Libraries, Human Rights, and Social Justice

Libraries, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Enabling Access and Promoting Inclusion examines the interrelationships among digital literacy, digital inclusion, and public policy, emphasizing the impacts of policy decisions on participants in information society. This book will help librarians better understand and articulate their roles in promoting human rights and social justice, as well as educate policymakers, government officials, and professional in other fields. It explores the intersections of information, human rights, and social justice and addresses the differing roles of library institutions (public, school, academic, and special libraries), library professionals, professional organizations, governments, and library patrons. These topics are discussed through legal, political, social, cultural, and economic lenses. Issues are examined in terms of efforts both to support equity in communities as a whole and to promote fairness in specific disadvantaged or marginalized populations, such as the homeless, immigrants, people with disabilities, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. The ideas and suggestions should help members of the library community understand their roles related to human rights and social justice, how they fit within the broader policy context, how to improve their related services and practices, and how to advocate for better support of these roles. -- from back cover.