This document discusses the values and ethics of library and information science. It examines 7 core values of the profession - service, importance of reading/books, truth/search for truth, tolerance, public good, justice, and aesthetics. It also discusses factors in ethical deliberations, categories of ethical concern regarding use/misuse of information and professional behavior, and professional codes of ethics from ALA, ASIS&T and SAA. The key message is that LIS professionals have a duty to promote open access to information while respecting individuals and maintaining high professional standards.

1. THE VALUES AND
ETHICS OF LIBRARY
AND INFORMATION
SCIENCE
Reported by: JEHN MARIE A. SIMON

2. INTRODUCTION
Librarians and information professionals
are moral agents, responsible to
themselves, to others, and to society as
a whole.
We will examine professional and
institutional values defined by the norms,
culture, and history of the profession, the
statements of professional organizations
and by written codes.

3. Values
• We associate values to conviction or
principles more than opinions.
• Values structure our experiences and
provide insights when we must make
important decisions.

4. 7 VALUES OF LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION SCIENCE
- Service - reading and the book,
- truth and the search for truth,
- tolerance, - the public good,
- justice, - aesthetic

5. 1. SERVICE
• The value of service is a belief in the
betterment of the individual and the
community as a whole.
• Service to others has been the
foundation of American librarianship
for more than a hundred years, and
this value applies to LIS professionals
no matter what type of library or
information service is involved.

6. Ranganathan proposed 5 laws
that remain central to our
understanding of libraries:
Books are for use
Every reader his/her book
Every book its reader
save the time of the reader
Library must be a growing
organism

7. Gorman (1995) revisited
Ranganathan’s work and
advanced five new laws:
- Libraries serve humanity
- Respect all forms by which knowledge
is communicated
- Use technology intelligently to
enhance service
- Protect free access to knowledge
- Honor the past and create the future

8. 2. THE IMPORTANCE OF
READING AND THE BOOK
• lightweight and very portable
• Requires no electricity
• Little maintenance and repair
• Damp and dusty and still function
• Comparatively cheap
• Little knowledge to operate
• can last a very long time

9. 3. RESPECT THE SEARCH FOR
TRUTH
With the growth of the internet and the
vast amount of information available,
some accurate some not, Wengert
(2001) argued that librarians’
responsibility to provide access to
accurate information is greater than
ever.

10. LIS professionals reduce this barrier by
protecting individuals’ privacy rights, and
by refusing to supply information to third
parties concerning users’ circulation
records or search activities.

11. 4. TOLERANCE
• Tolerance has a complementary
relationship to truth; tolerance admits
of the possibility that our ability to
judge truth is flawed, that there might
be many truths, or that the truth in
some cases might not be known.

12. The value of tolerance thus suggest that
library collections should possess a
variety of perspectives on a wide array
of topics.
Swan (1986) argued that librarians must
have the untrue on their shelves as well
as the true.

13. 5. Public Good
Libraries are a public good has roots that
begin in the 19th century. It was common
at that time to refer to libraries
metaphorically as “colleges” “schools”
and “a people’s university”.
List of contributions might include
promoting literacy, reading and
education; preserving the cultural record;
serving as a community center; and
providing entertainment and pleasure,
an implicit acknowledgement of peoples’
right to enjoy life.

14. 6. JUSTICE
McCook (2001) points out that
information equity is an underlying goal
of our profession. “inherent in this goal is
social justice– working for universal
literacy, defending intellectual freedom,
preserving and making accessible the
human record to all”

15. It means that every person should have
equal access to knowledge and be
respected as an individual; providing
inadequate service to anyone violated
this value.
John Rawls (1958) justice cannot be
understood solely as equality; it must
also include fairness.

16. EQUALITY implies that same amount for
everyone
FAIRNESS implies that an amount that
is needed or deserved.
Services to the children might not be
equal to the services provided to adults
because their needs are different.

17. 7. AESTHETICS
Many libraries create their collections in
order to ensure that those they serve will
have access to the works of genius that
epitomize the best of the world’s cultural
achievements– great music, art,
literature, and philosophy even when
their circulation levels are low.

18. CORE VALUES AND THE
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATON
(ALA)

19. Statement on Core Values 2000
• connection of people to ideas
• Assurance of free and open access to
recorded knowledge, information and
creative works
• Commitment to literacy and learning
• Respect for the individuality and the
diversity of all people
• Preservation of the human record
• Excellence in professional service to our
communities
• Formation of partnerships to advance these
values

20. In 2004 the ALA adopted core
values:
• ACCESS
• CONFIDENTIALITY/ PRIVACY
• DEMOCRACY
• DIVERSITY
• EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING
• INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM
• THE PUBLIC GOOD
• PRESERVATION
• PROFESSIONALISM
• SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

21. THE ETHICS OF LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION SCIENCE

22. A. ETHICAL DELIBERATIONS
They deal with fundamental questions of
right and wrong. Central to ethical issues
is how people should be treated and how
one should act, if one wishes to act rightly.
To help make ethical decisions, people
draw on philosophical, religious, and legal
sources, and the divergent points of view

23. DuMont (1991) 3 historical
periods with ethical issues
• 1930
– building and maintaining collections and the
ethical questions concerned whether to include
materials with potential corrupting attributes
• 1930-1950
– Issues such as job security, safe working
conditions, education and trainings
• 1960
– Improving the public good, promoting social
justice, and taking socially progressive political
positions

24. FACTORS IN ETHICAL
DELIBERATIONS
• LIS professionals do not think
consciously about the ethical
ramifications of what they do; our
behavior follows from training and
habit.

25. SOCIAL UTILITY
• libraries are certainly among those
institutions that have a socially
desirable purpose.
• Academic libraries by educating
students and supporting research
• Public libraries meet the educational,
recreational, informational and cultural
needs
• School libraries help students succeed
in learning

26. SURVIVAL
• Libraries regularly confront issues that
challenge their survival. Perhaps the
most obvious example is when some
members of a community object to
something in the collection or when the
library allows library to access
controversial material on the internet.

27. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• LIS professionals recognize that they
have social responsibilities to their
communities as well as responsibilities
to help the library survive and perform
their professional functions.

28. RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
• People have a right to act as they
choose, insofar as they do not violate
the dignity and respect of others.
• Libraries are open to all people and
LIS professionals pay attention to
building collections and providing
digital services that serve diverse set
of interest and reflect diverse
perspectives.

29. • Libraries protect the privacy of library
users’ circulation records and user
searches and ensure that the rules
and policies treat employees fairly and
respect their privacy as well.

30. B. CATEGORIES OF ETHICAL
CONCERN
Ethical situations in LIS generally arise in
relation to two issues.
1. Use and misuse of information
2. Professional behavior

31. 1. Free access to information
and the effects of information
• the freedom of information tenet
touches virtually all activities and
policies of LIS professionals.
• but we need to consider other issues
as well, such as the tension that
comes from the need to protect
individual rights and the imperative to
act in a socially responsible manner.

32. Smith (1993) characterized this
tension as a dynamic
relationship:
• Freedom, meaning intellectual
freedom
• Information democracy, promoting the
need for social equity in information
• Responsibility, or the obligation to
promote the social good.

33. 2. SELECTION AND ACQUISITION
DECISIONS
• Selection and acquisition decisions
determine the nature of the library’s
collection and services both physical
and digital. There is an ethical
obligation to meet the needs of library
users, to use appropriate selection
criteria, to hire qualifies selectors, and
to establish an efficient system for
procuring items and services.

34. • Ethical conflicts arise when selectors
choose items or services of particular
interest to them rather than their users,
or acquire service because of undue
influences of vendors, board members
or administrators.

35. 3. PRIVACY
• Respect for privacy is a fundamental
concept in a democratic society. As
the amount of personally identifiable
information stored in computer
networks increases, privacy issues are
magnified. This has been particularly
true because of the increasing
popularity of e-books. Vendors track
the use of particular e-books with the
particular user.

36. 4. COPYRIGHT
• ALA Library Bill of Rights affirms a
central ethical tenet of librarianship- to
provide free and open access to
information.
• ALA Code of Ethics (Principal IV)
specifically directs librarians to respect
the intellectual property rights of
authors, publishers, and creators

37. • LIS professionals want authors to
profit, but they do not want authors
and publishers to restrict and control
the flow of information.
• The central obligations of LIS
professionals- to provide free and
open access to information and to
provide the highest quality of service to
all- must always be the touchstone of
our ethical and professional conduct.

38. 5. The Organization of
Information
• Dewey Decimal Classification System
has been criticized for diminishing the
importance of contributions from non-
Western cultures.
• When organizing information we must
consider what values, prejudices, or
preconceptions we might bring to this
process.

39. • Technical professionals have an
ethical obligation to maintain high
bibliographic standards, to process
materials efficiently and effectively, to
reduce barriers to information to keep
up with technical and professional
issues in technical services and to
resist censorship.
• The role of technical services is the
same as all other library functions: to
provide the highest-quality service.

40. 6. INFORMATION POLICY
Laws that require filtering can deprive
individuals of constitutionally protected
speech; copyright and contract laws can
unduly restrict access to digital content.

41. 7. INFORMATION QUALITY
• Ethical obligations extend to the quality
of information LIS professionals
provide. To the extent that a library
can ensure the information it provides
is timely and accurate, it preserves its
service values.

42. 8. ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE
WORKPLACE
• Cihak and Howland (2012) identifies
workplace situations with ethical
aspects:
– use of public funds for social events
– supervisors who ignore an employee’s
poor performance and policy
infringements
– Development and enforcement of dress
codes
– Acceptance of gifts from staff members

43. – tolerating gossip or speaking falsely
about another employee
– Failure to assist another employee when
the opportunities arises
– Failure to promote a harmonious
workplace.
•

44. 9. IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
• Hauptman (2001) observed that
“technology changed the ways in
which we create, store, and access
data and information so dramatically
that a real qualitative difference
emerges

45. • Computers promote a sense of
anonymity
• Theft can be accomplished from great
distances with comparative ease
• Potential audiences are large and
easily reached
• copying is easy
• Everyone does it

46. C. PROFESSIONAL CODES OF
ETHICS

47. Professional codes are important
for at least 4 reasons:
• They represent a statement of the fundamental
values of the profession
• They are useful in teaching new professionals
about fundamental values
• Reading them, listening to others discuss them,
and seeing them applied promote their
assimilation
• When particularly knotty ethical issues arise, the
professional code can serve as a decision-
making guide and as a jog for one’s conscience.

48. ALA code of Ethics
“commitment to intellectual freedom and
freedom of access to information” (ALA
1995)
- 8 provisions of the code focus on 3
general areas:
- access issues,
- rights of authors and creators,
- and employment issues.

49. American Society of Information
Science and Technology
(ASIS&T) Guidelines for
Professional Conduct
• identifies 3 basic areas of ethical
responsibility:
– responsibilities to employers, clients, and
system users
– responsibilities to the profession
– Responsibilities to society.

50. Society of American Archivist
• the special function of archives- the
storage and dissemination of cultural
records of long-term values.
• “Statement of Core Values of
Archivists”
• “Code of Ethics for Archivists”

51. SUMMARY
• Although organizations have a
significant responsibility to promote
ethical behavior, in the final analysis,
ethical conduct rests first and foremost
on individual behavior. Each of us, as
professionals, is an individual moral
agent, and we do not give up our
ethical obligations when we become
employees.

52. In general, the most basic principles for
ethical conduct for LIS professionals
would include the following:
- Promote open, unbiased access to
information
- Maintain professional skills and
knowledge
- Act honestly with colleagues and
consumers of information
- Respect the privacy and confidentiality
of others
- Provide the best service possible