Globalisation, Information and Libraries: The Implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements

This book provides an overview of the World Trade Organisation; in particular, it focuses on two of the agreements being developed at the WTO, which are due to be strengthened in 2005, and are likely to have significant implications for libraries and information: the General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS) and the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The book argues that the library and information profession needs to be more aware of these agreements and the way in which they threaten some of the professional ethics and principles (such as the balance in copyright).

• Explores a vital and very new, much undiscovered area – the WTO and libraries
• Brings together facts about globalisation and the WTO, libraries and information, within a wider social and theoretical perspective
• Draws on the author’s wealth of knowledge - building on her many published articles on this topic