Francis Kim R.

Tanay LIS-152

Reaction Paper No.9

Ethics and Libraries

Ever since we are a child ethics has already been imparted to us. From school to our
homes, our own moral compass was built slowly and as we grow old the ethics that we carried
had already been engrave inside our own hearts. Making this as part of ourselves and a
composition of our own identity.

Ethics, though its term is not really used in the early 1800s, the idea of having a
systematic code in an institution has already been thought. Why? Since every person has his/her
own principles, though there are general views about it there are still differences. Because of
that, an ethical code was proposed to have a guide for everyone on what to do when a specific
dilemma happened. Different institutions have their own sets of ethical codes, the same idea was
brought in a library setting. But upon its implementation of different organization, the ethical
code structured by the institution has also a dilemma to the staff and the management of a
library. In this paper I will tackle impact of the institutional ethics towards their libraries,
especially its staff and directors.

A survey was conducted upon library directors, here the researchers asked about their
idea and their institution regarding to ethics. Surprisingly, in the past 5 years, there is an
emphasis about ethics, and thus also increases the knowledge of the library directors. Though
there are still half of the respondents who said that they are only “aware, but not
knowledgeable”, the role of the institution to implement and train their staff about the ethical
guidelines are commendable.

Here I can say that the importance of ethics in a workplace inside a library has become
more and more evident. But it does not mean that there are no issue happening between the
institution and the staff. One issue that I can think of is that there are times when a structured
ethical code had already changed their staff’s own intuition or principles. Indeed, having a guide
is very helpful, but staff should also remember that guides are guides. There are circumstances
that we need to decide with our own principle, especially when rare cases happen. In addition,
the role of an institution in conveying ethical principles is very important. Training, seminars,
workshop and other more helps to educate their staff about the ethical dilemma that may
happened during their service.

For over several decades, the role of libraries in serving people, supplying their own
information needs and guiding each client to their own enlightenment has become the major
objective. But libraries also contribute to the ethics not only inside their institution but also
towards the community. Having a well-made guideline helps the staff to improve as well in their
own platform especially when facing dilemmas.

References:

Tooey, M. J. (M. J. ., & Arnold, G. N. (2014). The impact of institutional ethics on academic
health sciences library leadership: a survey of academic health sciences library directors. Journal
of the Medical Library Association, 102(4), 241–246.
https://doi.org.ezproxy.upd.edu.ph/10.3163/1536-5050.102.4.005