Competency A
A. articulate the ethics, values and foundational principles of library and information professionals and their role in the promotion of intellectual freedom
Introduction
"Librarians are the gatekeepers of the information for the community they serve" (Nye & Barco, 2012). It is this quote that provides the basis for my feelings on the ethics, values, and principles of the information professional. Without these guidelines, the profession can lose credibility; however, I feel that through classwork and work experiences, I have gained greater understanding and knowledge of those ethics, values, and principles that govern library and information professionals. The following paragraphs will provide documentation on how I know the competency and what the competency means to me.
I understand this competency to mean that as a librarian or information professional, I may be challenged on different ideals and values and I need to have the tools to work out that challenge. I take this competency to mean that I should not only be able to write about the ethical guidelines for the library and information professional, but I should be able to speak them orally as well. I should also know and understand what roles the governing bodies of libraries and information professionals’ play in keeping intellectual freedom available to all. First, in order to define the ethics and values for library and information professionals, it is important to define ethics. The American Heritage dictionary (2001) defines ethics as “1. A principle of right or good conduct or a body of such principles; 2. A system of moral principles or values” (p. 295). Using this definition, I can define competency A to mean that I put aside my own ethics, values, and principles and use those outlined by the governing body of my chosen profession, whether that be as a librarian, an archivist, or an information professional.
Because “librarianship is concerned with the interaction of humans” (Haycock and Sheldon, 2008, p. 15), there are always going to be differences in values. It is important to the profession that there be a set of values that the profession stands by. The American Library Association (ALA) has had a code of ethics and values in place since 1939 (ALA, 2012). Similarly, the Society of American Archivists has had a code in place since 2005 (SAA, 2012). Each group has similar ethical values that should be applied anywhere when working in the profession. In both statements, they have similar statements to intellectual freedom and that this freedom is highly valued within each organization. Thus, being able to know, understand, and articulate these values and promote them towards intellectual freedom is extremely important to the profession.
As I transition from being a graduate student into a working adult, being able to not only know the values and ethics my profession holds, but knowing how to share them is vitally important. I wholeheartedly agree with both the ALA (and SAA) that intellectual freedom is vital to the profession (Haycock and Sheldon, 2008), but at the same time, I know and understand, as a future archivist, donors “may wish to put restrictions on the institutions [in the] [sic] use of the collection” (Vanni, 2002, p. 8). It is a delicate balancing act and one that I know I will at some point in time, struggle with. It important for me as an information professional to remember the codes put forth by the ALA and SAA and that the point of a library or archive be that they are open to all (Rubin, 2004).
Human rights and especially the right to intellectual freedom have become an important part of my life. One of my favorite and most eye opening classes when I was an undergraduate was my comparative genocide class. It was there I learned not only about the Holocaust but other genocides as well and the tools they used to create destruction , including the restriction of intellectual knowledge. Throughout my career here at San Jose State University I have had classes that dealt with both ethics, such as LIBR 200 and intellectual freedom in LIBR 220, Readers’ Advisory. Not only have I had classes dealing with the ideas put forth by competency A, I have dealt with them in the work place. In my current job at an archive, I have come across student grades and SAT scores as well as personal records such as society security numbers and other personal information. Due to the fact that the archive I work is open to the public, papers like these have to be put into a bin with a lock and marked for shredding. At my archival job, we do have records that are not suitable for the public such as student medical records. These boxes are clearly marked and access to them is extremely limited. It is with the school knowledge and work experience that I feel I will be able to articulate the ideas, ethics, values, and guiding principles that are needed for my work as an information professional.
The following paragraphs will provide evidence to show that I have both knowledge and understanding of competency A. These pieces include a paper on censorship in archives and museums, a paragraph about intellectual freedom from a critique on a book burning exhibit, and finally a discussion board thread on ethics at the reference desk.
Evidence
The first piece of evidence that I am providing for competency A is a paper I wrote for LIBR 200 about controversial archival material and who has access to it. For this assignment we were required to choose a topic from class and write a 15-20 page paper. I chose to write about access to collections. In this paper I looked at several controversial collections, the legality of them, and finally how these collections affected the population. In the archival field, access to collections can be a source of tension due to the need to preserve records but the control of that access (Rubin, 2004). This paper demonstrates that I have researched and communicated on the values and ethics of the archival field and thus demonstrating that I am competent in articulating said values.
The second piece of evidence that I am providing for competency A is a paragraph for a paper I wrote for LIBR 280. This paragraph is the 5th paragraph of the paper starting with the line, "For this exhibit, the intended audience was high school... ". The assignment was to critique three online exhibits on several guidelines. One of these was how well the exhibit was in line with the museum or organization’s mission statement. In this paper, one of the exhibits I chose was the exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), on book burning. Part of the USHMM’s mission statement is to help visitors think about their accountability as part of a democracy (United States Holocaust memorial museum, 2010). This exhibit full demonstrates not only that but it shows what happens when a society believes what somebody tells them they cannot read. This idea of censorship goes completely against what the ALA has written in their code of ethics. This piece of evidence provides the support that I have done research about past abuses of intellectual freedom and how this plays into modern society’s thoughts on the subject.
The last piece of evidence that I am providing is a discussion board that I contributed to as part of LIBR 210 , Reference. The questions the professor asked us to comment on were on issues of ethics and what happened if certain scenarios happened while I was on duty as the reference librarian. Some of these issues included if a person came looking for information on how to make a bomb, or wanting to know how to commit suicide. When I first took LIBR 210, I had never worked referencing before and it was still early “career” in library school. I have included to show that I understood ethics at the time and even if the patron looked a little rough and wanted to know more about gangs, I still would work to provide information to them, using the first tenet of the ALA code of ethics “We provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources; equitable service policies; equitable access; and accurate, unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests” (ALA, 2012).
Conclusion
The evidence and examples I have provided here show that I am capable of articulating, both orally and written, the values, ethics, and principles that guide the information profession as well as provide evidence in how they support the ideas of intellectual freedom. While I may not agree with information a patron or user is looking for, it is not my place to judge and I need to provide them with the information they are looking for in the best ways I know how.
References:
American Library Association. (ALA). (2012). Code of ethics of the American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org
/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics.
Ethic. (2001). In the American heritage dictionary (p. 295, 4th ed.), Margery S. Berube (Ed.). New York: Random House Inc.
Haycock, K. and Sheldon, B. (2008). The portable MLIS: insights from the experts. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.
Nye, V., & Barco, K. (2012). True stories of censorship battles in America's libraries. Chicago: American Library Association.
Rubin, R. E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
Society of American Archivists (SAA). (2012). SAA core values statement and code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics.
Vanni, R. J. (2002). Deeds of gift. In T. Lipinski (Ed.), Libraries, museums, and archives (pp. 1-30). Lanham: The Scarecrow Press,
INC.
United Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2010). Mission Statement. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from United States Holocaust
memorial Museum:http://www.ushmm.org/museum/mission/.
Introduction
"Librarians are the gatekeepers of the information for the community they serve" (Nye & Barco, 2012). It is this quote that provides the basis for my feelings on the ethics, values, and principles of the information professional. Without these guidelines, the profession can lose credibility; however, I feel that through classwork and work experiences, I have gained greater understanding and knowledge of those ethics, values, and principles that govern library and information professionals. The following paragraphs will provide documentation on how I know the competency and what the competency means to me.
I understand this competency to mean that as a librarian or information professional, I may be challenged on different ideals and values and I need to have the tools to work out that challenge. I take this competency to mean that I should not only be able to write about the ethical guidelines for the library and information professional, but I should be able to speak them orally as well. I should also know and understand what roles the governing bodies of libraries and information professionals’ play in keeping intellectual freedom available to all. First, in order to define the ethics and values for library and information professionals, it is important to define ethics. The American Heritage dictionary (2001) defines ethics as “1. A principle of right or good conduct or a body of such principles; 2. A system of moral principles or values” (p. 295). Using this definition, I can define competency A to mean that I put aside my own ethics, values, and principles and use those outlined by the governing body of my chosen profession, whether that be as a librarian, an archivist, or an information professional.
Because “librarianship is concerned with the interaction of humans” (Haycock and Sheldon, 2008, p. 15), there are always going to be differences in values. It is important to the profession that there be a set of values that the profession stands by. The American Library Association (ALA) has had a code of ethics and values in place since 1939 (ALA, 2012). Similarly, the Society of American Archivists has had a code in place since 2005 (SAA, 2012). Each group has similar ethical values that should be applied anywhere when working in the profession. In both statements, they have similar statements to intellectual freedom and that this freedom is highly valued within each organization. Thus, being able to know, understand, and articulate these values and promote them towards intellectual freedom is extremely important to the profession.
As I transition from being a graduate student into a working adult, being able to not only know the values and ethics my profession holds, but knowing how to share them is vitally important. I wholeheartedly agree with both the ALA (and SAA) that intellectual freedom is vital to the profession (Haycock and Sheldon, 2008), but at the same time, I know and understand, as a future archivist, donors “may wish to put restrictions on the institutions [in the] [sic] use of the collection” (Vanni, 2002, p. 8). It is a delicate balancing act and one that I know I will at some point in time, struggle with. It important for me as an information professional to remember the codes put forth by the ALA and SAA and that the point of a library or archive be that they are open to all (Rubin, 2004).
Human rights and especially the right to intellectual freedom have become an important part of my life. One of my favorite and most eye opening classes when I was an undergraduate was my comparative genocide class. It was there I learned not only about the Holocaust but other genocides as well and the tools they used to create destruction , including the restriction of intellectual knowledge. Throughout my career here at San Jose State University I have had classes that dealt with both ethics, such as LIBR 200 and intellectual freedom in LIBR 220, Readers’ Advisory. Not only have I had classes dealing with the ideas put forth by competency A, I have dealt with them in the work place. In my current job at an archive, I have come across student grades and SAT scores as well as personal records such as society security numbers and other personal information. Due to the fact that the archive I work is open to the public, papers like these have to be put into a bin with a lock and marked for shredding. At my archival job, we do have records that are not suitable for the public such as student medical records. These boxes are clearly marked and access to them is extremely limited. It is with the school knowledge and work experience that I feel I will be able to articulate the ideas, ethics, values, and guiding principles that are needed for my work as an information professional.
The following paragraphs will provide evidence to show that I have both knowledge and understanding of competency A. These pieces include a paper on censorship in archives and museums, a paragraph about intellectual freedom from a critique on a book burning exhibit, and finally a discussion board thread on ethics at the reference desk.
Evidence
The first piece of evidence that I am providing for competency A is a paper I wrote for LIBR 200 about controversial archival material and who has access to it. For this assignment we were required to choose a topic from class and write a 15-20 page paper. I chose to write about access to collections. In this paper I looked at several controversial collections, the legality of them, and finally how these collections affected the population. In the archival field, access to collections can be a source of tension due to the need to preserve records but the control of that access (Rubin, 2004). This paper demonstrates that I have researched and communicated on the values and ethics of the archival field and thus demonstrating that I am competent in articulating said values.
The second piece of evidence that I am providing for competency A is a paragraph for a paper I wrote for LIBR 280. This paragraph is the 5th paragraph of the paper starting with the line, "For this exhibit, the intended audience was high school... ". The assignment was to critique three online exhibits on several guidelines. One of these was how well the exhibit was in line with the museum or organization’s mission statement. In this paper, one of the exhibits I chose was the exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), on book burning. Part of the USHMM’s mission statement is to help visitors think about their accountability as part of a democracy (United States Holocaust memorial museum, 2010). This exhibit full demonstrates not only that but it shows what happens when a society believes what somebody tells them they cannot read. This idea of censorship goes completely against what the ALA has written in their code of ethics. This piece of evidence provides the support that I have done research about past abuses of intellectual freedom and how this plays into modern society’s thoughts on the subject.
The last piece of evidence that I am providing is a discussion board that I contributed to as part of LIBR 210 , Reference. The questions the professor asked us to comment on were on issues of ethics and what happened if certain scenarios happened while I was on duty as the reference librarian. Some of these issues included if a person came looking for information on how to make a bomb, or wanting to know how to commit suicide. When I first took LIBR 210, I had never worked referencing before and it was still early “career” in library school. I have included to show that I understood ethics at the time and even if the patron looked a little rough and wanted to know more about gangs, I still would work to provide information to them, using the first tenet of the ALA code of ethics “We provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources; equitable service policies; equitable access; and accurate, unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests” (ALA, 2012).
Conclusion
The evidence and examples I have provided here show that I am capable of articulating, both orally and written, the values, ethics, and principles that guide the information profession as well as provide evidence in how they support the ideas of intellectual freedom. While I may not agree with information a patron or user is looking for, it is not my place to judge and I need to provide them with the information they are looking for in the best ways I know how.
References:
American Library Association. (ALA). (2012). Code of ethics of the American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org
/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics.
Ethic. (2001). In the American heritage dictionary (p. 295, 4th ed.), Margery S. Berube (Ed.). New York: Random House Inc.
Haycock, K. and Sheldon, B. (2008). The portable MLIS: insights from the experts. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.
Nye, V., & Barco, K. (2012). True stories of censorship battles in America's libraries. Chicago: American Library Association.
Rubin, R. E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
Society of American Archivists (SAA). (2012). SAA core values statement and code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics.
Vanni, R. J. (2002). Deeds of gift. In T. Lipinski (Ed.), Libraries, museums, and archives (pp. 1-30). Lanham: The Scarecrow Press,
INC.
United Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2010). Mission Statement. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from United States Holocaust
memorial Museum:http://www.ushmm.org/museum/mission/.
burch_katrina_who_has_access_libr_200.docx | |
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burch_katrina_online_exhibit_critique_for_libr_280.doc | |
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210_discussion_board.pdf | |
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