Information Needs of Local Domestic Workers in the Arab Republic of Egypt

The Electronic Library Journal. 2015, Vol. 33 Issu. No. 5

Dr. Essam Mansour*
Assistant professor
dr.essamman@gmail.com

The School of Library & Information Science
The College of Basic Education, PAAET, Kuwait
&
The Faculty of Arts, South Valley University (SVU), Qena, Egypt


Introduction
No one can deny that information is very much important to everyone in our modern society. It is required for every aspect of life. People, whether
literate or not, should be allowed to get sufficient access to information that may help them to become better informed citizens. The use of and access to
information is considered one of the most important and fundamental human rights. The right of information is guaranteed by most of the international
charters and constitutions. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), issued in 1948 by the United Nations, came to address all
various issues related to the human rights including work. Almost all the UDHRs articles cover relevant aspects of the human rights challenges encountered
by different workers all over the world whether they are formal or informal workers. In fact, there are a large number of studies conducted about the formal
workers, but few studies have focused on the informal ones like domestic workers. In a serious attempt towards shedding the light on them, some
organizations, institutions and countries adopted some pacts and conventions related to the organization of the domestic workers or as so-called informal
carers or care providers. The New York State Department of Labor, for instance, adopted some obligatory laws as the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
(DWBR). "The right of access to information", organized by UNESCO and adopted in May 2010, refers to ensuring the right to obtain access to information
to assist in decision-making required to participate in the democratic life and to promote the equality between all individuals and groups. It highlights the
importance of promoting public awareness about the right of information and develops the capacity of each individual in the exercise of this right by focusing
particularly on disadvantaged categories of many different people and work groups. Being one of the most vulnerable and marginalized work groups in the
society, domestic workers have not received unfortunately any significant attention not only by officials but also by scholars and researchers, especially in
developing countries like Egypt though they play a very important role in the life of some other people like the elderly, kids and people with special needs by
helping them to perform their daily work. The shortage of systematic research on many different needs of informal carers especially information needs, as
stated by Alzougool, Chang and Gray (2007), often prohibits the information providers and developers from determining what types of information informal
carers need to support their roles and different tasks as care providers and to evaluate how well they are fulfilling the information needs of informal carers.
This research tries as much as possible to address such information needs of such workers in a region like Egypt that has not seen such this kind of research.

The Purpose and Significance of the Study
The purpose of this study is to provide first-hand information regarding domestic work/workers in the Arab Republic of Egypt responding strongly
to the great global concern on this neglected sector of work/workers. Significantly, this study is considered the first one of its kind in the Arab and Egyptian
environment to discuss such neglected issues and topics compared to other vital issues. The researcher tries to investigate the information needs of local
domestic workers in Egypt in terms of their thoughts, perceptions, attitudes, motivations, techniques, preferences, ways, tools and challenges that they may
confront towards the use of and access to information. As much as possible, the study attempts to look at the many different characteristics of Egyptian
domestic workers that may affect their use of and access to information. Any findings of this study may generate interest and create awareness about the needs
of domestic work/workers among marginalized labor advocates, policy makers and the civil society. Such awareness may help motivate researchers to put this
phenomenon on their research agenda.

The Objectives of the Study
The key objectives of this study are to:
- Identify the information needs of Egyptian domestic workers.
- Determine the demographic characteristics of Egyptian domestic workers.
- Determine the reasons that may push Egyptian domestic workers to use information.
- Determine information sources and channels used and followed by Egyptian domestic workers.
- Identify any barriers that may impede Egyptian domestic workers access to information.

The Statement of the Problem
The main problem of this study is to reveal the information needs of Egyptian domestic workers being one of the most vulnerable work groups in
the society. Though there is growing attention to these work groups globally, there has been no research conducted on their status and characteristics in Egypt
especially regarding their information needs and information seeking behaviour. Compared to other professions, the profession of domestic work may be seen
by some people, especially in Egypt and the Arab world, as low and despicable profession. Domestic workers lack many of the basic necessities and key
elements of life. They need to feel that they have equal rights, including information rights, with other professionals in the society. This study, therefore, tries
to attract enough attention to the information rights and information needs of Egyptian domestic workers.

*Ph. D in library & information science, the University of Pittsburgh, USA.
MLIS in Library & Information Science, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA.
BA in Library & Information Sciences, Cairo University, Egypt.