Welcome!

Chris LeBlanc

Library Ethics in the Modern World

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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-00c53867a85b%40sessionmgr4009&vid=0&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=37336376&db=a9hBarsh, 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=b6ad3097-8b66-4d28-9ee7-bc41f67b69cd%40sessionmgr4008&vid=1&hid=4104Luo, 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=c227aca3-7c61-4fb9-b7d3-8bc260e4dc19%40sessionmgr4007&vid=1&hid=4104

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-b802-5bde0cbf137a%40sessionmgr4008&vid=1&hid=4104Kumbier, 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