Foundations Of Information Law

Learning the basic concepts of information law and the many legal concepts that come into play in the field of librarianship can seem like an overwhelming endeavor. Drawing upon the authors’ unique backgrounds in both law and librarianship, this text is designed to empower readers to understand, rather than be intimidated by, the law. It melds essential context, salient examples of best practices, and stimulating discussions to illuminate numerous key legal and social issues directly related to the information professions. Helping readers better understand the role of law in their work, this primer discusses information law as part of a continuum of interrelated issues rather than an assortment of discrete topics; examines information law in the context of different types of libraries; delves into the manifold legal issues raised when interacting with patrons and communities, from intellectual freedom topics like censorship and public activities in the library to the legal issues surrounding materials and information access; elucidates operational and management legal issues, including library security, interacting with law enforcement, advocacy, lobbying, funding, human resources, and liability; promotes literacy of the law, its structures, and its terminology as a professional skill; gives readers the tools to find and understand different sources of legal authority and demonstrates how to interpret them when they conflict; and explores information law as a national and cross-national issue.

Foreword by Alan S. Inouye; Afterword by Nancy Kranich The first of its kind, this important new text provides a much-needed introduction to the myriad information policy issues that impact information professionals, information institutions, and the patrons and communities served by those institutions. In this key textbook for LIS students and reference text for practitioners, noted scholars Jaeger and Taylor draw from current, authoritative sources to familiarize readers with the history of information policy; discuss the broader societal issues shaped by policy, including access to infrastructure, digital literacy and inclusion, accessibility, and security; elucidate the specific laws, regulations, and policies that impact information, including net neutrality, filtering, privacy, openness, and much more; use case studies from a range of institutions to examine the issues, bolstered by discussion questions that encourage readers to delve more deeply; explore the intersections of information policy with human rights, civil rights, and professional ethics; and prepare readers to turn their growing understanding of information policy into action, through activism, advocacy, and education. This book will help future and current information professionals better understand the impacts of information policy on their activities, improving their ability to serve as effective advocates on behalf of their institutions, patrons, and communities.

As discussions about the roles played by information in economic, political, and social arenas continue to evolve, the need for an intellectual primer on information ethics that also functions as a solid working casebook for LIS students and professionals has never been more urgent.

It’s not hyperbole to conclude that in today’s world, information literacy is essential for survival and success; and also that, if left unchecked, the social consequences of widespread misinformation and information illiteracy will only continue to grow more dire. Thus its study must be at the core of every education. But while many books have been written on information literacy, this text is the first to examine information literacy from a cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-institutional perspective. From this book, readers will learn about information literacy in a wide variety of contexts, including academic and school libraries, public libraries, special libraries, and archives, through research and literature that has previously been siloed in specialized publications; come to understand why information literacy is not just an issue of information and technology, but also a broader community and societal issue; get an historical overview of advertising, propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, and illiteracy; gain knowledge of both applied strategies for working with individuals and for addressing the issues in community contexts; find methods for combating urgent societal ills caused and exacerbated by misinformation; and get tools and techniques for advocacy, activism, and self-reflection throughout one’s career.

Foundations of Law is designed to help law and pre-law students make sense of law in a changeful age. It is founded upon the conviction of the English jurist William Blackstone that students who intend to study law need both technical instruction in law and liberal education in the history and jurisprudential concepts of law. The book considers the enduring nature of law and its relationship to equity and justice with the assistance of the authors of what we today call the Great Books. It also emphasizes enduring aspects of legal practice: the role of logic; the meaning and importance of conscience and of due process; different approaches to textual interpretation; and the relation of law to other normative concepts (such as morality and religion) and to science (such as economics). The book surveys classic writings concerning law and justice--for example, the works of Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas. It contains writings that are foundational to Anglo-American legal norms and institutions--Blackstone, Bentham, Locke, the Federalists, Lincoln, Holmes, and others. It includes helpful analytical insights from influential jurisprudence scholars--Austin, Hart, Hohfeld, Dworkin, and Finnis, among others. Most uniquely, it matches each of those writings with constitutions, declarations, statutes, judicial decisions, and other legal and political texts (even a letter from jail) that illustrate and reinforce the key lessons drawn from the great works. The book does not leave students adrift in abstractions. It provides a solid grounding for understanding and practicing law in a rapidly-changing world. Combines technical instruction in law with liberal education in the history and jurisprudential concepts of law. Provides a solid grounding in the enduring characteristics of law to enable students to understand and practice law in a rapidly-changing world. Surveys the great books concerning law, equity, and justice. Uniquely matches each great book excerpt with judicial decisions, statutes, proclamations, and other legal materials to illustrate how foundational concepts recur in contemporary legal norms and institutions and to illustrate and reinforce the key lessons drawn from the great works. Emphasizes enduring aspects of legal practice: the role of logic; the meaning and importance of conscience and of due process; different approaches to textual interpretation; and the relation of law to other normative concepts (such as morality and religion) and to science (such as economics). Surveys classic writings concerning law and justice--for example, the works of Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas. Surveys writings that are foundational to Anglo-American legal norms and institutions--for example, the works of Blackstone, Bentham, Locke, the Federalists, Lincoln, and Holmes. Includes helpful analytical insights from influential jurisprudence scholars--Austin, Hart, Hohfeld, Dworkin, and Finnis, among others. Opens each chapter with reading questions to assist beginning students. Follows readings with notes to direct more advanced students to additional reading and further lines of inquiry.

Essential Law for Information Professionals, fourth edition, provides up-to-date and easy-to-follow practical guidance on the law as it affects information management and the principles underlying practice. Using individual cases to illustrate these core principles and contextualise regulations, it cuts through the legalese to provide exactly what’s needed in an easily digestible format showing examples of how the law has worked in practice in specific legal cases. The book gives readers the tools to quickly assess legal hazards and identify solutions. Information law is a particularly fast moving area of law. In the eight years that have passed since the best-selling third edition was published, there have been many changes to the legislation and numerous legal cases which have further developed our understanding of the law. The fourth edition fully reflects those changes, which include:

Enshrined in the mission statement of ALA, intellectual freedom is one of the core values of the information professions. The importance of ensuring information access to all, and the historical, social, and legal foundations of this commitment, are powerfully explored in this essential primer. Designed to function as both an introductory text for LIS students as well as a complementary resource for current professionals, this book provides a cohesive, holistic perspective on intellectual freedom. Extending beyond censorship to encompass such timely and urgent topics as hate speech and social justice, from this book readers will gain an understanding of the historical and legal roots of intellectual freedom, with an in-depth examination of John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty” and Article 19 of the U.N Declaration of Human Rights, and its central concepts and principles; the intersection of intellectual freedom, freedom of expression, and social justice; professional values, codes of ethics, ALA’s Library Bill of Rights, and Freedom to Read/View Statements; pro- and anti- censorship arguments and their use in impeding and facilitating access to information; book banning and internet filtering; privacy and its relationship to information services; U.S. case law and precedents; the basics of U.S. copyright law, including fair use, and how it differs from international copyright law; and emerging global issues and their impact on future intellectual freedom.

Foundations of Public Law offers an account of the formation of the discipline of public law with a view to identifying its essential character, explaining its particular modes of operation, and specifying its unique task. Building on the framework first outlined in The Idea of Public Law (OUP, 2003), the book conceives public law broadly as a type of law that comes into existence as a consequence of the secularization, rationalization and positivization of the medieval idea of fundamental law. Formed as a result of the changes that give birth to the modern state, public law establishes the authority and legitimacy of modern governmental ordering. Public law today is a universal phenomenon, but its origins are European. Part I of the book examines the conditions of its formation, showing how much the concept borrowed from the refined debates of medieval jurists. Part II then examines the nature of public law. Drawing on a line of juristic inquiry that developed from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries-extending from Bodin, Althusius, Lipsius, Grotius, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke and Pufendorf to the later works of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant, Fichte, Smith and Hegel-it presents an account of public law as a special type of political reason. The remaining three Parts unpack the core elements of this concept: state, constitution, and government. By taking this broad approach to the subject, Professor Loughlin shows how, rather than being viewed as a limitation on power, law is better conceived as a means by which public power is generated. And by explaining the way that these core elements of state, constitution, and government were shaped respectively by the technological, bourgeois, and disciplinary revolutions of the sixteenth century through to the nineteenth century, he reveals a concept of public law of considerable ambiguity, complexity and resilience.