The Capitalisation of the Academy

The Capitalisation of the Academy: Intellectual Property, the University, and the Work of Knowledge and Information Professionalsis a highly relevant and accessible book designed to introduce readers to a 'big picture' account of the dynamics associated with the establishment of the new information and knowledge-based economy.

The author demonstrates that at the core of this dynamic is the contentious issue of corporate ownership of intellectual property and the likelihood it will have ramifications not only on professionals and knowledge workers in general, but also on the public at large.

She argues that if business and commercial interests are free to appropriate, to exercise monopolistic control, and to exploit the generation, exchange, dissemination, storage, and retrieval of knowledge and information for the limited purposes of private profit, it will likely risk the freedom of inquiry, the free flow and exchange of ideas, and the unimpeded public access to knowledge and information on which scientific research and technological innovation depend.

• Based on a holistic account of the dynamics driving the knowledge-based economy
• Examines the intellectual property market and its relation to the rise of the knowledge industry
• Explores the relationship between intellectual property, the knowledge industry, and the work of information professionals
• Details the changing role of information profesionals and the impact of the corporate ownership of intellectual property