MODULE 6: ETHICS

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Consider the implications of reference work in a democratic society.

All library users have a right to access the information available in the library. All library users have the
right to confidentiality and the right to be treated fairly, objectively, and equally. Providing privacy and
confidentiality for all library users requires establishing library policies for remote services and paying
vigilant attention to new laws passed by Congress and local legislatures .

Module 6 focuses on professional ethics in libraries and their implications for reference. In this module, you
will learn:

What issues arise from providing reference service equally and fairly
What is free access and the Freedom to Read
What are the implications of reference work in a democratic society
What is the librarys responsibility to the community
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Ethical considerations and responsibilities to patrons are part of reference service.

A Context for the Reference Process

Library work has a set of ethics that all libraries and librarians should understand. This set of ethics helps us
to preserve our users right to privacy, to fair and equitable treatment, and helps ensure that people who
need information have access to it.

These are guidelines only. Many of the issues are very complex, and there are not always easy answers to
every situation. Please check with your supervisor if you are not sure how to handle a situation. You should
also be familiar with your own librarys policies and procedures.

While the term librarian is used frequently in the following guidelines, everyone who works in a library
should be working to apply these guidelines in transactions with the public.

American Library Association (ALA) Code of Ethics

The following is taken from the Code of Ethics:

The principles of this Code are expressed in broad statements to guide ethical decision making. These
statements provide a framework; they cannot and do not dictate conduct to cover particular situations.

I. 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.

II. We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.

III. We protect each library users right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or
received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.

IV. We respect intellectual property rights and advocate balance between the interests of information users
and rights holders.

V. We treat co-workers and other colleagues with respect, fairness, and good faith, and advocate conditions
of employment that safeguard the rights and welfare of all employees of our institutions.

VI. We do not advance private interests at the expense of library users, colleagues, or our employing
institutions.
VII. We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our
personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access
to their information resources.

VIII. We strive for excellence in the profession by maintaining and enhancing our own knowledge and
skills, by encouraging the professional development of co-workers, and by fostering the aspirations of
potential members of the profession.

[Adopted at the 1939 Midwinter Meeting by the ALA Council; amended June 30, 1981; June 28, 1995; and Jan.
22, 2008.]

MAJOR POINT: LIBRARY WORK HAS IMPORTANT ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS. MANY OF

THESE ARE EXPRESSED IN THE CODE OF ETHICS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY
ASSOCIATION.
LIBRARY POLICIES

Know the policies of the library for doing reference work.

Ethics and Library Policies

Does your library have a reference policy? Does it address professional ethics? Carefully examine the
policies and procedures in your library (or ask) to learn specifics about professional ethics in providing
reference service to your patrons.

All libraries that offer reference services should have a statement of objectives, a description of the types
and levels of services offered, and guidelines to help personnel who provide this service. The reference
service policy must also support the librarys mission statement and overall goals.

What is the Purpose of a Reference Policy?

The main reason for reference policies is to establish guidelines for providing the best possible service to all
our patrons. Policies do the following:

Establish standards of service.

Assist in training new staff members.
Establish levels of service to users, including limits of service.
Establish priorities of service.
Describe practical procedures that answer practical questions.

[Janet Easley. Reference Services Review 13, Summer, 1985: p. 79-82.]

What Should be Included in a Reference Policy?

Statement of librarys mission

Mission of reference department
Purpose of reference guidelines
Reference staff
Library users
General guidelines for desk service
Specific desk service guidelines
Specific question guidelines
Online searching
Loan of reference materials

[Deborah Grodinsky, Illinois Libraries 73, November 1991, p. 513-14, suggests this basic outline.]
Virtual Reference Services Policy

The following pieces of information should be included in a virtual reference services policy.

Eligibility: How will you respond to people who live outside your jurisdiction?
Confidentiality: How long and for what purpose will you save transcripts of completed
transactions? What will be done to ensure that your FAQ file will be rephrased enough so that it
cannot be attributable to the person who asked the question?
Use of licensed databases to answer questions: What is the policy for answering questions from
a database the library subscribes to? What is the policy about emailing or faxing an answer from a
licensed database?
Identifying yourself to the client: Will you use your full name? The name of your library?
Delivery of material to the client: Will you fax or mail pages from a journal? Will you send books
or other formats via the US Mail? Will you scan and email pages?
Average length of transaction: How long, on average, will you spend on a transaction? Is there a
time limit?
Client satisfaction: What service behaviors will ensure client satisfaction? How will the client
register a complaint?
Inappropriate client behavior: What constitutes inappropriate behavior or objectionable
language?

[Lipow, Anne Grodzins, The Virtual Reference Librarians Handbook, Neal-Schuman, 2003, p. 77-89.]

MAJOR POINT: ALL LIBRARIES OFFERING REFERENCE SERVICE SHOULD HAVE A

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES, A DESCRIPTION OF THE TYPES AND LEVELS OF SERVICES
OFFERED, AND GUIDELINES TO HELP PERSONNEL WHO PROVIDE THIS SERVICE.
LIBRARY BILL OF RIGH TS

What should patrons expect from the library?

Patron Rights

Library policies state how and to what extent information is provided to your community. They may also
stress the rights of individuals who use your library.

Serving the community means serving everyone in the community, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of
individuals or groups. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view and
challenge censorship.

The Library Bill of Rights is reproduced here, and the concepts of free access, equal service, objectivity, and
confidentiality are described in more detail on the following pages.

The Library Bill of Rights

The American Library Association (ALA) affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and
that the following basic policies should guide their services.

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of
all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin,
background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and
historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal
disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information
and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free
expression and free access to ideas.

V. A persons right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or
views.
VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make
such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups
requesting their use.

[Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended Oct. 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; Feb. 2, 1961; June 27, 1967;
Jan. 23, 1980; inclusion of age reaffirmed Jan. 23, 1996.]
SERVING ALL PATRONS EQUALLY

Fair, equitable, and unbiased service

Equal Service

Paragraph I of the American Library Associations Code of Ethics is an important one. Not only does it call
for the same treatment for all, it calls for being objective and neutral in the way we handle requests.

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.

The intent is that each of us gives every patron the same level of respect, attention, and courtesy. We dont,
for example, give city or county officials preference over other patrons, or treat homeless with less respect
than others. Children and their questions are given the same level of care we give to adults.

When there are barriers that seem to make it difficult to give everyone equal service for example, we
cant speak the patrons language it is our responsibility to find ways to overcome those barriers.

All Questions Are Important

Just as all patrons receive equal treatment, so do all questions.

We do not make judgments that some questions are more deserving of our time than others. All questions
are important to the person who is asking them and deserve a fair share of attention.

For example, it may seem at first glance that a request for the words of a song is less important than the
address of a business requested by the local factory. The request for the words to a song may, in fact, be
critical to a patron who is planning a public performance for a charity benefit. We cant be the ones to judge
the seriousness of a request. Only the patron who asks can do that. Every patron has an equal right to the
services of the library for any information request.

Objectivity

Paragraph I also means that even if you do not agree with what the patron wants to do, even if you dislike
the information asked for, you must put aside your personal opinions and handle the request in a neutral,
impartial way.
There will be times when you react strongly against what the patron asks. For example, suppose a patron
asks for material supporting an election measure lowering salaries of all public employees by 30%. You have
a duty as an information provider to do your best to provide the patron with the information wanted.

Your personal opinions are yours off the job. At work, you must remain unbiased.

MAJOR POINT: ALL PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY ARE ENTITLED TO EQUAL, UNBIASED
LIBRARY SERVICE, AND ALL QUESTIONS DESERVE EQUAL TREATMENT.
PRIVACY AND CONFIDEN TIALITY

Respect for patron privacy and a regard for the Ohio Confidentiality Law are part of the
reference process.

Respecting the Privacy of Patrons

Paragraph III of the American Library Associations Code of Ethics deals with patrons privacy.

We protect each library users right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or
received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.

This means that you should not talk about patrons requests outside of the library environment. For
example, you cant tell your spouse about who dropped into the library to ask how to pick locks. You should
not discuss any questions (with anyone!) that would violate a patrons privacy. In discussing questions with
your fellow employees, make sure that other patrons cant overhear.

The ALAs statement on these matters is reproduced below.

ALA Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records

The Council of the American Library Association strongly recommends that the responsible officers of each
library, cooperative system, and consortium in the United States:

1. Formally adopt a policy that specifically recognizes its circulation records and other records
identifying the names of library users to be confidential. (See also ALA Code of Ethics, Article III,
We protect each library users right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information
sought or received, and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted and Privacy: An
Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.)
2. Advise all librarians and library employees that such records shall not be made available to any
agency of state, federal, or local government except pursuant to such process, order or subpoena as
may be authorized under the authority of, and pursuant to, federal, state, or local law relating to
civil, criminal, or administrative discovery procedures or legislative investigative power.
3. Resist the issuance of enforcement of any such process, order, or subpoena until such time as a
proper showing of good cause has been made in a court of competent jurisdiction.

USA PATRIOT Act, Intellectual Freedom, and Library Law

Confidentiality is also governed by Federal laws. For changes in library law, and current information
regarding confidentiality, privacy, intellectual freedom, and the USA PATRIOT Act, information is available
from the ALA site.
 USA Patriot Act Information about how to respond if law enforcement knocks at the door; for
changes made by the USA Patriot Act to a number of laws; and the ALA Resolution on Patriot Act
regarding electronic surveillance and privacy.
Office for Intellectual Freedom site, containing ALA Intellectual Freedom Policies, Help with
Challenges, Privacy, RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification Tags), ALA Resolutions, Childrens
Internet Protection Act, Notable First Amendment Court Cases, News, and What You Can Do to
Oppose Censorship. Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive
information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions
of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas.
Freedom to Read Foundation: Information concerning how expanded surveillance powers are being
used in libraries and bookstores.

Confidentiality and Privacy in Virtual Reference Services

The ALA has also elaborated a statement regarding confidentiality and privacy guidelines for implementing
and maintaining virtual reference services:

5.1 Virtual reference communications between patrons and library staff should be private except as
required by law.
5.2 Data gathered and maintained for the purpose of evaluation should protect patrons
confidentiality.
5.2.1 It is recommended that patrons personal identifiers, such as name, e-mail, etc. be stripped
from transaction records. Stripped records may be maintained for statistical and evaluative
purposes.
5.2.2 Libraries need to develop retention schedules and privacy policies for their virtual reference
transactions.
5.2.3 Patrons should be advised whether a record of the transaction will be retained, and what, if
any, personal information will be stored with the transaction log.
5.2.4 Privacy policies and transcript retention schedules should be publicly available.
5.4 Data gathered and maintained for training purposes and for publicizing the service should also
protect patron confidentiality.

MAJOR POINT: LIBRARIES MUST PROTECT EACH USERS RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND
CONFIDENTIALITY TO THE GREATEST EXTENT THEY CAN.
FREEDOM TO READ

Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours.

The Freedom to Read statement, reproduced below, puts forth the fundamental importance of reading and
freedom to our society.

A policy statement from ALA and the AAP Freedom to Read Committee

The Freedom to Read statement was originally issued in May of 1953 by the Westchester Conference of the
ALA and the American Book Publishers Council, which in 1970 consolidated with the American Educational
Publishers Institute to become the Association of American Publishers (AAP). It was adopted in June 25, 1953;
revised Jan. 28, 1972, Jan. 16, 1991, July 12, 2000, and June 30, 2004, by the ALA Council and the AAP Freedom to
Read Committee:

The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and
public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials,
to censor content in schools, to label controversial views, to distribute lists of objectionable books or
authors, and to purge libraries. These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of free
expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to counter threats to safety or
national security, as well as to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals. We, as
individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to
assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read.

Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary
individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to
recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and
believe. We do not believe they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free press in order to be
protected against what others think may be bad for them. We believe they still favor free enterprise in
ideas and expression.

These efforts at suppression are related to a larger pattern of pressures being brought against education, the
press, art and images, films, broadcast media, and the Internet. The problem is not only one of actual
censorship. The shadow of fear cast by these pressures leads, we suspect, to an even larger voluntary
curtailment of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy or unwelcome scrutiny by government
officials.

Such pressure toward conformity is perhaps natural to a time of accelerated change. And yet suppression is
never more dangerous than in such a time of social tension. Freedom has given the United States the
elasticity to endure strain. Freedom keeps open the path of novel and creative solutions, and enables
change to come by choice. Every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the
toughness and resilience of our society and leaves it the less able to deal with controversy and difference.

Now as always in our history, reading is among our greatest freedoms. The freedom to read and write is
almost the only means for making generally available ideas or manners of expression that can initially
command only a small audience. The written word is the natural medium for the new idea and the untried
voice from which come the original contributions to social growth. It is essential to the extended discussion
that serious thought requires, and to the accumulation of knowledge and ideas into organized collections.

We believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture.
We believe that these pressures toward conformity present the danger of limiting the range and variety of
inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend. We believe that every American
community must jealously guard the freedom to publish and to circulate, in order to preserve its own
freedom to read. We believe that publishers and librarians have a profound responsibility to give validity to
that freedom to read by making it possible for the readers to choose freely from a variety of offerings.

The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. Those with faith in free people will stand firm on
these constitutional guarantees of essential rights and will exercise the responsibilities that accompany
these rights.

We therefore affirm these propositions:

(1) It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest
diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox, unpopular, or
considered dangerous by the majority.

Creative thought is by definition new, and what is new is different. The bearer of every new thought is a
rebel until that idea is refined and tested. Totalitarian systems attempt to maintain themselves in power by
the ruthless suppression of any concept that challenges the established orthodoxy. The power of a
democratic system to adapt to change is vastly strengthened by the freedom of its citizens to choose widely
from among conflicting opinions offered freely to them. To stifle every nonconformist idea at birth would
mark the end of the democratic process. Furthermore, only through the constant activity of weighing and
selecting can the democratic mind attain the strength demanded by times like these. We need to know not
only what we believe but why we believe it.

(2) Publishers, librarians, and booksellers do not need to endorse every idea or presentation
they make available. It would conflict with the public interest for them to establish their
 own political, moral, or aesthetic views as a standard for determining what should be
published or circulated.

Publishers and librarians serve the educational process by helping to make available knowledge and ideas
required for the growth of the mind and the increase of learning. They do not foster education by imposing
as mentors the patterns of their own thought. The people should have the freedom to read and consider a
broader range of ideas than those that may be held by any single librarian or publisher or government or
church. It is wrong that what one can read should be confined to what another thinks proper.

(3) It is contrary to the public interest for publishers or librarians to bar access to writings
on the basis of the personal history or political affiliations of the author.

No art or literature can flourish if it is to be measured by the political views or private lives of its creators.
No society of free people can flourish that draws up lists of writers to whom it will not listen, whatever they
may have to say.

(4) There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others, to confine adults
to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to
achieve artistic expression.

To some, much of modern expression is shocking. But is not much of life itself shocking? We cut off
literature at the source if we prevent writers from dealing with the stuff of life. Parents and teachers have a
responsibility to prepare the young to meet the diversity of experiences in life to which they will be
exposed, as they have a responsibility to help them learn to think critically for themselves. These are
affirmative responsibilities, not to be discharged simply by preventing them from reading works for which
they are not yet prepared. In these matters values differ, and values cannot be legislated; nor can machinery
be devised that will suit the demands of one group without limiting the freedom of others.

(5) It is not in the public interest to force a reader to accept the prejudgment of a label
characterizing any expression or its author as subversive or dangerous.

The ideal of labeling presupposes the existence of individuals or groups with wisdom to determine by
authority what is good or bad for others. It presupposes that individuals must be directed in making up
their minds about the ideas they examine. But Americans do not need others to do their thinking for them.

(6) It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the peoples freedom
to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to
impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large; and by the government
whenever it seeks to reduce or deny public access to public information.
It is inevitable in the give and take of the democratic process that the political, the moral, or the aesthetic
concepts of an individual or group will occasionally collide with those of another individual or group. In a
free society individuals are free to determine for themselves what they wish to read, and each group is free
to determine what it will recommend to its freely associated members. But no group has the right to take
the law into its own hands, and to impose its own concept of politics or morality upon other members of a
democratic society. Freedom is no freedom if it is accorded only to the accepted and the inoffensive.
Further, democratic societies are more safe, free, and creative when the free flow of public information is
not restricted by governmental prerogative or self-censorship.

(7) It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians to give full meaning to the freedom to
read by providing books that enrich the quality and diversity of thought and expression. By
the exercise of this affirmative responsibility, they can demonstrate that the answer to a
bad book is a good one, the answer to a bad idea is a good one.

The freedom to read is of little consequence when the reader cannot obtain matter fit for that readers
purpose. What is needed is not only the absence of restraint, but the positive provision of opportunity for
the people to read the best that has been thought and said. Books are the major channel by which the
intellectual inheritance is handed down, and the principal means of its testing and growth. The defense of
the freedom to read requires of all publishers and librarians the utmost of their faculties, and deserves of all
Americans the fullest of their support.

We state these propositions neither lightly nor as easy generalizations. We here stake out a lofty claim for
the value of the written word. We do so because we believe that it is possessed of enormous variety and
usefulness, worthy of cherishing and keeping free. We realize that the application of these propositions may
mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons. We do not
state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather
that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is
fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours.
MODULE 6 QUIZ
1. (Requires Module 2) List the four steps of the reference process and give an example that shows
how the step might be carried out at your library. Explain how each step can improve the quality of
reference service to your community.

2. (Requires Module 3) Discuss how using the Model Reference Behaviors improves reference service
and list at least two examples for each of the following categories in the Model Reference Behaviors
Checklist:

a. Approachability

b. Comfort

c. Interest

d. Listening

e. Inquiring

f. Searching

g. Informing

h. Follow-up
3. (Requires Module 6) Describe in your own words how EACH of the following ethics guidelines
affects or applies to reference work in your library.

a. Statement of Professional Ethics

b. Library Bill of Rights

c. Serving All People Equally, Being Objective, and Treating All Questions Equally

d. Privacy and Confidentiality of Library Records

e. Freedom to Read