ETHICS AND LIBRARIANSHIP
by Robert Hauptman. McFarland & Company, 2002
FORWARD
"Do ethics and values truly matter?" Of course, the answer is: "They absoloutely do!" by Peter Hernon
Librarians must approach scholarly communication from an ethical position, and honor that process in their own professon and other disciplines. The central question becomes, "How do we honor and try to reshape that process in an ethical manner?"
PREFACE
Social pressures such as political correctness or Affirmative Action force librarians to choose carefully or adhere to certain regulations. But ethical consideration and commitment are still confused with legal sanctions, and administrators often make the wrong ethical choices, if they even bother to give a thought to whether a given action is ethically acceptable.
Sometimes the problem is blatant fraud or dishonesty, such as a library administrator has made a choice to further an unethical or illegal agenda!
Librarians do not overly concern themselves with ethical issues for three ostensible reasons:
[1] Germane challenges do not appear with any degree of frequency;
1) Libraries, information and ethics (p3-15)
[2] The problems that do occasionally arise appear to be so insignificant that they hardly warrant much consideration; and
[3] Because librarians work for organizations, they are under a contractual obligation to act as the administrative representative decrees. Naturally, the organization's counsel always has the last, threatening word! (p1-2)
2) Intellectual freedom and the control of ideas (p16-29)
3) Building collections --- books, serials, media (p30-41)
4) Technical services --- acquisitions and cataloging (p42-50)
5) Access services (p51-57)
6) Reference (p58-71)
[1] A service ethic --- ETHICAL REFERENCE SERVICE (p59-60)
7) Special libraries (p72-81)
(1) Serve all patrons equally and objectively
[2] Traditional issues (p60-63)
(2) Do not allow personal commitments to intrude
(3) Do not sacrifice everything for the sake of information provision
(4) Avoid conflicts of interest
(5) Protect privacy and confidentiality
(6) Protect your employer's investments
(7) Cultivate a service ethic
(8) Market your availability and willingness to help
(9) Provide added value
(10) Recreate yourself as an indispensable provider of whatever information is required!
[3] Technological complications (p63-66)
[4] Changes in reference work (p66-67)
[5] Information malpractice (p68-69)
[6] A misleading solution (p69-71)
8) Special and archival collections (p82-92)
9) Research and publication (p93-103)
10) Intellectual property and copyright (p104-119)
11) Information ethics (p120-131)
[1] Ownership (p121-125)
12) Why ethics matters (p132-140)
[2] Access (p125-127)
[3] Privacy (p127-128)
[4] Security (p128-129)
[5] Community (p129-130)
[6] Conclusion --- Information has a social or moral nature as well as its practical or financial value. We trust those who appear to honor truth and when they disappoint us, the moral nature of the information they purvey is desecrated.
Information Ethics ("IE") offers the advantage of a holistic, interdisciplinary perspective, which an Internet connected world demands. The University of Pittsburgh's IE website is especially informative at:
http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~ethics Like technology, information may take on a life of its own and direct a course of action for those who mistakenly believe that they are leading! Since information is poweer, the life blood of the contemporary world, it behooves us to produce and apply it in acceptable and caring ways! (p130-131)
[1] Values (p133-134)
BIBLIOGRAPHY (p141-148)
[2] Guidance (p134-135)
[3] Excuses (p135-136)
[4] Principles and consequences (p136-138)
[5] When ethics fails (p138-139)
[6] Concluding remarks (p139-140)
INDEX (p149-151)