Community Informatics in LIS: Research, Learning and Action Partnerships

Bishop, Ann Peterson (2005) Community Informatics in LIS: Research, Learning and Action Partnerships.

Abstract

A total of 35 slides were presented in Session 2.4 – Community Connections: Advancing LIS Education and Practice Through Partnership, at the 2005 ALISE Conference. Community informatics, defined as the study and practice of enabling communities with information and communications technologies, is drawn to the attention of researchers. A call for a Community Informatics Initiative that employs community partnerships to develop useful information systems is made. Diverse initiative programs such as Prairienet and Community iLabs are presented as examples. At the same time, the presentation highlights the barriers and issues pertaining to the development of such community resources. Some goals are established for building up community connections, including facilitating teaching/learning/research, undertaking community action and development, and paying attention to local/global use and impact to the development.