I gave a paper called "According to Code" as a keynote at a conference on
the ethics of information organization in Milwaukee last year (was it only
last year?), in which (among other things) I referenced the various codes of
ethics and related codes/statements in ALA; discussed the degree to which
ethics are NOT taught in graduate LIS programs; and talked about a number of
areas within IO parts of the profession in which ethics should be a part of
decision making (but often are not).
It wasn't a terribly DEEP paper, but it did address some of the issues that
Daniel has raised. Indeed, it seems that many librarians, whatever their
subdisciplinary specialty are unaware of the codes of ethics that are
supposed to govern the field. And of course, ALA is not an enforcement
body.
The conference was sponsored by the graduate LIS program at the University
of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and all of the talks were put up on their website.
Janet Swan Hill, Professor
Associate Director for Technical Services
University of Colorado Libraries, CB184
Boulder, CO 80309
janet.hill_at_colorado.edu
*****
Tradition is the handing-on of Fire, and not the worship of Ashes.
- Gustav Mahler
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Daniel CannCasciato
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 10:04 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Digital Information Seekers: How Academic Libraries
Can Support the Use of Digital Resources; Briefing Paper
Jim Weinheimer wrote in part:
" In the U.S., librarians subscribe to a Code of Ethics . . . but this
code of ethics, if taken as seriously as it should be, provides a level
of trust that people cannot find anywhere else in the information
environment . . . "
Most of which I agree with. I think the level of trust, reliability,
and avoidance of manipulation (as a goal) is a great thing. It is one
of the distinguishing characteristics of our profession. (I even wrote
a little read article on the subject back in 1999.)
What troubles me, though, is how little referenced our ethics are in
our reference to our decision making, which is the small disagreement I
have with Jim's statement. I don't know that librarians subscribe to
the ethical code very much, or at least not very actively. Both Sheila
Bair (2005) and Esther Bierbaum (1994) wrote really good articles on the
subject of ethics, for cataloging and technical services respectively,
that should become of more interest to us and what we do. (So did Anna
Farris and Gretchen Hoffman.) I think an area of growing importance,
will be the issue of objectivity, or at least lack of a conscious bias.
Attempting to be unbiased doesn't guarantee success, but it's a laudable
goal and one that, as Jim points our, commercial interests don't
generally share.
Add to that the growing awareness of intellectual property rights
(which are mentioned in the ALA Code) and I think we've got to areas we
definitely need to be aware of in creation of cataloging data as well as
the delivery system that uses that data.
For anyone interested, I put up a PDF of Sheila Bair's proposed ethics
(with her permission) at:
http://www.cwu.edu/~dcc/Bair-Code%20of%20ethics%202005.pdf
Daniel
-------------
References
Sheila Bair. (2005) *Toward a Code of Ethics for Cataloging,*
Technical Services Quarterly 23 (1): 13-26.
Esther Green Bierbaum. (1994) *Searching for the human good : some
suggestions for a code of ethics for technical services.* Technical
Services Quarterly, Vol. 11:3: p. 1-18.
Daniel CannCasciato. (1999) *Authority and objectivity in a time of
transformative growth: the future of the library catalog.* Library
Computing 18 (4): 295-299.
Anna M. Ferris. (2008) *The Ethics and Integrity of Cataloging,*
Journal of Library Administration 47 (3): 173-190.
Gretchen L. Hoffman. (2009) *Meeting Users' Needs in Cataloging: What
is the Right Thing to Do?* Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 47
(7): 631-641.
___________________
Daniel CannCasciato
Head of Cataloging
Central Washington University Library
400 E. University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7548
dcc_at_cwu.edu
Received on Tue May 11 2010 - 13:44:16 EDT