Resources - Book review - Marxism mires debate. Globalisation is unjust, unfair and threatens the existence of libraries, according to this controversial title. Mark Chillingworth feels cheated by its approach.(Globalisation, Information and Libraries: The implications of the World Trade Organisation's GATS and TRIPS agreements)(Book Review)

The big topic of globalisation and how it will affect libraries and information management is lost in the desire to promote Marxism in Globalisation, Information and Libraries.

Globalisation has implications for every facet of life. Libraries and information don't immediately spring to the front of the mind, or debate, when globalisation is considered, but they should. We live in a knowledge economy that is central to the globalisation economy, so a book that promises to explain "the implications of the World Trade Organisation's GATS and TRIPs agreements" on its cover gives the impression that it will demystify this complex issue.

An academic of the information profession and the WTO observer for the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations, author Ruth Rikowski is well qualified to discuss globalisation. Sadly, she misses that opportunity and saddles readers with a Marxist analysis that gives the book a strong political bias.

The political slant is not made manifest in the title of the book, so don't pick it up expecting a balanced academic analysis of globalisation and information. Every chance to describe capitalism in a negative light is enthusiastically taken, with words such as "horror" attached to all descriptions of capitalism.

Instead of explaining the implications of WTO-led globalisation, Rikowski simply bangs a hard Left drum. It's not that a Marxist perspective ...