> 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.
The much bigger problem, I'd say, is *unconscious*
bias. There are ways of ( preemptively ) correcting
for that ; but, more importantly, also of making it
conscious. Conscious bias need not in itself be a
bad thing. If it's conscious, it can be allowed for.
( As any good researcher, or user of scientific/
scholarly research, knows, for example. )
The proviso here is, of course, that *all* concerned
parties are conscious of the bias or biases involved.
A bias-free librarian or library is ( as I yesterday here
suggested ) not only an impossibility, it is not even
desirable. The "laudable goal" for librarians, therefore,
is, I'd say, not so much the utopian "attempting to be
unbiased", but rather attempting to prevent that
disguised ( for themselves *or* for their users ) or
unrecognized biases are ever at work. Also not totally
realizable, of course. So -- let's stick, shall we?, with a
goal of minimizing so far as possible the number and
potency of unrecognized biases. And the important
corollary : rendering the conscious biases as discernible
-- and as moot -- as possible. A question of honesty, and
honor. And of respect.
- Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen, Nederland
----- Original Message ----
From: Daniel CannCasciato <Daniel.CannCasciato_at_CWU.EDU>
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Sent: Tue, May 11, 2010 6:04:01 PM
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 Wed May 12 2010 - 13:49:53 EDT