CONSIDER THE ALTERNATIVES:
INFORMATION ACCESS IN TIMES OF CRISIS
BCLA Information Policy Committee Conference
September 26-27th, 2002
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch

We live in times of crisis.

September 11 and the response of governments have significantly altered the
political and social landscape for people throughout the world. There are
now fewer rights to privacy, less access to information and more
surveillance of individuals. The rights of minorities are in jeopardy.

This is not the first crisis even in the last decade. For other populations, the
Israel/Palestinian conflict, the Iraq War, Kosovo, the poverty in Africa,
the re-structuring forced on countries by the IMF/World Bank and the issues
associated with globalization and the WTO are also crises.

At the same time, a few gigantic media empires have emerged worldwide which
have consolidated control over media forms for entertainment and
news-gathering in many geographic areas, these organizations exercise a
monopoly or near monopoly over news in newspapers and TV. Alongside this
development, alternate media organizations, new technologies and alternate
Web sites are emerging to provide outlets for new voices and social
criticism.

What is the role of libraries in providing access to these alternate
voices? How do libraries assure that perspectives outside of those carried
in the dominant commercial media receive attention and are known? How can
we develop our collections, our programs, our services and our publicity to
assure a real and not just token equality of information distribution and
access.

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