In this article I provided a framework for the discussion of ethical repercussions of concepts and technologies created or used in information sciences upon animal life. The information super highway (the internet) made the dissemination of “content” on all possible topics easily accessible. These new “informational liberties” opened the way for various interdisciplinary research avenues between fields of interest we might never had considered compatible in the past. One of these discursive possibilities presents itself within the analysis of information sciences and its link to animal life. This link extends to broader ecological issues that arise from the application of technologies created or used in information sciences.
As a starting point, I presented possible issues that arise for information professionals, specifically while dealing with preservation, organization, and dissemination of information. Traditionally, information professionals deal with print material. Contemporary society’s needs demand new approaches in view of the fact that electronic, visual, audio, and other digital media dictate a different mode of data storage than conventional libraries. Animal welfare is conditioned by human impact in the biosphere. In this concrete example I talked about the data and information infrastructure. Taking data storage facilities as the first example, I discussed how the overheating issue and carbon emissions of these facilities change the biodiversity of the surrounding areas. For example, while the cooler fans are struggling to keep the various machines from overheating they have a secondary pollutant: constant noise. These examples served as an introduction to the discussion of other possible negative effects that practices in information sciences have on animals.
As these examples opened up the debate, I moved from the idea of green libraries (Aulisio, 2013) to possible issues with the most self-reflective part of information sciences: information literacy. I analyzed current research on green information literacy (Kurbanoğlu & Boustany, 2014) to address the key question: What is the status of moral reflection in green information literacy conceptualizations? I used the ethical framework of contemporary bioethics to access the issue. While bioethics are a developing field with various definitions and approaches to problem resolution, they are also most compatible with interdisciplinary research. Thus, bioethics had a greater potential than particular ethical positions such as consequentialism, different narrative ethics, contractualist or other approaches. The main question in this debate was whether the critical capacity of information literacy included value judgments, especially morally sound judgments. In other words, I explored whether the normative dimension of contemporary information literacy definitions and models included moral reflection of the impact their procedures and products had upon animal life.
References
- Aulisio, G. J. (2013). Green libraries are more than just buildings. Electronic green journal, 1(35).
- Kurbanoğlu, S., & Boustany, J. (2014). From green libraries to green information literacy. In S. Kurbanoğlu et al. (Eds.), Information Literacy, Lifelong Learning and Digital Citizenship in the 21st Century, Second European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2014, Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 20–23, 2014: Proceedings. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) 492 (pp. 47–58). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Marko Kos
University of Zagreb, Croatia