Shadow Libraries (MIT Press, 2018) explores how university students get the materials they need for their educations at universities around the world.  At one level, the answer is simple: they buy, borrow, download, photocopy above all else, and—in many cases—simply do without.  Depending on the context, they share with each other, get materials from faculty, rely on networks of copyshops, and pool materials into informal libraries, which, in a few cases, have become large enough to threaten the publishing ecosystem.   These are the shadow libraries of our title. Such bottom-up copying, distribution, and librarianship have transformed access to knowledge in global higher education in the past twenty years.  Shadow Libraries explores these practices and the wider contexts in which they emerged, from booming student populations in middle and low-income countries, to the retreat of the state from higher education mandates, to the efforts of educators, librarians, and publishers to navigate the transition from paper to digital media. Shadow Libraries is the result of a four-year collaboration involving twenty researchers in eight countries.  It includes deep dives into developments in Russia, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Poland.   Joe Karaganis, director of the study, will share some of its major findings. Event registration is optional.

This is event is part of the Forum on Global Access to Knowledge and Education.  There are two other events in this series:
 

10:30 am - 11:30 am (April 2) - Opening your Syllabus with Joe Karaganis

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (April 2) - A2K in the Age of Apple, Google and Microsoft: South Africa’s Vulnerability and Promise with Andrew Rens
 

Event sponsors: Concilium on South Africa (COSA), Duke University Center for International & Global Studies (DUCIGS), Open Source Pedagogy Research & Innovation (OSPRI), Duke Learning Innovation, Duke University Libraries.