‘informatized’ and thus become, at least in some measure, information societies, the plight of those lacking the definitive resource ought surely to be high on academic and political agendas. The article reviews the scattered multidisciplinary literature on the condition, confirming the iron link between economic poverty and information poverty, while also registering cultural and behavioural dimensions. Building on such work, a focused, up-to-date and, it is believed, original conception is able to be introduced, namely, information poverty as a deficiency in certain taken-for-granted categories of political and cognate information, or normal democratic information (NoDI). The new construct is then trialled in the field, among a sample of severely disadvantaged men in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. The informants are indeed found to be, by and large, wanting in these key categories of information, an epistemic pathology that reflects and reinforces their material malaise. The article concludes that the ‘option for the poor’ – the political duty of care for the worst off – in the twenty-first century demands new modes of State action to combat an acute and increasingly salient social problem.