Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Information Sources Used by Lawyers in Problem-Solving: An Empirical Exploration

The information-seeking behavior of lawyers has not been fully investigated empirically. Prior work has tended to focus on legal research as the central task performed by lawyers in their information-seeking activities. This analysis of more than 150 interviews of practicing lawyers showed that legal research should not be considered information-seeking. The lawyers interviewed identified other tasks, such as administration of their law practices, as constituting problem-solving, information-seeking activities. In solving their problems, the lawyers overwhelmingly preferred informal sources when seeking information. In addition, they preferred sources of information internal to their organizations rather than external sources, although this was less true for lawyers from smaller firms. Neither the lawyer’s gender nor the size of the center in which the practice was located influenced the type of information sources chosen. The model for the information-seeking behavior of professionals advanced by another author group is discussed and modifications are suggested that create a new model offering a fuller picture of the behavior of lawyers.

Situating gender: students' perceptions of information work

Young people entering their first year of university studies were asked to give their impressions of 12 high knowledge and information sector occupations. Their perceptions yield a complex set of expectations that are consistent, in large measure, with experts’ predictions of the information sectors occupational winners and losers. The majority of students aspire to be self‐employed or to work in the private, rather than the public sector. Of the occupations included in the study, the students perceived the occupation “librarian” most negatively in terms of skill, status, compensation and future opportunity, unlike, for example, the similar occupation, “Internet researcher”. The results are discussed in term of the complex interactions of gender, computing, and skill on the attractiveness of difference types of work.

Control of Community Information: An Analysis of Roles

Many formal and informal sources within a community disseminate community information. People seek information from their peer-kin network, directly from service providers, and from intermediaries, such as libraries and information and referral (I&R) agencies. I&R agencies specialize in community information by maintaining an inventory of the areas human services and disseminating that information to the public. Another recently developed vehicle for this information is the online community network, an electronic environment where service providers can post information about their services and members of the public can then access that information using a computer and modem. But the respective roles of I&R agencies and community networks are unclear: are they, in part or in whole, providing the same service or product? What are the implications for funding and data collection if they are? If not, what relationship, if any, should they have with each other? This study explores the differences between I&R agencies and community networks from an information policy perspective and uses a framework proposed by Wilkinson (1992) to analyze the positioning of control within the two intermediaries under six facets: agency ownership and governance, funding, information flow, access, information ownership, and quality control. Existing community networks and I&R agencies are used as examples to illustrate the arguments.

The Author as Agent of Information Policy: The Relationship between Economic and Moral Rights in Copyright

A historical and theoretical analysis of the copyright environment demonstrates that both the economic rights associated with copyright and the moral rights often associated with copyright perform social functions. The latter have not been as universally embraced or adopted as the former. The lack of enthusiasm for moral rights is argued to be because the social utility of this aspect of the copyright regime has gone largely unrecognised. In fact, moral rights ensure that the information needs of the public are being met because they enhance the ability to assess the authority and reliability of information. While historically this has not been as important as enhancing the supply of information, a function performed by the economic rights of copyright, in the context of the new information environment, the role played by moral rights is becoming increasingly important. Our thesis also defines the appropriate scope of moral rights protection in copyright.

International Copyright: Marrakesh and the Future of Users’ Rights Exceptions

The 2013 adoption by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (‘Marrakesh’) represents a transformational moment in international copyright law. Marrakesh, a treaty devoted entirely to ensuring uniform rights for a set of users of copyrighted materials, challenges previously held notions that international copyright treaties must deal exclusively with rights holders’ rights. But does Marrakesh mark a historic shift for international copyright? This chapter demonstrates that copyright has always been linked to technological change and the real challenge since the inception of the Berne Convention has not been technological change but changes to the underlying legal structures of business. The rise of corporate business globally precipitated the inclusion of moral rights in copyright and in Berne but this has not heretofore been recognised. The current pressure on business to innovate has created further global pressures on information flow and hence on copyright. What is historic about Marrakesh is its shift to a user perspective. From this perspective, extending international copyright protection to users beyond those to whom Marrakesh applies (for instance, to libraries and archives) is demonstrated to provide benefits in the public interest to all copyright stakeholders: economic rights holders, authors, and users of information.