This is my presentation for our term paper, which I have chosen to write about ethics and ethical issues that affect librarians in the modern world.

1. Welcome!
Chris LeBlanc
Library Ethics in the Modern World

2. Ethical Issues
● Copyright – Always a problem
● Intellectual Freedom vs. Safe Spaces
● Advocacy – Can librarians be 100% unbiased?
● ALA Code of Ethics – How relevant is it?

3. Code of Ethics
● Last update was in 2008.
● Before that, the last update was 1993 – 15 year
gap between updates.
● Technology has changed since then – have
ethical issues as well?

4. Code of Ethics
● Librarians should resist censorship and filtering
● Ann Martin – Librarians should respect
copyright but know and understand fair use.
● Librarians should keep personal beliefs out of
public duties.

5. Code of Ethics
● How realistic is the code?
● Adele Barsh and Amy Lisewski surveyed library
professionals about it.
● Very few had formal ethical training – 36%
realized there was a Code!
● 48% of librarians offered any ethics training for
employees.

6. Why Have Ethics Anyway?
● Organizations with an ethics code do better
than ones without.
● Employees serve their organizations and
patrons better when they internalize code.
● Librarians have so many stakeholders – should
know how to serve each.

7. Copyright
● Lili Luo – Patrons want more than just
information. They want complete access to
data.
● Need to protect the rights of both copyright
holders and patrons.
● How do you do this?

8. Copyright
● Remember what Martin said – know what is
and what is not fair use.
● Can the patron profit from their use of
copyrighted material?
● Will it affect the copyright holder?
● How much of the work is being used?

9. Intellectual Freedom
● ALA is against censorship and filtering.
● Government has passed CIPA and other
filtering legislation that libraries have to comply
with.
● How much should libraries obey?
● Protecting patron privacy versus stopping
predatory behavior – who wins?

10. Intellectual Freedom
● Shannon Oltmann – interviewed a series of library
directors about these issues.
● Privacy – do not tell parents what children look for
if it is sensitive (child abuse).
● Filters – If communities like them, should they
obey community or the ALA?
● Keep a wide variety of material – freedom of
information applies to every idea and political
value.

11. Advocacy
● Alana Kumbier and Julia Starkey – libraries
should represent marginalized populations.
● Provide materials on shelves about and by
multiple populations, hire to reflect
communities.
● Even the ALA promotes advocacy in some
areas – intellectual freedom.

12. Advocacy
● Is it ethical for librarians to advocate for social
justice reforms?
● Maggie Farrell – work begins at the local levels.
● First step – diversify collection, eliminate bias
from language.
● Work with board of directors – what will they
support?

13. What should managers do?
● A few ways to make organizations more
ethically solid.
● Inform workers of codes – both ALA and local.
● Be available for staff when they need to make
ethical decisions.
● Hire diverse staff and create wide, diverse
collections.
● Enforce guidelines to the best of your ability.

14. Citations
Martin, Ann M. (2009) Leadership: Integrity and the ALA code of ethics. Knowledge
Quest, 37(3), 6 – 11. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=03e7b7cb-5c98-46fb-bccc-0
Barsh, Adele and Lisewski, Amy (2008). Library managers and ethical leadership: A
survey of current practices from the perspective of business ethics. Journal of Library
Administration, 47(3-4), 27 – 67. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b6ad3097-8b66-4d
Luo, Lili (2016). Ethical issues in reference: An in-depth view from the librarian's
perspective. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 55(3), 189 – 198. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c227aca3-7c61-4fb

15. Citations
Oltmann, Shannon M. (2016). “For all the people”: Public library directors interpret intellectual
freedom. Library Quarterly, 86(3), 290 – 312. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/command/detail?sid=ca898ee4-efab-45f3-b802-5bde
Kumbier, Alana and Starkey, Julia (2016). Access is not problem solving: disability justice and
libraries. Library Trends, 64(3), 468 – 491. Retrieved from
web.a.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=cf05b769-eaf1-4882-8deb-
10ed5f16b44d
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#AN=114253310&db=a9h
Farrell, Maggie (2016). Leadership and social justice. Journal of Library Administration, 56(6),
722 – 730. doi:10.1080/01930826.2016.1199147