Jounral Entry 6

Assigned Readings

Current Issues in Librarianship


This assignment explored selected readings from the text that covered social responsibility, legal and ethical issues, image of librarians, and librarian education. The discussion group fully examined the issues of librarian education and the image of librarians. I will touch on the some of the ethical and information policy issues.

Ethics

“The ethical conduct of information professionals is an affirmation of the critical values of service, respect for others, and the need to improve society” (Rubin, 2004). “Ethics is mostly about how people should be treated and how one should act, if one wishes to act rightly” (Rubin, 2004). Rubin states that “there at least four factors” that come into play when wrestling with an ethical decision “social utility, survival, social responsibility and respect for the individual.”

Under social utility, libraries are to promote a variety of topics for the community: education (continuing and homework support), literacy (reading and information), and entertainment (reader advisory and audiovisual). Does the library maintaining a music and DVD collection undercut the local business community? The community wants to borrow audiovisual materials at no or low cost, but does it hurt the local video store. Are artists losing royalties? Librarians must balance the demands of the community with fair use practices and the needs of the society at large.

Survival is important to any organization. Censorship is an aspect that can curtail the libraries survival. The library has traditionally been a fortress of intellectual freedom. If a segment of the public protests the types of materials in the collection, then patronage may drop off, contributions from the community may dry up, and with circulation numbers down funding may be cut. Thus the libraries future is at risk. Libraries must have a clear mission statement, clear collection development protocol and policies regarding challenges to the collection. Each challenge must be handled respectfully (truly listening to the reason for the challenge) and expediently.

Under social responsibility, the libraries also “function in the society-at-large” and have many obligations (Rubin, 2004). Rubin states the example of a library committed to reducing pollution by purchasing acid free books. Acid free books are more expensive; therefore, fewer books can be purchased overall. Does the library meet the needs of the community by buying fewer materials?

The last factor in ethical decisions is “respect for the individual”; the “individual must be treated with dignity and respect” (Rubin, 2004). Privacy of circulation records is under this factor. Librarians when developing the collection try to balance the demand of the masses for popular fiction with “individual interests” (Rubin, 2004).


Information Policy

"Because librarians are generally oriented toward service rather than profit, their voice is democratic and represents a vital advocate for the tradition of an open marketplace for ideas" (Rubin, 2004). "Information policy is any law, regulation, rule or practice (written or unwritten) that effects the creation, acquisition, organization, dissemination or evaluation of information" (Rubin, 2004). Rubin identifies many different information stakeholders: business, government, information producers, disseminators, transmitters, American citizens, and organization that represent their interest. The computer has changed how information is organized, storage, retrieved and transmitted. Information is now viewed as a commodity (to be held and sold privately). Rubin examines several major information policy issues including user’s privacy, freedom of information, national security, copyright legislation, library legislation, and education legislation.

One of the more deep reaching policies comes from attempts by the federal government to be more efficient. There are questions regarding citizen’s access to government documents. The Government Printing Office (GPO) has been reducing the amount of material that is published to hardcopy; the GPO has been moving toward microfiche and Web-based access. This policy, although saving resources and money, does limit access to documents. Microfiche is not intuitive to use. Not all citizens have access to computers nor do all have access to libraries with computers. Furthermore, the government has reduced its overhead by shifting the monetary burden to the library which must maintain the readers, and computer equipment. Additionally, many documents are now published privately for the government. These government documents are no longer part of the Depositary Library Program, because the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) only mandates that government printed documents be included. The example cited by Rubin pertains to the Federal Statistical Directory. This directory is published privately and the cost has skyrocketed. Access has been severely limited.

Regarding information policy (whether government mandated, politically motivated or economically driven), librarians and information providers “must actively monitor the information-policy climate and aggressively make their case for the values that they strive to preserve” (Rubin, 2004). Because librarians are service oriented, “their voice is democratic” and hence libraries are viewed as places of equal access to all materials (Rubin, 2004).

Rubin, R. E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science (2nd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.