Whiteness in Libraries

Whiteness in US Libraries

[Note--this is a blog post.  These ideas can and will be further developed.  These ideas are sketches of what I am thinking at the moment.  Feedback is encouraged and welcome.]

US schools and libraries serve as points of diffusion for Whiteness.  

Whiteness, as used in this post is defined as the concept that European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures.  

Whiteness is purveyed uncritically in libraries.  This shucking of Whiteness is done under the guise of objectivity, of adhering the the 'marketplace' of ideas.  But this so-called neutrality is really an adherence and capitulation to the Whiteness paradigm.  

Children of color hear the message of Whiteness--"European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures.  

Children of color live in a world of discrimination and bias in US schools.  

Some think US culture is not European. But US culture is derived from European culture and is fundamentally White-supremacist. 

I don't say this lightly.  Whiteness is embedded in our culture.  From the shapes of the buildings, to the hierarchies of the library staff and administration.  This is especially true in the American Library world. Ethnic categories, demeaning classifications, cataloging systems with names like the Anglo American Cataloging Rules, and staff who (too often) don't look like the people who live in the neighborhood.  Microagressions, discrimination, hiring bias and collections centered around Whiteness all are outcomes of the ubiquitousness of  this paradigm in our libraries.  

Engravings on Multnomah Co. Library Central Building Photo by Ismoon Maria Hunter-Morton.

Many people will now be thinking that I am saying all White people are racist, or that all White people are bad, or some such nonsense.  That is not what  I intend to say.  I'm saying that the idea of Whiteness, as defined above, is what our country was founded upon. 

European immigrants live on stolen indigenous land.

These immigrants and their descendants committed genocide against Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.

The wealth of the Americas, in large part, was created by slave labor. This slave labor was both African and Indigenous.  

Whiteness says that this is okay, that this is correct and that it is justified. Those who adhere to Whiteness also believe in these fundamental principles.  Mostly, the information found in libraries says it is okay, natural and normal, or does not bother to address these issues...

Engravings on Multnomah Co. Library Central Building.  Photo by Ismoon Maria Hunter-Morton.

The diffusion model works something like this:

Whiteness, brought from Europe has been part of US Educational system from the beginning.

Children are inculcated with #Whiteness via books, lectures and the culture of US schools.

Some children become authors, scientists and other types of academics.  They produce information and knowledge in the form of books and other types of media.

Racist mainstream 'Intellectual' book 

The knowledge, which too many authors, scientists and academics create is fundamentally flawed with Whiteness embedded within. Even if the creators of this knowledge are people of color. They are working with tainted information that has not been fully analyzed from a cultural perspective. This lends itself to embedding Whiteness in all new knowledge created from this information. This is why we have seen no real advancements, even with the educated people of color. They exist within and are heavily influenced by Whiteness. Libraries serve as key distribution points for culturally biased information.

One example is historic documentation Thomas Jefferson, as a land-owner and slaveholder, is understood to be a rapist. He took advantage of his position and raped his slaves, yet he is still hailed as a hero still. This is Whiteness. 

Thomas Jefferson (Slave Rapist) bust in the Library of Congress

Technology in libraries needs to be reexamined with a critical eye. Embedded Whiteness prevails. Metadata, algorithms and other location tools are just as infected with Whiteness as the rest of the library world and larger American Educational culture. This issue is particularly pertinent as we transition into a more digital information world.  

These people are probably still in control of your library technology.

The idea that White people, European Americans are more important, smarter, better, stronger, more worthy, and that their culture is superior is embedded in most of the books in US libraries. People check out these books and are then influenced by these books. And since most of these books have the message of Whiteness uncritically embedded in them, the reader is most often influenced by Whiteness without giving it the critical eye it deserves.

This is how libraries serve as points of diffusion for Whiteness paradigm.

Culture and Information Literacy Video

This is a video I created (with help from the school's video production team) for my introductory Information Literacy class. It was meant to broach the subject of Culture and Information Literacy. It can be used to generate a discussion or as a reflection writing assignment catalyst. I would LOVE feedback on this please.

Please Help Us Publish Librarians With Spines

This is your chance to be part of a unique publishing endeavor. Yago S. Cura and Max Macias are co-editing a book of essays written by specifically invited librarians who we feel have some of the best minds in the world. We need help with funds for publishing. Please consider giving what you can to help us create this one of a kind work. We plan on continuing with a series of unique, forward-thinking and courageous librarian works from outstanding minds in the Information world.

My name is Max Macias and my Co-editor is Yago Cura. We are seeking help publishing an invitational anthology of radical essays written by exceptional librarians, many of whom are also librarians of color. All funds will be used for publishing and promotional costs. We are projecting to publish this anthology of essays by May, 2017. Few books have been written about how information and culture impact the creation of knowledge. Even fewer books critique how oppression is bolstered and enhanced by cultural concepts that are embedded in our information. Since information is important to all of us as librarians and consumers of information, these essays will seek to fill the void described above. One of the things we are trying to understand is the relationship between culture and information, and how this impacts the creation of knowledge. 

These essays will range in theme from colonialism and whiteness in library science to representation in children’s literature. Going beyond what has been written in the past on this subject and bringing together a diverse group of great librarians is the goal of this endeavor. These essays will attempt to move LIS forward in the areas of culture, information and education. You will not only be helping us publish this work, but you will be helping the field and profession of Library Science with your support. Please give anything you can to help us change the field of library related publishing. Description: Hinchas Press invites original chapters for a new volume. 

This edited volume seeks to understand culture and its impact on information and knowledge in LIS and Education in general. We seek contributors involved in the ongoing critique of information and culture in the United States and Canada and the rest of the Americas--especially those who are interested in sharing and speaking candidly about their experiences with culture and information in libraries, authorship, books, films, comics, other media and in education. This monograph will offer multiple views and insights from the greatest minds in LIS during the second decade of the 21st century. 

These essays will cover major breakthroughs, barriers to progress, cultural innovation and information, and radical thinking in libraries and in education and other vital areas. What progress has LIS made regarding major problems concerning information and culture? What successes have individuals had creating change? What do great contemporary librarians think about colonialism, feminism, multiculturalism, religion and race, intersectionality and other social justice and equity issues? This compilation will be edited by two of today’s shakers and movers in information and culture: Max Macias and Yago 

Topics to consider from a theoretical and/or practical perspective: Information, culture and user needs Computers and culture Whiteness in Libraries and Education Women and computers in libraries Open educational resources and representation Microaggressions in education, academia, in print Cultural representation in children’s literature Cultural representation in comics Erotica and Information in libraries Sexual identity and collection development Classism in LIS education and librarian culture Hip-Hop culture in libraries...

 Below is the golden ticket we sent invited authors and a link to our GoFundMe drive.  

Please give what you can.

Colonialism and Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality

Colonialism and Whiteness

This is the first post in a series of blog posts that seeks to understand the development of Whiteness in the Americas from colonialism to today.  These blog posts are short necessarily short and are not meant to be exhaustive, but to give the reader an idea of where Whiteness comes from and how it appears in our culture. The need for these posts came out of the backlash against Whiteness History Month at Portland Community College this April, 2016. 

Casta Painting

A Casta (Spanish: [ˈkasta], Portuguese: [ˈkastɐ, ˈkaʃtɐ]) was a hierarchical system of race classification created by Spanish elites (españoles) in Hispanic America during the Spanish colonial period. The sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas was used in 17th and 18th centuries in Spanish America and Spanish Philippines to describe as a whole and socially rank the mixed-race people who were born during the post-Conquest period. These unions produced in the process known as mestizaje. A parallel system of categorization based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture, which distinguished between gente de razón (Hispanics) and gente sin razón (non-acculturated natives), concurrently existed and supported the idea of casta.  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casta 

Whiteness

Whiteness has been with us since the beginning of European colonialism.  When Europeans conquered what was to become the Americas, they also established a racial caste system based on skin color.   The darker one was, the lower they were on the social scale.  Whiteness is a concept that describes the cultural, lingual, institutional beliefs, practices and behavior that maintains access to power and reinforces power for White people and people of lighter skin tones.  This colonial system was created for and by Europeans for the benefit of Europeans.  Everything was in relation to the European--this is a hallmark of the concept of Whiteness--that everything is judged in relation to Whiteness and not something else.  

Españoles (Spanish) [White people]

Peninsulares (Spaniards) [White people]

Criollos (Spanish Americans) [White people]

Indios (Amerindians)

Mestizos (Amerindian and Spanish mix)

Castizos (Spanish with some Amerindian mix)

Cholos (Amerindian with some Spanish mix)

Pardos (Spanish, African, and Amerindian Mix)

Mulattos (African and Spanish mix)

Zambos (Amerindian and African mix)

Negros (Africans)

Source: https://goo.gl/IFq1Lq 

This is, in a nutshell, how the European imposed hierarchy in the Americas looked.

This system was brutally enforced.  There were strict rules about who could do what with whom....This system was directly related to slavery and servitude.  The people higher up (Whiter) the hierarchy were granted more privileges and rights than those in the lower section.  Consequently, the amount of distance one could put between oneself and the lower states of the hierarchy, the better chance one had of making a living, or even succeeding in the European (White) dominated world of the Americas (Whiteness).   

Another casta painting

     

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     Casta paintings

The casta series represent different racial mixtures that derived from the offspring of unions between Spaniards and Indians–mestizos, Spaniards and Blacks–mulattos, and Blacks and Indians–zambos. Subsequent intermixtures produced a mesmerizing racial taxonomy that included labels such as “no te entiendo,” (“I don’t understand who you are”), an offspring of so many racial mixtures that made ancestry difficult to determine, or “salta atrás” (“a jump backward”) which could denote African ancestry. Source:https://goo.gl/O9DdUP

 These paintings show us the importance of Whiteness to the Spanish from the very beginning of their conquest of the Americas.  The resultant mixture with indigenous, African and Asian people led to a complex hierarchy of racial superiority that was adhered to and, in many ways, is still upheld today.  These notions permeate our society, but in a different guise.

High Civilization (NOT White)

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 Indigenous People and Whiteness

In an idealized Mexico where people of African, European and indigenous heritage were intermingling in seeming harmony, the paintings were a reminder to Spaniards that there was still a strong hierarchy of racial purity — with Europeans on top. Source: http://goo.gl/y1mAZQ

On the social scale indigenous people are close to last.  It was a survival strategy to distance oneself from anything that is indigenous.  Choices like adopting the god of the Europeans, to using their script instead of the indigenous forms of writing,  and becoming as Guero (White) in dress, speech and color if possible.

They had been here thousands of years and had established societies, cultures and hierarchies.

Once the casta system was imposed by invading Europeans they concept of Whiteness became increasingly important.  The abandonment of their culture, their languages and their identity is what was required, at baseline, if one wanted to survive or even advance in the new hierarchy that had been established by bloodthirsty conquerors. 

Up until recently, skin color has been a defining factor in Latino life.

Are you:

Guero?  (White, or Whiter Than)

Maron?  (Brown)

Negro?  (Black)

The answer could be a determining factor in your life....

Spanish burning indigenous books/knowledge/culture

          

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          Cultural Genocide

The racial hierarchy in combination with the destruction of the indigenous cultures by book burning, destroying cultural monuments and using them to build churches (Whiteness), and the enslavement of the indigenous people did much to reinforce the casta system.  Our (Latinos) indigenousness had been written out of the history books, it had been derided and our people discriminated against and persecuted (according to their skin color).  Whiteness can be uncovered when one thinks about how the descendants of European immigrants want to persecute indigenous people from Mexico and other parts of central America for wanting to migrate on their own continent.  Even Latinos are hesitant to use this argument against immigration restrictions on Latinos.  I can only imagine that the bias against Indios still permeates Latino culture and prevents this strong argument from being presented. 

Contemporary Latinos and Whiteness 

As always, this is not a sweeping generalization, but a description of a large part of Latino society in the US that I have been witness to my entire life.

Latinos in large part lost their indigeneity by distancing themselves from their indigenous heritage and appropriating the European religion and culture as much as possible.   It was advantageous to do so, economically, socially and health-wise, it was advantageous to be as European (White) as possible.  This is where we see Whiteness beginning in the Americas.

Since the 1990's there has been a resurgence of interest in indigenous culture by Latinos who want to claim that part of their heritage.  It had never really been a option before--now we see Aztec dancers, and other parts of our indigenous heritage celebrated and exalted by some Latinos.

An example of contemporary Whiteness 

When I pick up a book entitled, American Ethnic Folklore and I open it up and it is really about Indigenous mythology.  I then realize that this is whiteness.  The fact that this book has been written for White people by White people without regard to any other readership uncovers Whiteness in this particular context and moment.  This is Whiteness.  These kinds of subject categories still permeate education and information in general.

We must seek to uncover Whiteness where it is, when it appears.  Whiteness is not a stable, abstract concept.  Whiteness changes according to setting, in shifts it's mode of providing access and maintaining power for White people.   We should and help our allies see and explicate Whiteness when it appears in our institutional and social contexts.

Whiteness displayed before the Irish were considered White

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One other thing about Whiteness is that it can be adhered to by non-white people.  Many people of color and those who purport to want to help People of Color adhere to the system of Whiteness that the educational system upholds, supports and requires of POC who want to succeed.  I say that this is why we have made little to no progress in equity, diversity and inclusion in our school systems and our society.  

The brutalities that were used to enforce the racial hierarchies of yesterday are still with us today.They used to come in the form of lynchings--back in the days of Jim Crow.... Now they come in the forms of Police shootings of unarmed African Americans and Latinos in far greater numbers than Whites.  They come in vigilante shootings of unarmed African Americans, for example--the shooting of Trayvon Martin.  

Colonialism is still in full effect....

I appreciate any and all comments (except spam).

Next Post:  Slavery and Whiteness in the Americas

 

 

Information Literacy and Colonialism ILAGO, 2015 Presentation

Here is a link to the presentation with notes:

Hackers Have a Stronger Sharing Ethic than Librarians

The dysfunctional model of Librarians, who already have great jobs as librarians--writing books for ALA, or other publishers who will then pimp their information out to libraries who can afford the price to these publications. Most often, these publications are on essential library best practices and technology implementations. To put up a barrier to this librarian created information is ethically and morally wrong. It goes against the librarian principle of sharing information.

This information should be made freely available to libraries who can't afford the new ALA techSource title, or to small rural libraries who can't afford to attend the 350.00 pre-conference.

Shit--I have learned more from Hackers for free than I have learned from librarians sharing their vital information.

This site needs to be hackerfied--meaning--it should be converted to an information sharing site:

http://www.alatechsource.org

When I was first introduced to computers and the internet I had a friend who was a hacker. He turned me onto a group of White Hat Hackers who dedicated their lives to sharing information.

Much of what they did was illegal, but it was not malicious. It was about sharing. These people would spend hours and hours creating tutorials for users--this is where I learned about ports, scanning, FTP and more--all for FREE.

This sharing ethic made such a huge impression on me that I wondered why more people don't share information so freely.

Then I became a librarian and was so excited by the purported ethic of sharing information with those who are in need. Once I became a librarian, I quickly realized that this was not the case. What I mean by that is that in order to serve your patrons well, then you will have to cough up the money (most often) to get that information in the form of a pre-conference, a publication or a trainer. BIG bucks paid to librarians, whose ethics are supposed to include sharing information--even with those who have nothing. There is something wrong when our profession sells information.

One of my academic friends on FB told me that it is a tenure issue--"...people need to publish in the antiquated system in order to be recognized professionally."


While, this is indeed the case for academic librarians, we ALL need to be pushing the envelope on the publishing platform issue. Blogs and other related platforms can and should be used by academia to publish their work and get critiques from colleagues and a wider breadth of readership than simply publishing your article in one journal. Blogging to a wider audience can inject a healthy dose of transparency, information diffusion and a diversity of ideas into Academia. Academia is in dire need of these things at the moment.

Librarians should set up a virtual publishing center and publish their work there. It should be Be freely available to anyone who needs the information and should also include multimedia production and storage capabilities.

I should note here that many library related publications that are written by librarians and sold by publishers do not pay a dime. However, the publishers make money if the book sells through library related channels.

The Information Transfer Process in Hip-Hop: A New Academic Field Emerges

"Breakdance oldschool". Licensed under FAL via Wikimedia Commons.

[I wrote this in 2008-09]

Introduction

The current emphasis of Information Science is on knowledge— specifically knowledge processing—that is to say, the production and use of knowledge.  Whereas before the emphasis was on providing information, now Information Science seeks to help users understand and make use of this information thereby creating new knowledge and utilizations.  An interdisciplinary perspective and the primacy of the user are distinguished as necessary prerequisites for the successful implantation of information systems today (Oluic-Vukovic, 2001 p. 55)

Hip-Hop is a relatively new cultural phenomenon.  This paper is not concerned with the history of Hip-Hop, or even a definition so I will only touch on some fundamental aspects of Hip-Hop.  It really began in the 1970’s and has roots in African American culture.  There are at least three distinct aspects of Hip-Hop culture:  Music, Dance, and Art.  The music developed out of a mashup of Caribbean dj music and African American soul and funk.  The lyrics of the music—called rap can be traced to Toasting, and other African American lyrical legacies.  It is important to remember that this new musical innovation did not come from a record company, or the music industry. These musical innovations came from people, who for the most part, lived in poverty, and had little to no tools.

In the past twenty years or so academics have taken to writing about Hip-Hop and creating new knowledge out of the intellectual information generated by various dissemination venues ranging from the creation of new Hip-Hop beats and songs to popular magazine articles to MTV to radio interviews, to essays and articles by sociologists, philosophers, cultural critics, etc…

This paper seeks to analyze the creation of new knowledge in the area of Hip-Hop studies through various disciplines and public knowledge.  Public knowledge is very

important in Hip-Hop as it is where, for the most part, innovation and creation come from.  I say for the most part because many Hip-Hop artists and critics are well rounded and draw influences in their work from various areas including literature and history as well as cultural studies.

The model used for analysis is that defined by Achleitner as the information transfer process (Achleitner,  p. 143).  The information transfer process is composed of four different aspects: creation which involves research, dissemination, which involves distribution, diffusion, which involves teaching and learning, and utilization which involves application and service.  I will also include preservation in this paper as it is required.   The information transfer process exists in a milieu which includes culture, technology, economics, and policy (Achleitner,  p. 143).  All of these aspects have an impact on the Information transfer process.

Creation

New knowledge creation is dependent on research.  Research in new Hip-Hop information is conducted on many levels.  One aspect of research that can not be underestimated is the lone experimenter in their bedroom or basement creating new beats and lyrical styles.  I won’t focus on this aspect because this paper is too short to go into this in detail—suffice it to say this is important for, in the end, these new open-source creations impact knowledge at the university level.

Books are written on Hip-Hop from a serious academic viewpoint as illustrated by such books as the Hip Hop Reader, Black Noise, Holler if You Hear Me, among many others.  These books take Hip-Hop seriously and use academic analysis and vigorous investigations into the social and historical legacies of the artists, innovations, and tragedies of Hip-Hop music.

Academics use different forms of analysis to create knowledge about Hip-Hop. Several of these are:  Feminist interpretation, Capitalist--value based analysis (Machlup,

1979, p. 449), to critical forms from sources of Public Knowledge like Bill Cosby’s critical writings on Hip-Hop culture (Cosby).

Dissemination

In this essay I am using Hip-Hop to articulate Information Transfer aspects to people using preferred language, information that is timely, that users can adapt to their own needs of trying to understand the new paradigm.  These are all qualities that, according to Owens in their report on dissemination, states are facilitators to effective dissemination strategies (Owens, 2001, pg. 2).

Books written on Hip-Hop culture, History, Dance, Art, and more are increasingly important in contributing to academic as well as public knowledge. Some important authors on Hip-Hop Culture are Michael Eric Dyson, Tricia Rose, Jeff Chang, and many more.  Histories of Hip-Hop are being written—one of the most important written by the latter author on the list above.  There are several readers out among them are The Hip- Hop Reader, and That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader.  There is also at least

one book on the best articles in Hip-Hop Journalism called:  And It Don't Stop

The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years Edited by Raquel Cepeda.

Papers are presented at conferences introducing new ideas to large audiences around the country.  The audiences are often comprised of people from many different disciplines and contribute largely to dissemination of information to academia and the public.

Videos—Youtube is a great source of new information on Hip-Hop.  You can see lectures, and interviews with intellectuals and academics discussing new knowledge on Hip-Hop.  Films critiquing Hip-Hop culture such as Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes disseminate new knowledge about Hip-Hop to students and the general public.  Apart from Youtube there is a plethora of videos Hip-Hop culture ranging from Dance to Freestyle.

Radio interviews Michael Eric Dyson does a plethora of interviews on the radio explaining the cultural importance of Hip-Hop, and imparts this knowledge as new information to his listeners.  These interviews help communicate new knowledge to the general public.

Television segments and  interviews play an important role in disseminating knowledge.  Since Television has such a huge audience, it is an efficient method of dissemination.   Michael Eric Dyson, again—is a tireless advocate of Hip-Hop culture. He often does television interviews in which he explains the importance of Hip-Hop and its impact on American culture.

Magazines articles and interviews are important as they spread new knowledge to the general public as well as throughout academic disciplines.  Magazines such as  Vibe, XXL, etc… There are tons of blogs and web sites disseminating new Hip-Hop knowledge among other things every minute of the day.  Social Network communities also serve as agents of dissemination.  Sites like Digg, Delicious, and Hip-Hop specific social communities spread information and new knowledge quickly and effectively.  Scholarly journal articles serve as effective dissemination tools to other academics.  These articles appear in many different disciplines from dance, to psychology.

Organization

Classification schemes perform a direct and critical function—they provide the basis for the physical arrangement of library materials (Rubin, 2004, p. 221).  Not only is this true, but it they also provide a means of accessing information on the web as well. Information Science is no longer just concerned with the physical space of the library, but also with the virtual space.

Libraries usually classify knowledge by the Dewey Decimal System or the Library of Congress Classification System.   782.421649 is the call number for Hip-Hop culture in according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system.  ML3531 is the call number for Hip-Hop culture in the Library of Congress classification system.  Both these classification systems have Hip-Hop culture peppered throughout the other disciplines as Hip-Hop culture is fundamentally interdisciplinary.  This brings about the need for new methods of classification that arise out the ability for users to tag their information.

It is readily apparent that these classification schemes need to be updated.  Hip- Hop needs much broader categories of classification—I would also argue that the music sections in general should be updated frequently.  Tagging on the Internet and in Library catalogs is a rapidly developing phenomenon.  Perhaps a fusion of both metadata tags from users and one of the classification systems above would do better.
Diffusion

“Diffusion ifs the process by which innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system.  It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas (Rogers, 2003, p. 3)

Increasingly classes are taught on aspects of Hip-Hop culture.  According to an News Release from UC Berkeley News the number of Hip-Hop scholars is growing, but the amount of classes taught across the disciplines is still far behind the need (Anwar,

2007).  There are lesson plans based around Hip-Hop knowledge, and using Hip-Hop to teach other concepts.  One example is the Flocabulary web site: http://www.flocabulary.com/teacher/research.html.

Seminars—there is a seminar at our school that is being hosted at the Women’s Resource Center.  It will be based around a film called Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.  This film critiques Hip-Hop Culture through the lens of misogyny and critical media theory.  After the film there will be a facilitated discussion.  This discussion will lead  to diffusion by creating understanding among many of the participants.  There are many seminars similar to this creating diffusion of new Hip-Hop knowledge.

Eric Michael Dyson’s newest book on Hip-Hop, Know What I Mean? Is a great example of an academic who, through research has come to understand and create new knowledge on Hip-Hop.  His book of interviews takes Hip-Hop concepts like Sampling, Remixing, the intro and outro seriously and incorporates them into his work.  He thereby creates a new sub-genre of interview books (Dyson, 2007).

Authors and researchers write essays and articles for journals and magazines and create new knowledge on Hip-Hop at an increasing rate.  I am currently writing an article on the similarities between Concepts in Hip-Hop and concepts of the new Information Paradigm that can be illustrated by many new so-called web 2.0 applications.  These articles analyze, and explicate the relationships of Hip-Hop concepts to general developments in society.  This new direction of rigorous analysis and questioning may lead to fields in several academic disciplines.

Utilization

New knowledge in the areas of Hip-Hop Cultural studies and Hip-Hop studies in general is used in various contexts and new creations.  This new knowledge can be used to interest children in music.  It can be linked to such wide-ranging topics as information science and web design.  The knowledge that Information Science and Hip-Hop have conceptual as well as nominal similarities can be pointed out by elucidating the concept of remixing and sampling in the context of the web 2.0 environment.  The fact that remixing concepts in utilizations such as mashups and open source developments based on sampling others previous work and building on that are fine examples, analogies and sometimes metaphors for helping people from the fields of Hip-Hop and Information Science understand one another.

This new knowledge also creates new genres of American, as well as world Musical, Dance and Art history.  New fields are arising in several disciplines surrounding the study of Hip-Hop culture.  Another example that of utilization is that of the above mentioned web site flocabulary—its lesson plans which use Hip-Hop to teach are an example of the utilization of Hip-Hop knowledge.

Preservation

The preservation of Hip-Hop knowledge is a concern primarily of academic libraries.  The digitization of documents also makes it likely there will be copies of important documents stored around the world.  There is also now an official Hip-Hop Archive:   http://www.hiphoparchive.org/about/.  With these organizations involved important Hip-Hop documents will survive.

Conclusion

There is a proliferation of Hip-Hop knowledge today.  It will continue to grow as this cultural influence is recognized and analyzed.

References

Anwar, Yasmin, Hip-hop scholars push for recognition, UC Berkeley News Press Release, 09 January 2007 Retrieved 11/4/07 from: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/01/09_hiphop.shtml

Chang, Jeff, Can't stop, won't stop: a history of the hip-hop generation Publisher

New York: Picador, 2006 Edition 1st Picador ed

Dyson, Michael Eric, Know what I mean? : reflections on hip-hop, Imprint New

York: Basic Civitas; London: Perseus Running [distributor], 2007.

Hurt, Byron Hip-hop: beyond beats and rhymes  produced, Imprint Northampton, MA : Media Education Foundation, [2006]

Machlup, Fritz, Uses, Value, and Benefits of Knowledge, , Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 1979 Vol. 14 No. 4 June 1993 448-46

Neal, Mark Anthony & Murray Forman eds., That's the joint! : the hip-hop studies reader  New York : Routledge, 2004

Oluic-Vukovic, V. (2001). From information to knowledge. Journal of the

American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(1) 54-61.

Owens, Thomas. (2001). Dissemination: a key element of the ATE program. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from:

http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/ate/ATEpapers/dissemes.pdf

Rogers, Everett. (2003). Elements of Diffusion. In Diffusion of Innovation (pp.1-

37). New York: Free Press

Rubin, Richard, Foundations of library and information science  Publisher New

York : Neal-Schuman Publishers, c2004 Edition 2nd ed

Walker, Carol Hip-Hop Culture Crosses Social Barriers,  Us Department of state: Retrieved 11/1/07http://usinfo.state.gov/scv/Archive/2006/May/12-522164.html