Dr Paul Sturges

Professor Emeritus, Loughborough University

Paul Sturges has traveled widely throughout the world, giving lectures and conference presentations, leading workshops on Intellectual Freedom topics, providing consultancy, and researching. His more than 200 articles, reviews, reports and books deal with a variety of issues in information science, with a central specialization in ethics of information, an emphasis on the developing world and a recent focus on curriculum development. Chair of the International Federation of Library Associations’ (IFLA), Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) Committee 2003-9. Made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010 for services to libraries in the UK and overseas, and awarded the IFLA Medal in 2011. Editor in Chief, Open Information Science, online journal from De Gruyter (2016-).

Presentations:

Engaging children with science from an early age must begin by responding to their interest in the natural world and the questions that this arouses in their minds. Frank and honest discussion needs to be the first parental response, so as to stimulate further questions. Unless the parent is a highly qualified scientist, this will necessarily mean exposing the child to learning resources of various kinds. On the one hand, the Internet will offer relevant and informative Web content, but it will also offer unscientific and deliberately misleading material. So, on the other hand it is necessary that the child is also exposed to print content, which will have subjected to an editorial process. The child should ideally be given access to a variety of print sources, and for this purpose a library offers an essential service. Furthermore the library content will have been selected for quality and relevance by qualified librarians. Libraries are in fact a key partner in the process of scientific learning by children.