It's been a tumultous couple of days. But my experiences related to these incidents have helped me see things more clearly - professionally, ethically and personally.
Between yesterday and today I've had to make some professional, ethical and personal decisions. And I learned some valuable life-long lessons in the process.
What I learned over the past two days is that honesty is the best policy. I learned that needing to take care of myself is important and is valued by those who understand that taking on too much can be taxing and dehibilitating to not only self but others. I've reaffirmed that people are good, and understand when things don't go as planned. I've learned people understand that right now I'm a student first and an "everything else" second, and that sometimes academics and health (mental or physical) need to come first. I've learned that when you do the right thing - continously - people recognize that.
This incident may be the culmination of this busy semester, where I've committed to too much and a lot has suffered. But I really believe that what has happened over the past two days has been a great learning experience and is one that I will always remember as I move forward professionally, ethically, and personally.
So here's to a clearer head, a re-focus on what's important, and a better second half of the final semester of my first Master's degree.
And here's a huge thank you to those who've helped me learn these lessons.
Showing posts with label ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethics. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Friday, May 13, 2011
Another reason I love my field and the people in it
Librarianship is part of a professional field - the field of information - and while we have the ALA code of ethics it is often up to librarians themselves to to determine their level of professionalism. In any field this is a balance, but working at a large, liberal, academic library, there is a certain level of freedom in this area. However, professionalism comes with balance. In an attempt for a somewhat comical post today, I'll tell my story of how I balanced professionalism. But the story goes beyond that; it speaks to the good of librarians, the people who use libraries, and the amazing atmosphere of U of M and Ann Arbor in general.
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On this past beautiful Wednesday evening, I was participating in my recreational women's soccer league as I do every Monday and Wednesday in the spring, summer and fall. Three quarters of the way through the game, the unexpected happened. With my toe planted in hopes of scoring our team's first goal, a completely legal side check sent my quad to the left and my shin to the right, with my body immediately withering to the ground in black-out pain. Having played soccer for 12 years as a teenager, then taking a several year break before picking it up last spring, I was finally feeling strong and good on the field. So ironically this knee injury would happen now.
However, the irony continued. I not only live near one of the best research hospitals in the nation, but my primary care physician works in that hospital. And not only would I try to get an appointment with her that next morning, but I was already scheduled to be in the hospital that next morning at 9:00 sharp - for a website consultation for my job. Now, while my job is partially instructional technology, we don't often make office calls. It just so happened that I needed to be at the hospital that following morning, so I decided I would still do the website consult as long as it didn't overlap with an open doctors appointment. All of my friends thought I was crazy. "Why are you going to a work meeting - your knee is the size of a grapefruit?" "Everyone will understand if you cancel..." I agreed with them, but seriously, if I didn't already have to be at the hospital, I wouldn't have gone to the consult!
So I went. On the way to the meeting, I called for a doctors appointment. They had an opening at 9:30 am. Perfect; it was 8:35. I got to the hospital, where apparently you can just grab a wheelchair if needed, hopped into a seat, asked the volunteer where I could find the location of my consult, as he cheerfully wheeled me up. The appointment went just as planned and the woman I was working with even offered me coffee and a ride to my doctors appointment right down the hall. She really stood out as a person who was willing to help someone else out and helped me balance that work and life stuff that inevitably happens.
There was no good reason not for me to go to my consult; it was at the hospital where I needed a doctors appointment. But I wouldn't have been able to do both the work consult and the doctors appointment without good people. I know librarians are good people - wanting and willing to work with others when they need something - but this story is really telling of the people who use our services. This woman went out of her way to make me comfortable and help ME out, when - while it may have looked like I needed it - I could have been OK on my own. The people at the hospital were all so kind and helpful - making lighthearted jokes and offering to help. OK, so helping is their job, but the joking and caring tones are not in their job description.
---------------------------------------------
This all goes to saying that we learn things every day - I am learning what it's like to be less able. But the moral of my story is that it is wonderful to be a part of a city and University setting where people use their resources and their privilege for good. UM is such a large - yet small - community where what goes around comes around. Over the last two days, I've experienced that first hand, and couldn't be more grateful.
-------------------------------
On this past beautiful Wednesday evening, I was participating in my recreational women's soccer league as I do every Monday and Wednesday in the spring, summer and fall. Three quarters of the way through the game, the unexpected happened. With my toe planted in hopes of scoring our team's first goal, a completely legal side check sent my quad to the left and my shin to the right, with my body immediately withering to the ground in black-out pain. Having played soccer for 12 years as a teenager, then taking a several year break before picking it up last spring, I was finally feeling strong and good on the field. So ironically this knee injury would happen now.
However, the irony continued. I not only live near one of the best research hospitals in the nation, but my primary care physician works in that hospital. And not only would I try to get an appointment with her that next morning, but I was already scheduled to be in the hospital that next morning at 9:00 sharp - for a website consultation for my job. Now, while my job is partially instructional technology, we don't often make office calls. It just so happened that I needed to be at the hospital that following morning, so I decided I would still do the website consult as long as it didn't overlap with an open doctors appointment. All of my friends thought I was crazy. "Why are you going to a work meeting - your knee is the size of a grapefruit?" "Everyone will understand if you cancel..." I agreed with them, but seriously, if I didn't already have to be at the hospital, I wouldn't have gone to the consult!
So I went. On the way to the meeting, I called for a doctors appointment. They had an opening at 9:30 am. Perfect; it was 8:35. I got to the hospital, where apparently you can just grab a wheelchair if needed, hopped into a seat, asked the volunteer where I could find the location of my consult, as he cheerfully wheeled me up. The appointment went just as planned and the woman I was working with even offered me coffee and a ride to my doctors appointment right down the hall. She really stood out as a person who was willing to help someone else out and helped me balance that work and life stuff that inevitably happens.
There was no good reason not for me to go to my consult; it was at the hospital where I needed a doctors appointment. But I wouldn't have been able to do both the work consult and the doctors appointment without good people. I know librarians are good people - wanting and willing to work with others when they need something - but this story is really telling of the people who use our services. This woman went out of her way to make me comfortable and help ME out, when - while it may have looked like I needed it - I could have been OK on my own. The people at the hospital were all so kind and helpful - making lighthearted jokes and offering to help. OK, so helping is their job, but the joking and caring tones are not in their job description.
---------------------------------------------
This all goes to saying that we learn things every day - I am learning what it's like to be less able. But the moral of my story is that it is wonderful to be a part of a city and University setting where people use their resources and their privilege for good. UM is such a large - yet small - community where what goes around comes around. Over the last two days, I've experienced that first hand, and couldn't be more grateful.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
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.
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.
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