Program Goal B
Demonstrating mastery of this program goal requires knowledge and application of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Professional Code of Ethics, the Library Bill of Rights, and the Freedom to Read Statement. The ALA posts the Ethics Code on their website to translate the values of Intellectual Freedom and define the profession of librarianship and the values information professionals should uphold when dealing with situations that involve ethical conflict (Professional Ethics, 2017). The ALA also states that members of the information profession are “committed to intellectual freedom, the freedom of access to information, and ensure the free flow of information and ideas to present and future generations” (Professional Ethics, 2017, par. 6). Through the MMLIS program, the assignments I worked on helped me learn that information professionals are not gatekeepers, as we should not delay or deny anyone the right to read, find, or look for information. Rather, information professionals should commit to enhance access to all materials to everyone and to assist anyone in their pursuit of knowledge and information.
Several assignments helped me demonstrate competency in this program goal. First, during the course LIM500: Fundamentals of Library and Information Science, I worked on a Values and Ethics assignment where I identified and discussed two different ethical scenarios in an information environment. The first scenario was about Skye, a manager of a corporate research library who faced a value-based and ethical dilemma at her workplace. Skye values open access publishing, which would allow free and public access to her organization’s findings. Her organization, however, makes all their employees sign non-disclosure agreements to protect their processes, developments, and practices from being released to the public and to their competitors. In this assignment I discuss how it is noble of Skye to value open access, it would be unethical to violate the non-disclosure agreement and to release any information about her organization. In the second scenario, I describe Jerome’s ethical dilemma of having to either compromise someone’s personal liberty or public safety. In this assignment, I discuss a patron’s right to privacy of their searches and recommend Jerome honor that privacy, even while in a difficult situation. I demonstrate my competence in the program goal objective of articulating professional values and ethics in these two different scenarios. In both cases, I am able to identify the possible ethical violations and I make recommendations on what the individual should do to honor their code of ethics as information professionals.
To further demonstrate my mastery of this program goal, I applied principles from ALA’s Code of Ethics during the LIM502: Collection Development and Management course. During this course, I wrote a critique of the LA County Library’s Collection Policy (CP) and how it addresses censorship of items in their collections. I discussed how LA County Library’s CP is thoroughly written and has several different elements that state their mission aligns with ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement. In their CP, LA County Library provides links to ALA’s Code of Ethics webpage. They also affirm the public’s right of access to reading, listening, and viewing materials, and to “secure information, even if the content is controversial, unorthodox or unacceptable to others” (LA County Library, n.d, pa. 3). This aligns with ALA’s Freedom to Read Statement, as they state that librarians have the responsibility to “give validity to that freedom to read by making it possible for the readers to choose freely from a variety of offerings” (Freedom to Read Statement, 2006). I further discuss LA County Library’s CP, as they state their mission to prevent censorship of works due to anyone’s “race, nationality, or their political, social, or religious beliefs” (LA County Library, n.d, pa. 6) which aligns with ALA’s principle to “resist all efforts to censor library resources” (Professional Ethics, 2017, par. 9). I demonstrate my mastery of this program goal by discussing LA County Library’s CPand how it aligns with ALA’s Professional Code of Ethics. I employ these professional values by applying them to my analysis of the LA County Library’s CP.
I further demonstrate my mastery of this program goal in the same course, LIM502 Collection Development and Management. For our midterm, we were tasked to write a persuasive memo. As a Collection Development Librarian at a university library, I had to write the recommendation on whether the library should accept a very generous monetary donation. The only problem with the offer is the library would also have to accept the donor’s extensive collection of materials based on the denial of the Holocaust (Muglia, 2019). In the memo, I incorporated principles from ALA’s Freedom to Read Statement that reiterated how, as librarians, it would be unethical to censor any works even if it is unorthodox, unpopular, or considered dangerous to the majority (Freedom to Read, 2006). I also stressed that we must uphold that the freedom to read is a constitutional right, and we cannot be on the side of censorship in any way. Moreover, libraries should continue their duty of being an open forum for ideas. In the memo, I go on to discuss how libraries must follow the guidelines of the Freedom to Read Statement, wherein it states that we trust Americans to make their own decisions about what they read and believe, and our job as librarians is only to ensure their access to the information they seek. The midterm essay assignment is another example of how I articulate and employ professional values and ethics in a variety of circumstances. I demonstrated my competency by applying principles of ALA’s code of ethics to a real scenario where censorship of a work was in question.
Mastery of this program goal requires the knowledge of ALA’s code of ethics and demonstrated practice applying these professional values in a variety of situations and circumstances. I demonstrated my mastery of this program goal by incorporating the principles of ALA’s Professional Ethics, The Library Bill of rights, and Freedom to Read Statement in ethical scenarios in my Values and Ethics assignment, LAPLs censorship policy, and a real-life scenario for my midterm essay.
References
LA County Library. (n.d.). LA County Library. Retrieved from https://lacountylibrary.org/collection-policy/
"Library Bill of Rights", American Library Association, June 30, 2006. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill
Muglia, C. 2019. LIM502 Collection Development and Management [Midterm Prompt]. Los Angeles, CA: Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. https://ia601507.us.archive.org/14/items/lim-502-midterm-prompt/LIM502_MidtermPrompt.pdf
"The Freedom to Read Statement", American Library Association, July 26, 2006. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement
"Professional Ethics", American Library Association, May 19, 2017. http://www.ala.org/tools/ethics
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