The course introduces information policy concepts and issues with which library, archival, and information science practitioners need to be familiar. The course will consider information policy; the policy process and players; individual policies which influence information creation and access in Canada; and the role of librarians in policy development.

This course focuses on issues and critical perspectives surrounding equitable access to information, the relationships between information and social change, and social equity and justice in the information professions. Libraries and information services are framed within larger social, political, cultural, and economic contexts and power structures. Course topics include issues such as the digital divide and information poverty within both North American and global contexts. 

This seminar course explores control and freedom in the information age by examining technologies, institutions, representations and practices of surveillance in libraries, archives and databases. It also examines related issues of intellectual freedom, content filtering and copyright management. These topics are investigated through theoretical discussion, case studies, and research presentation.

This course gives a graduate-level introduction to the political economy perspective on library and information science. It examines the intersections between social relations of power and wealth and changing means of communication. The emphasis is on theory and broad historical overview. The course treats policy in the broadest sense, as a regime of power and control of the social processes of communication, and the production, organization, distribution, and use of information.