Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries

Citation

Heathcote, D. (2007), "Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 189-191. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330710742999

This is a disappointing book, the title of which implies a far wider treatment than the author herself intends.

She is explicit that the stimulus for this short book was the realisation that the “unique ethical dilemmas that face digital librarians in selecting, preparing, preserving and publishing digital materials are not addressed” by professional codes of ethics for librarians. Her intention has been to stimulate discussion of these issues. The question is whether it succeeds in fulfilling the author's intentions.

The ethical approaches of a handful of philosophers are very briefly outlined, followed by a discussion of codes of ethics, and statements of professional practice issued by the American Library Association, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Association for Computing Machinery, the American Society for Information Science and Technology, and the Society of American Archivists. While such codes tend to focus on the broad issues such as service standards, professional development, respect for intellectual property, and user privacy, the author argues that in a digital environment, new concerns over privacy, and sharper and more complex issues of intellectual property have to be considered.

The real problem is that the body of the book, dealing with institutional digitisation policies, collaboration with partners, selection of materials to be digitised, ensuring adherence to standards for record generation and software, securing funding from outside bodies or agencies, selecting and dealing with commercial agencies, digital preservation and digital library management, while making reference to ethical concerns, consists of broadly‐based treatments of practical concern and good practice. The context of the discussion is exclusively North American,

I must confess that my reservations about the author's treatment of these topics is not that it is not consisting of sound advice and advocacy for good practice, but that professional ethics is only one of several factors to be taken into account. Is the need to ensure accessibility to websites by users with special needs primarily one of ethics? Are we not already sufficiently aware of the complex issues arising from copyright, in the interface between legislation, licensing agencies and publishers' licences for access to content? Does a consideration of ethics offer a means of identifying appropriate answers to the real problems that are constantly discussed (and answered) in the UK on lis‐copyseek?

Adherence to standards, whether of metadata, file formats or avoidance of proprietary software, IS important of course, but are they not primarily matters of ensuring interoperability, transparency and the need to avoid technological obsolescence rather than ethical issues?

British librarians and information staff are accustomed to a raft of institutional policies and strategies on a whole range of matters, whether corporate strategies on information, IT, disability and so on, plus overarching strategies emanating from the Funding Councils, and on policies laid down by agencies funding digitisation. These both inform and guide the way that we proceed. In cases where a real conflict might arise, there is very likely to be an institutional ethics committee from which guidance can be sought. Of course, it is no criticism of this book that its context is wholly North American, but nevertheless it would appear that libraries operate in a policy‐free context other than the ethical concerns advanced by the author. Surely this is not the case?

I do not suggest that professional ethics are not important, or that in a digital world they are not of real concern. Privacy for users, of personal data, challenges from terrorist legislation, access by technology‐poor to information in digital form, are among many real concerns which need to be addressed.

But this book does not in my view make a persuasive case for the role of professional ethics as an aid to decision‐making in digital libraries. At the published price of nearly £40 for the paperback version, for 126 pages of text, plus bibliography and index, it does not seem likely to become a best seller.