Information Superhighway

Since settling in here in Resistencia, I have had the opportunity to connect with a history professor at the other larger university (Universidad Nacional del Nordeste) in the city where I work. Further, I’ve had the good fortune to encounter a contemporary Argentine history class in this same academic department that aligns with free time in my schedule. For the last three weeks I have been both intrigued and challenged (theoretically and linguistically) by the material that has been presented in this course. However, my post today primarily comes from the fact that I need to file a complaint about my professor's usage of class time. Yesterday in the 90-minute class, our professor spent literally 25 minutes simply listing books and articles that she would advise her students to use as comprehensive and credible resources. The first time this happened in the class (actually, it occurred on my very first day of attendance and was even longer) I restrained myself from writing anything, positive or negative, regarding this investment of time. During today's "resource reading," however, I found myself practically bursting at the seams with commentary on how this recitation was neither engaging nor productive for students of the class. Plus, I'm fairly certain that none of the students will ever actually have time to investigate all of the sources that have been outlined by our professor... Sorry about the pessimism but thanks for letting me vent. :) Now, to a more intellectually critical, slightly less rant-like discussion on what I have experienced and observed regarding books and other class materials...

The world of “information access” I live in at this moment, in Resistencia, is totally different from that which I grew up in in Ohio (or even the one I graduated from most recently in the university setting). A lover of reading at an early, early age, I would come home from the library with as many books as my little arms could carry (yes, I was a nerd even as a child). Here in Resistencia, there are libraries, but the sense I have gathered thus far is that they're much smaller than those that I have frequented in the United States and not as widely used/appreciated among the general population. I don't have a conclusion yet on what that equates to in the general population's education (if one could even begin to make such a generalization between these two things...) but I do think I can say with some certainty that literature availability has a totally different, seemingly less present dynamic [compared with my own background].

Let's get to some specifics, shall we? Many student materials that I have witnessed being distributed thus far have been illegal photocopies. One professor shared with me that because it is so difficult to get a company to safely and securely ship a large amount of [English] books here, the photocopies are truly the best way for her to effectively assure that students have the necessary literary tools for the program's curriculum. I've seen another professor distribute a burned cd of “illegally” scanned literature to her students for the class’s materials. Each of these scenarios of course leads us back to the larger questions of capitalism's egalitarian ethics (Note: I'm certainly not claiming that illegal photocopying of academic materials does not happen in the US. It does. In my opinion, access to any particular literature in the US doesn't depend as heavily on these actions). Those [cultures] who have the money, who have publishing warehouses, who have established transit systems for delivery, etc. also hold the power of this information distribution. Resistencia's intellectual culture is directly challenged by this system, is overtly challenged in many efforts to have diverse, new literature amidst its shelves for reading and integration into the public psyche.

And so, while I have always been an advocate of protecting intellectual property rights, my conscience and love of learning screams right now that literature should be distributed in whatever way possible to my students.  Without dissemination in some way of all that has already been written, in English, Spanish, whatever language, we cannot learn from and challenge the past in order to change our future. My hope is that an acquired love of literature, of learning would bring its recipients another step closer to pushing back on any oppressive system to enact change. Meanwhile, I need to find a way to pair up with a local library....