Western Devaluation of Knowledge

Charles Osburn is Dean and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama Libraries. From 1980-2001, Osburn was dean of the libraries at the University of Alabama and the University of Cincinnati, prior to which appointments he was an assistant director in the libraries of Northwestern University and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He began his library career as Humanities Bibliographer at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Osburn has served on the boards of the Association of Research Libraries, the Center for Research Libraries, SOLINET, and several publishing enterprises, as well as on the Research Libraries Advisory Committee of OCLC.

• PrefaceChapter 1. Introduction: the Ways and Means of Cultural ChangeChapter 2. Science, Industry and the Invention of a New WorldviewChapter 3. Management as Cultural AuthorityChapter 4. The Cultural Values of Work and LeisureChapter 5. The Strategy & Spirit of CapitalismChapter 6. From Material Need to Consumer CultureChapter 7. Higher Learning as MarketplaceChapter 8. Globalization of the Tightening Systems KnotChapter 9. Time to ThinkChapter 10. Balancing Values through Cultural ChangeChapter 11. Progress and MythChapter 12. Knowledge Devalued: Summary & ConclusionsBibliography

The Western Devaluation of Knowledge by Charles B. Osburn is a historical account of how knowledge and information have become conflated in capitalist/consumerist society. It is a valued contribution to those in the library field who are trying to think broadly about the transformations brought about by the information revolution.