Information Literacy In Real Life (IL IRL)

Information Privilege and Open Access

As a student at Spartanburg Community College, you have access to a wide range of content in the library databases, including news articles, complete eBooks, scientific studies, documentaries, and many other sources. 

This content is only available to SCC students, because library databases are a subscription service (like Netflix or Disney+). The cost for a library database is extremely expensive, so individual people do not have subscriptions to these databases. This means that you have access to information through the library databases that your friends and family do not have access to, because you are an SCC student. This is called information privilege. Information privilege is the ability to access information that others cannot. In this case, it is because you have a subscription to the library databases.

However, after you finish your studies at SCC (or another college if you choose to transfer), you will no longer have a subscription to the library databases and lose access to the information that is available there. If library databases are too expensive for an average person to afford, how does someone who is not a college student get access to quality information that is found in library databases?

Open Access Resources are one way to find quality information when you no longer have access to library databases. Open Access Resources are available to the general public, and include sources such as eBooks, scientific studies, and academic journal articles.

Check out the Central Michigan University Library's guide to Open Access Resources to find some examples.

To learn more about Information Privilege, check out the below video from NKU's Steely Library.