The document discusses various ethical issues faced by librarians, including copyright, intellectual freedom, and the relevance of the ALA code of ethics. It highlights the need for librarians to balance advocacy for marginalized populations while respecting copyright and ensuring intellectual freedom, with a focus on the importance of ethical training and diverse representation in the library profession. Additionally, it underscores the impact of having an ethics code on organizational effectiveness and employee engagement.

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
%40sessionmgr4007&vid=0&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl
#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