LibrarianActivist.org

In my daily dose of Spacing Wire this morning, Matthew Blackett articulated similar thoughts I was having yesterday about corporate sponsorship, however his post was in response to a new sponsorship program to add art onto Toronto garbage bins.

Matthew Blackett, Spacing Wire | June 27.07

I believe small projects like the Street Art™ Sponsorship Program only further legitimize ad-funded street furniture because the supplier (in this case Ecomedia) is “giving back” to the community.

Blackett also notes that there are positive aspects to sponsoring the arts (as any starving artist would tell you) but he is right to point out that it’s a complicated situation where companies can benefit for PR purposes. Even if the benevolence is sincere (for the sake of argument), the company’s priority will always be to protect its bottom line.

In my view, the tension that arises within this program are echoed in libraries considering sponsorship deals. While libraries deal with a host of complicated issues with their vendor relationships as well, sponsorship opens the library door to the wider corporate community. This May 14, 2007 TPL staff report notes the library’s criteria for accepting sponsorship funds. Funding for libraries being the ongoing challenge that it is, deciding to accept sponsorship funds is a complicated issue that is best done with lots o’ public debate. Let’s start now. Question: Are libraries upholding their role as social institutions and civic spaces when their policy decisions expose citizens to a marketing campaign in order to enjoy access to public services?

Here are links to the May 14, 2007 TPL board meeting where the museums pass sponsorship proposal was discussed (in a closed meeting…). The board meeting minutes may not be an exciting read, but there they are. Torontonians, check them out. Whether you agree or disagree with library board decisions, no matter what community you call home, being a participant is key. Dr. Sam Trosow’s reflections from the recent LPL board meeting is a testament that.

Coincidentally there is a TPL library board meeting tonight!

Employee and Labour Relations Committee
Toronto Public Library Board - Meeting No. 1:
Thursday, June 28, 2007, 4:00 p.m.
Toronto Reference Library, Board Room, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto

Can’t go? Save the link to the TPL board and read about it.

-PC-

Oy, librarians! No doubt you’ve already heard. But in case you haven’t, the push for direct-to-consumer advertising in Canada is marching on. However, if you like acronyms, it’s DTCA.

CanWest Global Communications Corporation stands to increase its profits should a lawsuit they are waging in the name of ‘freedom of expression’ succeed. While the public health system is strained under the weight of increasing costs that are largely the result of pharmaceutical expenses, CanWest seems to be thinking to themselves … why should Pfizer get all the cash? How can we get a piece of this action?

I say “they” because a corporation such as CanWest Global is not an individual. It is a group of individuals. If you’ve seen The Corporation, you will know the importance of this distinction. Despite this, under the law corporations are viewed as having the same rights as individuals. This lawsuit is claiming that CanWest Global’s right to freedom of expression is being violated. Does a corporation have this ‘right’? Meaning, do they have the ‘right’ to ‘freely express’ an advertisement on behalf of another multi-million dollor corporation, especially when they stand to profit from airing that ad? What about a corporation’s moral responsibility to society? Or the responsibility of the people who run that corporation?

Still reading? Back to direct-to-consumer advertising. The basic skinny is that it is legal in the US and New Zealand, Canada not so much. It gets muddy. Canadians have been exposed to drug ads through the American media, and in Canada ads for over the counter medications are permitted, as are ads that don’t recommend a drug for a specific condition. Americans and New Zealanders are exposed to the “feeling X? ask your doctor and buy Y” kind of marketing. According to the Toronto Star, US spending increased 10x over the course of 11 years, from 1994 -2005. Open Medicine, the British Medical Journal, Toronto Star, a recent CBC podcast, the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the CMAJ all have good information describing how direct-to-consumer advertising impacts health spending. No one seems to be a fan.

Direct-to-consumer advertising is not ‘free speech’. Advertising messages are carefully constructed bids to pitch products. They are created by talented, creative and well-compensated advertising teams. Legalizing direct-to-consumer advertising would permit profit-seeking corporations to compete with public health interests and public (as in your tax) dollars. As librarians, we can inform/remind the public that for safe and effective medical and health information, ads are not credible sources given that they are rife with branding strategies and backed by well-funded market research. Even if some ads are deemed ‘legal’ and hit the airwaves, they are in fact not ‘health information’. Unfortunately, the research suggests their impact is still huge.

Your Media notes that it is not safe to assume that it will be easy to prove that CanWest Global does not have a case. So you may be thinking, what can a librarian do in a situation such as this. Let’s consider some options …

First, whether you are a health librarian, academic librarian, public librarian, or special librarian - make your patrons aware of this issue:
a) CanWest Global is attempting to encroach on the public’s rights and they/we have a right to be informed about it
b) from an media/information literacy standpoint, DTCA exemplifies what NOT to use for informative purposes.
c) Tell your patrons about this film: Big Bucks, Big Pharma
(’c’ added June 10.07)

While I’m all for seeking alternative sources to health information, DTCA stinks. Freedom of expression being the wonderful thing that it is, you can exercise yours by talking to your Member of Parliament, sending a dirty note to the CRTC, and ccing whatever you do to the CanWest Global turkeys.

Oy, that was long. Thanks for hanging in there.
-PC-

Check out the news through Library Juice, and kudos to those who signed the petition.

-PC-

Mind Freedom asks the questions that don’t make it into the mainstream media about the potential link between violent behaviour and anti-depressants. Here’s their statement on the tragic event at Virgina Tech.

And more articles on this issue from The Public Library of Science and The Guardian.

Finally, info on how anti-depressant prescribing is being targeted at youth in The Peoples Voice.

April 20.07 - PC

Chip Ward’s illuminating article on how the library has become a de facto ’shelter’ in place of the state’s shrunken safety net provides an excellent opportunity to look at how ppl who are often perceived as non-citizens, non-persons, non-existant nuisances in the collective conscience are reclaiming their power and identities.

Here are some props to ‘information’ efforts that seek to give voiceless groups space to speak for themselves by putting the media in their own hands.

First is Homeless Nation, a Canada wide non-profit organization that provides an online community and forum for homeless people to express their point of view, and an opportunity for the public to interact with and learn some things about being homeless in Canada. Launched in [June] no, April of 2006, membership has grown to over 2000 participants.

Mentions of Homeless Nation in the media can be found here and here and in Rabble podcasts here.

Second is an archives that is documenting the history and cultural heritage of people who’ve been in contact with the psychiatric system.

Librarians, carve out a wee moment in your hectic schedules check out the Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto. It’s a forum and space that aims to preserve the history of psychiatric survivors for current and future generations. PSAT seeks to create an opportunity to restore a sense of agency and personhood to psychiatric survivors, to value their lived experience, history and culture, and to engage a voiceless and stigmatized population in the democratic process of self expression.

Articles here and here published recently in the Toronto Star speak to MAD pride, a movement akin to the ‘queering’ of gay/lesbian culture.

- PC