Ethical Dilemmas in Libraries: An International Perspective

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Ethical Dilemmas in Libraries An International
Perspective

• Plamen Miltenoff and Robert Hauptman
• Learning Resources Technology Services
• St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota
• Sofia 2004Libraries, Globalization, and
  Cooperation

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Why revisit

• During the last 25 years, ethical challenges
  presented to information workers have increased
  dramatically.
• In the past, problems were simple and clear-cut
  and solutions appeared to be mandated often
  officially or even legally.
• Now some legal demands may actually be overruled
  by ethical considerations.

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Why revisit

• Some libraries offer open access to computer
  systems to anyone others do not.
• Some allow email others ban it entirely.
• Some librarians may consider their national duty
  to cooperate with various policing forces, while
  others put up signs warning patrons that they are
  under a variety of different forms of
  surveillance.

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Purpose

• Discover whether ethics now really do play a more
  important role in librarianship than they did in
  the recent past
• Comparable overviews do not exist.

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Methodology

• Designed a simple questionnaire, one that could
  be easily disseminated online and filled out in
  just a few minutes.
• Contacted the moderators of 26 listservs in order
  to obtain permission to implement the instrument.
  
• Sent the questionnaire to the members of 17
  listservs around the world.

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Results and discussion

• 139 people from six countries responded
  electronically and their input is tabulated
  below.
• Austria provided 4 responses, Bulgaria 13, Canada
  33, Finland 1, Sweden, 9, and the United States
  76.
• Precisely 100 participants are male and 35
  female four people did not indicate their
  gender.
• Two had no official training, 16 are
  paraprofessionals, and 116 are professionals.

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Results and discussion
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Results and discussion
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Results and discussion
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Results and discussion
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Conclusions

• The survey observed only as a probe of and the
  research only as a start toward a greater
  endeavor to compare ethical issues in the library
  profession not only temporarily (how did it
  change compared to, e.g., 20 years ago) but also
  spatially (how does it change around my library
  compared to a library ten, hundred, thousand
  miles away).
• The research understands the profound
  implications of paramount factors, such as
  political, cultural, historical, etc. background
  when comparing ethical issues in libraries.
• The idea is to start a comparative process that
  can help librarians establish a relative stable
  frame of ethical standards, which can withstand
  the rapid movement toward globalization and its
  consequences.

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Contacts and discussion

• Robert Hauptman
• rhauptman_at_stcloudstate.edu
• Plamen Miltenoff
• pmiltenoff_at_stcloudstate.edu
• http//web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/ethics