Data Entry and the Economy of Offshore Information Production

Abstract

In this article a review of the data-entry industry and the role information organizations, such as libraries, play in that industry is presented. Information organizations are participants in an economy of information production—one that is becoming globalized. With this globalization, new production practices have emerged. However, research has been accumulating for some time that calls the labor practices of the data-entry industry into question. With these labor practices come ethical dilemmas for information professionals. It is therefore necessary for the information professions to come to an understanding of this emerging economy. It is argued that an ethics of data conversion can neither arise through ceasing production offshore nor from technological advances in data-entry technology. An ethics of information production must involve the cooperation of both producers and consumers alike.