Inspiring Information Communities to Advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals

In the information field, professional, academic, and research communities have not taken significant actions to resist the neoliberal forces and solely consumerist economic systems and address the world’s grand challenges. This chapter introduces the information action brief (IAB) as an instrument of transformation to foster action beyond the status quo (i.e., inherited Western White-IST (white + elitist) scholarly bastions of power and privileged spaces, imbalanced representation between North and South, etc.). An IAB is conceptualized as a multipurpose format that incorporates aspects of a policy statement, research and education approach, strategic action instrument, and social awareness campaign, all rolled into one tool. The contextualized impetus is opportune for information communities to act on the United Nations’ (UN) call, “Be the Change: Take the Challenge” Initiative, urging ten actions to address society’s grand challenges in each of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its guiding road map for achieving a happier and healthier world by 2030. SDGs address poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality, industry innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities, peace, and justice, among others. This chapter describes various opportunities, challenges, strategic actions, and outcomes generated via the creation, adoption, and use of the IABs to inspire the information science community to take actions. IABs are discussed in the context of their creation and organization, access and storage, delivery and dissemination, and participation and engagement. The chapter concludes with insights and guidelines to integrate social justice and sustainability for the information science community.