Ethics Literacy

Much like information literacy, information professionals should also be ethically literate as well. Information professionals may deal with many different types of ethical scenarios daily and therefore having good background knowledge, and a strong understanding of ethics is important. The American Library Association (ALA) has deemed ethics as an important component in library science since the 1930s. The ALA Code of Ethics has informed many professionals about ethics but it may not be enough. Its accreditation does not mandate that coursework include any sort of ethics training nor does it standardize ethics curriculum (Buchanan, 2004, p. 51). Though it’s important for the ALA to continue to demonstrate the importance of ethics in the workforce, it doesn’t seem to be truly effective in practical applications.

Luo (2016, p. 197) found that when dealing with an ethically ambiguous situation, many professionals reached out to others in their field to seek advice on how to handle the situation. This may be an issue because organizational ethics may differ from company to company and, in some instances, from the ALA Code of Ethics as a whole (Luo, 2016, p.197). Because of this, it is necessary that organizations have ethics policies in place so that staff may defer to them when ethical situations arise. However, this may be easier said than done since situations that involve ethics do not have clear-cut outcomes. It is in the best interest of organizations and especially those who work in reference services to partake in an ethics course or attend ethics workshops where practical applications may be discussed.

References

Buchanan, E. (2004). Ethics in library and information science. What are we teaching? Journal of Information Ethics, 13(1), 51-60. doi:10.3172/JIE.13.1.51

Luo, L. (2016). Ethical issues in reference: An in-depth view from the librarians’ perspective. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 55(3), 189-198.