The internet has tremendous potential to achieve greater social equity and empowerment and improve everyday life for those on the margins of society. This article presents the findings from three digital divide studies, each of which represents a different group of marginalized society members. Low-income families, sexual minorities and African-American women are represented in the three studies that employ different research approaches towards a common aim of contextualizing internet use in the everyday social practice of society’s ‘have-nots’. The aim is to step outside simple digital divide categories to understand how marginalized members of society incorporate computers and the internet into their daily lives in ways that are meaningful to them. An important goal is also to learn about how internet researchers can contribute to closing the digital divide in ways that converge with the goals, meanings and practices of people living on society’s margins.
We studied 27 infants aged 6 to 27 months with vitamin B12 deficiency also known as "infantile tremor syndrome" in India. All were exclusively breast-fed by vegetarian mothers. Developmental delay or regression, pallor, skin hyperpigmentation, and sparse brown hair were present in all. Majority were hypotonic and involuntary movements were encountered in 18. Anemia and macrocytosis was found in 83% and 71% infants, respectively. Low serum vitamin B12 was present in 12 of 21 infants. Seven of the 9 infants with normal serum vitamin B12 had received vitamin B12 before referral. Twelve mothers had low serum vitamin B12. Cerebral atrophy was present in all the 9 infants who underwent neuroimaging. Treatment with vitamin B12 resulted in dramatic improvement in general activity and appetite within 48 to 72 hours followed by return of lost milestones. Tremors resolved in all by 3 to 4 weeks. Nutritional vitamin B12 deficiency is a treatable cause of neurologic dysfunction in infants.
Purpose
– The purpose of this research-based philosophical piece is to present a progressive manifesto for public libraries in the 21st century to address gaps in embracing diversity in its holistic dimensions and representing such information in their strategic planning and web documentations.
Design/methodology/approach
– Content analysis of public library websites in the USA informed the development of a Strategic Diversity Manifesto that includes the “who”, the “what” and the “how” components to describe and discuss diversity-related matters in their strategic planning and web representations.
Findings
– The Strategic Diversity Manifesto provides a mechanism for individual public library agencies, in their localized context and environment, to strategically inquire, describe, discuss, reflect, analyze and translate into concretized actions their picture of diversity as grounded in the reality of their representative communities.
Originality/value
– The Strategic Diversity Manifesto presents a more a comprehensive and consolidated picture of diversity beyond isolated strategies seen in past efforts. It is a broader level of analysis and “picture painting” of the agency’s context, which may not be as detailed as compared to other modes of description, though as a result, it is more holistic instead of fragmentary. The aim is first and foremost to provide a basis for reflective thought and discussion.
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