ALA Ethics, Mosley, and HarperCollins

ALA Code of Ethics
I've been thinking a lot about ethics this term, mostly because I'm taking a course on Ethics and Applied Policy.  I think this is actually the third class this semester for which I've been asked to read and review the ALA Code of Ethics - which is pretty cool in my book.  It shows that SI and the field of library science are very aware that ethics are important to being a professional librarian.  Overall, I find I agree with most all of the ethical statements, and believe they are necessary to upholding the rights of both librarians and users.  The statements of providing: a high-level of service; intellectual freedom; library users rights to privacy; co-workers and colleagues the appropriate level of respect and fairness; public interest not private interest, service that keeps personal convictions and professional duties separate; and professional development (participation in as well), all seem vitally important to our profession.  I've seen some of these in action, for example, in the February 2011 edition of the Ann Arbor Observer, there is a short piece in the UpFront section talking about fines and user's privacy rights.  In another case, a librarian at the UM wanted to pull what they thought was a vulgar material from the collection and found ways to disallow it from circulating (keeping personal convictions and professional duties separate).  In my relatively short library career, I've seen these ethical statements be needed to provide guidance on issues that are not always straightforward.  Which is basically what "ethics" is :)


Mosley: Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty
This article was particularly interesting to me because of my current and former jobs.  In my former job, I worked for the Director of some of the UM libraries and she was very focused on engaging faculty in the library.  This article shows one way to do it well.  Secondly, an issue that has arose several times in my current job is librarians working with faculty on assignments and providing direct support to the professors via ctools and in-person meetings.  Ctools now has a feature where the librarian can upload resources and access the particular relevant assignment.  Finally, I've actually been at the reference desk when these students come up with their library-integrated assignment.  It's interesting to read this article, then, because it appears Texas A&M has thought through their model and that it works.  Faculty often know the library for their own purposes but don't necessarily know how their students use the library.  Through a workshop like the one described, faculty can have an orientation about the library AND better understand their students.  Further, through librarian outreach, librarians can become integrated in curriculum (as was discussed a few weeks earlier in a different fashion), and can become a larger part of the campus. 

HarperCollins: Three Perspectives
Whew!  What an issue.  And these tough issues will continue to come - quickly - as the digital world changes libraries forever.  I chose to read three of the more generic pieces from this list since I (admittedly) did not read much about HarperCollins up to this point

Official HarperCollins statement: HC's official statement on Library Love Fest blog 3/1/2011, An Open Letter to Librarians
-Clearly HarperCollins knows they are in a jam - they wrote this letter on the defense, seeing that libraries won't be happy with their new policy.  While they discuss their reasoning, they do not provide hard statistics or numbers showing where they got their 26 uselife of books. While they do say that they've talked to librarians, they don't specify who, what, where or the topic of the discussions.  It's clearly problematic; the backlash justifies my statement.

Professional Organizations Respond: ALA Washington Office, 3/8/11,  American Library Association tackles new challenges in the e-environment
-ALA's response was entirely professional.  They've identified a solid, practical way to deal with this and how to keep their members informed.  I'm not an ALA expert, so I don't know the way they usually deal with issues such as this, but it was refreshing and uplifting to see their response.  They know that they need to take immediate action - and they have - and they know that it is their responsibility as a professional organization to inform their members and work for them.  Kudos.

Press: Library Journal, 3/7/11, Library Consortia Begin To Vote Against HarperCollins Ebook Checkout Policy
This piece was helpful to read because it not only gave an overview of the issue, but also relayed what some libraries are doing in response.  The statements by folks in the article show the way real people and organizations are dealing with this decision by HarperCollins.  That libraries have revoked their licensing to HarperCollins sends a very strong statement that they completely disagree with the fact that books expire after 26 uses and that they will not stand for a company supposedly committed to resource sharing to do such a thing.  The article is a bit biased, but it also raises issues of concern for the future.

My Thoughts
This whole thing is quite a mess - libraries already in funding trouble now are being challenged with providing users with what they think should be a given resource - one that is part of their future as a library.  How are libraries supposed to move into the digital age if more and more constraints are put upon them?  How are they supposed to survive (in the way they need to) if companies continue to restrict them?  This seems to be a game between public and private, with private holding the cards trying to make money off the public which has very little right now.  The companies need to survive too, but not at the cost of libraries.