What struck me most about Chatman's "Impoverish Life-World Outsiders" was the concept of how expensive information can be. I use the word "expensive" to refer to economics, some people simply don't have the money to access information, but also in a more abstract manner: some people can't afford information mentally or emotionally. As someone who has been fortunate to attend not only college by now graduate school, I took for granted that I could always access information; it was a non-issue. I realize now that information poverty is an expansive and insidious issue.
Chatman's argues that there are separations and inequalities between groups of people in regard to information searching and sharing. Rather than forming tight-knit groups, the people with whom Chatman worked isolated themselves from their peers in an attempt to protect themselves and their jobs. Information was not shared or disseminated, as we found when we read Pettigrew's "Waiting for Chiropody"; in fact, the janitors, elderly women, and CETA members did the opposite of creating an information ground: they lied and hid information. Chatman describes four concepts that are associated with information poverty: secrecy, which serves to protect a person from "an unwanted intrusion of any source" (Chatman 1996, pg. 195). Information, which I'd always viewed as a means to freedom, is now an intrusion that can be harmful.
The other articles we're read in class have dealt with the ways to help people overcome ASKs (or situations, gaps, etc), but all have made the assumption that the person needs and wants assistance in achieving knowledge through information. People who are information poor through information blunting do not fit within this category. How can librarians help people who are actively avoiding sharing and gathering information? Chatman discusses how the subjects in the study maintained an "us vs them" ideology (Chatman 1996, pg. 205); therefore, perhaps librarians could try to approach people who suffer from information poverty by emphasizing the similarities they share. Employing more people who come from similar backgrounds could be one way, but it may also be helpful to illustrate how common and normal their problems are, which would hopefully remove some of the stigma.
I was also struck how although the people in this study can be viewed as completely opposite of those we studied for our project on the behaviors of medical professionals, both janitors et al. and the doctors and nurses both did not use the library or seek help from librarians. Both groups did not believe that a librarian had the knowledge or experience to assist them. Librarians are placed in a perilous situation: they've proved the old adage "jack of all trades, master of none."
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