Activity:
I attended the BBOD evening seminar in Reading on information ethics. The talk was held by Jonathan Gordon-Till from Info Ethics and the topic was of course information ethics.
The CILIP's Information Ethics website: www.infoethics.org.uk has lots of case studies on ethical situations and it has a blog where readers can contribute with their issues and solutions at their workplace.
Learned:
Now, ethics are a very important part of our profession, so the issues of ethical dilemmas in libraries are something I have heard about since library school. We have an ethical responsibility as librarians. The typical public library situation is the man who visits the library and uses the library PCs to look up what seems to be pornographic material. If he is looking at pornographic material that is art, is it then still offensive?
Or from personal experience, the patron who photocopies more than the copyright law allows him to. I am not a police officer, so I cannot punish him for photocopying more than the copyright allowance, but does that mean I cannot stop him? Can I as a librarian refuse to provide information to a patron, on ethical grounds? and what would the implications be?
Example:
Patron asking e.g. competitive info, poison, explosives, suicides ↔ Can librarian provide this? ↔ Ethics? Rules and regulations. To be objective or subjective. Cilip guidelines, confidentiality.
Librarians own belief/professional belief/custodians of information >< Law/confidentiality
It is one of those dilemmas where you think you know the answer but you always bang your head against the wall. It is not always the ethical guide for each company is handy, and as Jonathan said "There is not always a right answer" but you can either be subjective or objective.
It is just one of them subjects which which we all have something to say about, but cannot always act on. It is good to keep it in the back on your mind, and also remember that there is something called infoethics I can turn. But until that day, I will leave this topic full of blurriness and full of dilemmas!
Another interesting aspect that Jonathan mentioned, was that as a librarian I do not merely provide a transaction, I provide a piece of advice! And that holds a certain responsibility! My actions have ethical contents. I don't think I understood what he meant to being with, but after a quick tour in my mental roundabout; It is true! I guide the users, I say yes to some things and no to other things, and I give them advise on what information would be more useful than another. I direct them, tell them where to look and select and deselect information on their behalf. This can be for important information for their businesses, it can be a matter of investment, entering new markets, competitor analysis, speeches, workshops, curriculum, published material, it could be for a a persons career, a job interview! In other words I am responsible for my "advise". My advise has consequences. That is where the responsibility comes in.
I inform users that this is today's information, this is current, although it may not be tomorrow - it is my "duty" to stay up to date with what information is current and what is not. It is my responsibility to make sure I widen my interests, knowledge and develop my profession - if I ignore this, I am being unprofessional, and this can have consequences. I am being trusted for my qualifications and it would be ethically wrong to be unprofessional because I will not be able to give my best advise.
It is now almost clear how information ethics links to me and my chartership:
On the CILIP website, under career advise, a section called Working in business libraries describes the work in a business library:
"Librarians working in business libraries carry out a mixture of research and enquiry work from both electronic and hard copy sources.The range of material is broad:
market research reports
company profiles
government statistics
trade journals
product directories
financial information
salary guides
worldwide trade information
European information
marketing information
Applied:
The important factor in using business information is its currency.It has to be available to its users very soon after publication.Users need enquiries answered quickly and accurately so ability in accessing both online and hard copy sources is vital."
I must stay up to date and continue developing my skills to stay professional and take responsibility for the work I carry out. I actually feel quite enlightened by all this. As if it is now clear why chartership is so so important for me. I am a carrier of responsibility - it is not only about getting a certificate or a MCILIP after my name, it is all about me developing as an information professional, making sure my skills can be trusted.
The result is that on my PPDP one of my development needs are to "acquire specialist knowledge in the field of marketing and business information".
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