Please join us for a CIPR Research Lunch on Sept 7, 2016, featuring Dr. Peter Lor

Libraries Promoting Peace: Cherished Illusion or Opportunity for Action?
Dr. Peter Lor
Adjunct Professor, School of Information Studies, UW-Milwaukee

Wednesday, September 7, 2016
12:00 – 1:30pm
NWQB 3511
2025 E Newport Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Please bring your own lunch.
Refreshments and dessert will be provided by SOIS

Abstract:

It has long been assumed that libraries contribute to promoting peace. In the late 1940s the then newly established UNESCO made a big investment in developing public libraries worldwide on the basis of this assumption, which has a long history and still resonates with librarians today. After all, we provide information about “other” nations, communities, groups, beliefs, and orientations. Information is assumed to contribute to knowledge, understanding, tolerance, and peace. This is a long string of causal assumptions. It should be challenged.

In this presentation Peter Lor briefly examines the assumptions and what is meant by “promoting peace” before outlining a set of seven roles for librarians: informing, creating resources, promoting, educating, empowering, healing and advocating, with some illustrative examples of current library activities in various parts of the world.

About Peter Lor:

Dr. Peter Lor is former National Librarian of South Africa and later Secretary General of IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. During 2009-2011 he was a visiting professor at SOIS. Dr. Lor is currently an Extraordinary Professor at the University of South Africa, and also teaches INFOST 891, International and Comparative Librarianship, as an adjunct professor for SOIS.