The Ethics of Librarianship: An International Survey [Reprint 2012 ed.] 9783110956252, 9783598218316

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen Mem/tyHapoAHa« «DtAepaumi BHÖflHOTCMHbix AccouHauHfi h yipeacÄCHHtt

Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

I FLA Publications 101

The Ethics of Librarianship: An International Survey Edited by Robert W. Vaagan with an introduction by Alex Byrne, chairman of I FLA /FAI FE

Κ · G · Saur

München 2002

IFLA Publications edited by Sjoerd Koopman

Recommended catalogue entry: The ethics of librarianship: an international survey / [International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions], Ed. by Robert W. Vaagan. With an introd. by Alex Byrne. - München : Saur, 2002, VI, 344 p. 21 cm (IFLA publications ; 101) ISBN 3-598-21831-1

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme The ethics of librarianship: an international survey / [International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions]. Ed. by Robert W. Vaagan. With an introd. by Alex Byrne. - München : Saur, 2002 (IFLA publications ; 101) ISBN 3-598-21831-1

© Printed on acid-free paper The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48.1984. © 2002 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved Κ. G. Saur Verlag GmbH, München 2002 Printed in Germany All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed I Bound by Strauss Offsetdruck, Mörlenbach ISBN 3-598-21831-1 ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA Publications)

CONTENTS Foreword by Robert W.Vaagan

1

IntroductionEthics for a New Millenium Information by Alex Byrne

8

Argentina Argentine librarians, freedom of speech and ethical aspects of public service by Stella Maris Fernández

19

Canada Ethics and the Canadian Library Association: Building on a Philosophical Foundation of Intellectual Freedom by Toni Samek

35

Costa Rica ethics in Costa Rica Librarianship by Deyanira Sequiera

59

Estonia Collaboration between Estonian Librarians' Association and Estonian Libraries by Maije Tamre

81

Finland Professional Ethics — A Finnish Outlook by Kerstin Sevón

96

Iceland Librarians and information specialist ethical issues: an Icelandic perspective by Svava H.Friögeirsdottir Japan The Code of Ethics of The Japan Library

123 Association

by Yasuyo Inouye Lithuania Ethics — A New Challenge for Lithuanian

. 142 Librarians

by Vita Mozuraite

163

Mexico Librarianship ethics indeMexico by Rosa Maríaand Fernández Zamora and Martín Vera Cabañas

177

Norway Norwegian librarianship, ethics and ABM by Robert W. Vaagan

192

Russia The Russian Librarian's Professional Ethics Code by Julia P. Melentieva

209

Russian Librarian Ethics and the Internet by Irina Trushina

218

South Africa Librarian ethics in South Africa by Ramesh Jayaram

229

Sweden Roundabouts to the professional highway. On the development of a Code of ethics for Swedish librarians by Britt Marie Häggström

245

Thailand The Code of Ethics of the Thai Library Association by Khunying Maenmas Chavalit

265

Uganda Librarianship and Professional Ethics: The Case for Uganda by Charles Batambuze and Dick Kawooya

283

United Kingdom Doing the right thing: professional ethics for information workers in Britain by Paul Sturges

302

United States of America Trends of Library Associations and Ethics in the US by Wallace Koehler About the contributors

323 338

FOREWORD Robert W.Vaagan, Faculty of Journalism, Library and Information Science, Oslo University College Ethical considerations, not least the intellectual freedoms of opinion and expression, which are reflected both in the core values of EFLA and in the activities of FAIFE, have long been a concern for librarians and library associations.1 Following the creation of The Journal of Information Ethics in 1992 it is apparent that LIS research has also become more attentive to ethics. Thus The Library Bill of Rights of The American Library Association has been analysed in terms of ethical presuppositions in utilitarianism, natural rights theory and social contract theory.2 Despite this ethical awareness only in some countries have library associations or government agencies formally adopted written codes of ethics or conduct to provide recommended standards of best practice. Today as the information age unfolds there are many indications of a growing need for this type of moral benchmarking. As most of the articles in the present volume reflect, librarianship and the wider LIS field are facing various challenges where ethical considerations come into play. A shortlist of potentially divisive issues with ethical aspects would include globalisation, the digital gap between the information rich and poor, digital inclusiveness, commercialisation of information versus interactive on-line public services, privacy, authenticity,

confidentiality, trust and confidence in

cyberspace, censorship, copyright, intellectual property rights, grey literature, electronic filters and the consequences of The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Moreover, post-September 11, 2001 anti—terrorist legislation in many countries, which

1

is intended to target terrorists, also causes ethical concern that such legislation may threaten to restrict ordinary citizens' free access to information and freedom of expression. The relevance of ethics is becoming more apparent as librarianship and the LIS field are being reshaped, e.g. inducing several LIS authors over the last years to reaffirm the traditional values of librarianship as librarians go about their traditionally main task of cataloguing, preserving and transmitting the human record.3 Yet in the information age the librarian is increasingly cast as an information specialist. In consequence "ethics of librarianship" overlaps conceptually with "infoethics", as both the introduction as well as the contributions from the United Kingdom, Estonia and Iceland in the present volume all reflect. Based on UNESCO's planned global infoethics code to be launched in 2003, and the increasing relevance of infoethics, 4 it is reasonable to posit that ethics (under tables such as ethics of librarianship, LIS ethics, infoethics, cyberethics etc), will form part of the traffic rules that will apply to what some have metaphorically described as the global information superhighway of the new millennium.5 On the threshold of the new millenium it causes concern that we may have to accept information overload (infobogs) and information fatigue ("the IFS syndrome") as permanent features. 6 Also causing concern is the observation by some LIS authors that the theme of survival appears repeatedly in the LIS education literature.7 Of course LIS education cannot be exempted from the current reshaping of the LIS field. While some see traditional librarianship values as a remedy, others prescribe the acquisition of new information age skills, converting librarians into "infopreneurs", which raises other ethical considerations including those of the market place. Many, if not most, of the articles in the present volume support the view that LIS education should accord greater importance to ethics. This, it would seem, applies not least to countries which for

2

various reasons lack appropriate codes of ethics or codes of conduct. From this perspective the contributions from Argentina, South Africa, Uganda are cases in point. Also interesting are countries with partial solutions like Mexico (a code of ethics but only for Colegio member librarians with academic degrees) and Norway (a code of ethics but only for academic and special libraries). We now see that also mid-career librarians in many cases see a need for acquiring new skills in moral benchmarking: In Denmark (which lacks a code of librarianship ethics) a recent study shows that a clear majority of leaders of Danish public libraries want to gain new skills e.g. in value-based leadership (VBL), such as ethical accounting.8 The genesis of The Ethics of Librarianship: An International Survey can be attributed to the 11th Nordic Conference on Information and Documentation in Reykjavik 30 May - 1 June 2001. In my paper I addressed the issue of ethics in Norwegian librarianship. The ensuing debate provided me with valuable commentaries from a number of colleagues. This prompted me into bringing together colleagues from different countries to compile an international survey on ethics in librarianship. As further discussed in my article, the book evolved parallel with my work chairing a committee set up by the Norwegian National Office for Research Documentation, Academic and Special Libraries, to formulate recommended ethical guidelines for member libraries, a task completed in March 2002. Whereas the FAIFE Website currently lists the ethical codes of selected national library associations, there is a need for commentary and analysis of individual country cases, both those listed by FAIFE and others. The present volume is designed to fill that need: 12 countries with codes are included (Canada, Costa Rica, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, UK and the USA) as well as 3

3

without codes (Argentina, South Africa and Uganda) plus Mexico and Norway with their partial solutions. The 18 contributions (including the introduction which also sheds light on the situation in Australia) are all by experienced practitioners and academics representing all hemispheres. Most of the articles are by single authors but two articles (Mexico and Uganda) have been written jointly by two co-authors while one article (Russia) consists of two distinct contributions. In some articles where existing codes are either new, little known or not included in the FAEFE list, the codes have been included in the articles. This is the case with e.g. Costa Rica, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Thailand. Many of the potentially divisive issues shortlisted initially are discussed in the articles. Save for the introduction where FAIFE Chairman Alex Byrne has had a free hand, it was suggested to the authors that they concentrate their reflections on the unifying themes of historical

background, library

structure and organizational

considerations, constitutional and legal aspects, why codes of librarian ethics or codes of conduct have (or have not) been adopted, the impact of the information age on libraries and finally research and/or reflections on the impact which the codes (if any) are perceived to have had on library activity. As will be seen the contributions vary in content and detail, and each contributor has weighted the assigned issues as well as other topics somewhat differently, dependent on the author's interests, field of expertise and the regional/local context. While all articles deal with the historical development of libraries and the issue of librarianship ethics, some contributions are more marked by a troubled political past combined with a fresh enthusiasm for the future. Such, in my view, are the articles from Russia, Lithuania, Estonia and South Africa. Yet the future contains ethically difficult issues, as the introduction notes, and which the Canadian contribution links to post-

4

September 11, 2001 developments such as freedom of expression for employee speech in the workplace. Compared with the medical profession's Hippocratic oath all professional ethical codes are relatively recent phenomena. This view is bome out in all the articles. With the exception of the American Library Association which published its first Code of Ethics for Librarians in 1938, the codes discussed in the present volume were adopted in their first versions in the latter half of the 20th century: Canada (1966), Costa Rica (1974), Estonia (2001), Finland (1989), Iceland (1996), Japan (1980), Lithuania (1999), Russia (1999), Sweden (1997), Thailand (1977), United Kingdom (1983). An interesting observation is that the early creation of a national library association has been no guarantee for the early adoption of codes of ethics: As discussed in the articles from Japan and the United Kingdom, the first Japanese and British library associations were established in 1892 and 1877, respectively. Both countries waited approximately 100 years before they adopted ethical codes. Norway, whose first library association can be dated back to 1910, adopted recommended ethical guidelines in 2002, but only for academic and special libraries. The development and structure of public libraries, academic and special libraries and school libraries are well brought out in many articles. Most articles proceed from the assumption that librarianship is a profession, although this point remains open to some discussion,9 as e.g. the Swedish article discusses. The paper from the United Kingdom shows that both the profession and its ethics may alter when two previously distinct organizations merge, as in the case of the British Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Library associations and trade unions are the focus in the Swedish contribution, whereas the American contribution has a comparative perspective in its discussion of ethical codes in a broad range of library and information

5

organizations. Constitutional provision of the freedom of expression is taken for granted in many countries but the legalities are sometimes complex as the Argentinian article reflects. The various steps in the process of developing a code of ethics are highlighted in several articles, e.g. the British, Canadian, Finnish and Thai contributions. Perhaps equally interesting are the processes that underlie the lack of codes (at least so far) in Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Uganda and partly Norway. The impact of the information age on libraries and society is dealt with by all articles, and as will be seen also explains why there are two distinct Russian contributions.

But not all articles

identify, as does the one from Costa Rica, the digital gap as the primary ethical challenge in the face of globalisation. In terms of research all articles include references to relevant literature, which will be useful for further studies of individual countries. As for the impact which the codes (if any) are perceived to have had on library activity, each article, in my view, tells a unique story, and confirms the increasing relevance of ethics in librarianship and in the wider LIS field. I would like to express my thanks to all my colleagues and friends who have contributed to this book. Their professionalism not only considerably simplified my task as editor but helped bring together what we all see as a valuable, combined statement on the growing relevance of ethics to librarianship and LIS. M y only regret is that for practical reasons more countries could not be brought in. I hope the book will prove valuable for college and university level students and teachers of librarianship and information science, as well as for information professionals. I am particularly honoured that the chairman of FAIFE, Mr. Alex Byrne, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, has contributed on behalf of FAIFE an introduction to the book

6

NOTES 1

The terra "ethics" has a variety o f meanings but in the context o f the present volume it can be defined as

"the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group", cf. Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Gramercy Books, New York 1996, p. 489. For simplification "ethics" is used interchangeably with "morals" . 2

M. Frické et al (2000). "The Ethical Presuppositions Behind The Library Bill of Rights", The Library

Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 4, October 2000, pp.468^491. 3

Michael Gorman (2000). Our Enduring Values. Librarianship in the 21" Century, Chicago:American

Library Association; Ronald B. McCabe (2001^. Civic Librarianship. Renewing the Social Mission of the Public Library. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press 4

Martha Smith (2001). "Information Ethics", in: F.C.Lynden (2001) Advances in Librarianship, Vol. 25,

San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 29-66. 5

Manuel Castells (1997). The Information Age: Economy Society and Culture, Vol. Ill, p. 373.

6

Anne Goulding (2001) "Information Poverty or Overload", Journal of Librarianship and Information

Science, Vol. 33, No.3, September 2001, pp.109-111 7

Roma Harris, Margaret Ann Wilkinson (2001). "(Re)Positioning Librarians: How Young People View

the Information Sector", Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol.42, No.4, Fall 2001, pp.289-307 8

Nils Ole Pors, Carl Gustav Johannsen (2001). "Mellem New Public Management og vasrdiledelse.

Bibliotekledelse under krydspres", Proceedings,

Nordic Seminar on Public Library Research, 10-11

December 2001, Copenhagen:Royal School of Library and Information Science, pp. 159-169. ' Charles Oppenheim and Natalie Pollecutt (2000). "Professional associations and ethical issues in LIS", Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol.32, No.4, December 2000, p.188.

7

INTRODUCTION

INFORMATION ETHICS FOR A NEW MILLENIUM Alex Byrne, Chairman, FAIFE It is a privilege to introduce this important collection of papers on professional ethics for library and information services. This work brings together papers from many countries reflecting both the diversity and commonality of our professional concerns and our responses to their ethical dimensions. Common bonds of professionalism unite us in dealing with the challenges of a troubled world. Most dramatically in the past year, of course, was the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and its consequences.

But professional challenges for the year also included

initiatives to rebuild and strengthen the libraries of countries ravaged by conflict, continuing pressure to censor the Internet in many states and measures to muzzle access to information in too many countries.

The overarching concern remains

information inequality, the 'digital divide', the gross and growing inequality in access to information for the inhabitants of rich and poor states and for rich and poor within states.

All of these issues pose ethical conundrums for those of us who deliver library and information services.

We need to draw on our professional traditions, our moral

sensibilities and our commitments to the welfare of society in seeking to respond with wisdom and compassion.

Whether a school librarian trying to help a troubled

teenager or a documentalist dealing with records relating to the disposal of toxic

8

wastes, each of us needs to confront and deal with difficult dilemmas. We hope we are able to resolve those challenges to the benefit of both the people who are immediately involved and the wider community.

In the long and noble tradition of library and information work, we have maintained a commitment to conserve the records of human enquiry and imagination. In doing this we recognise and celebrate the interconnectedness of knowledge which transcends natural and national borders, lifetimes, and the tenures of kings and governments. Since the invention of the public library in the middle of the nineteenth century and the diversification of libraries into so many types and models, we have increasingly endeavoured to extend our services to the whole community. Sometimes we serve the residents of a region or country, sometimes the members or clients of an organisation or institution. In all cases we are professionally obliged to work to meet their needs as well as possible and in a disinterested spirit.

The recognition of librarianship and other occupations as professions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries highlighted certain key characteristics including a shared body of knowledge, a commitment to service to society and an agreed ethical foundation [1],

It later became important to codify the ethical expectations of

members of the profession, to develop an ethical framework which would be appropriate to the field. Such expectations began to be expressed in terms of codes of ethics which have moral force over the members of the profession. A code binds its members to do good, or at least avoid doing harm, in the practice of the profession. It might be enforced through legal or quasi-legal sanctions, although that is unusual in library and information services.

9

The obligation to the individual patient or client has been extended to a wider community whether city, state or institution. Following the Nuremberg trials after World War Π, the responsibilities have been extended to humanity in general. They have subsequently been joined by concerns to enhance environmental sustainability, resist social exploitation and ensure commercial and legal transparency, among others. The professional must actively contemplate the effects of his or her actions both for the client and the community.

Conflicting imperatives, particularly the

expectation to serve the client versus the expectation to serve the community, must be resolved against an ethical framework in which the general good has priority and disinterested practice is essential.

Nuremberg conclusively articulated personal

responsibility: we cannot excuse our actions as 'just following orders' nor as accepted practice.

Many ethical issues confront us in library and information service. The broad ethical requirements have traditionally included accuracy, comprehensiveness, obligations to the client, responsibilities to the community and the long term commitment to preserve the record of knowledge. To those, we must add the wider concerns mentioned above.

At the time of writing this Foreword, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic is proceeding before an international court in The Hague. He has been charged with genocide and related crimes stemming from the wars in Croatia in 1991 and Kosovo in 1999 and actions in Bosnia.

Libraries were destroyed or at least disrupted in all of those

hostilities but IFLA/FAIFE became involved particularly in the events in Kosovo

10

where it became clear that there had been a sustained campaign of 'cultural cleansing' which had started around 1991 [2]. It included the harassment of Albanian speaking staff, the removal and pulping of library resources in the Albanian language or dealing with Albanian culture [3], Reminiscent of the Nazi destruction of 'Jewish' books and 'degenerate' art, these actions sought to expunge Albanian culture from the Kosovo/Kosova region. The trial will determine Milosevic's culpability. For us, the question is the responsibility of librarians and libraries. What is the culpability of those library staff members who were directly involved in the decade long process? It was they who discriminated against their colleagues, they who identified materials for removal and organised their removal and destruction, and they who changed catalogue records.

Can they claim the Nuremberg defence, that they were 'just

following orders'?

What about those who were aware of the process of cultural

cleansing but stood by silently? Most of us were ignorant of those actions, should we have cultivated greater watchfulness? How can we ensure that such a pattern of events will never happen again?

These are big and challenging questions but they are not unique to the war torn Balkans in that unhappy last decade of the twentieth century. A few other examples will illustrate the broad extent of challenges to intellectual freedom concerning libraries.

In the long running political interference by National Front local government councillors in the south of France, many public librarians have distinguished themselves by resisting instructions to remove allegedly left wing materials from their libraries. Sadly, this has resulted in many losing their positions in those libraries.

11

Their resistance has been echoed in similar situations in other countries and notably in the United States where the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom provides strong support for those who seek to uphold First Amendment rights.

However, even in the United States there is a need to continually reaffirm the ethical responsibilities of library and information workers. In the wake of the ghastly events of September 11, 2001, authorities sought to limit access to information.

Media

organisations came under pressure to restrict the provision of information to the public.

Some claimed that uninhibited access to the Internet had facilitated the

attacks on the World Trade Center and other potential threats by making information readily available and providing a ubiquitous and easy means of communication. In the highly charged atmosphere following the attacks and during the preparations for the bombardment and invasion of Afghanistan, the PATRIOT Act [4] was passed and has since been emulated in other states. That Act significantly extended the provisions which enable a wide range of law enforcement and security organisations to monitor access to information by individuals.

In one incident, a library staff

member informed the FBI that a client of Middle Eastern appearance was a potential threat because he had sought maps of water catchment areas. The client's rights to access information and to privacy were not considered, nor the host of possible explanations for his interest in water catchment areas. It is especially in such somewhat hysterical climates that professionals have a duty to remember their professional ideals and commitments.

Concerns about the Internet have not, of course, been limited to its possible use by terrorists.

12

Many jurisdictions have considered the introduction of some form of

Internet censorship. In some cases, such as China, it has emphasised the security of the state and has been facilitated by governmental control of telecommunications. In other, more open, environments governments have sought to protect the community, and especially children by imposing penalties for the provision of access to 'offensive' material. The Children's Internet Protection Act, so effectively dismissed through energetic action by the ALA [5], is a prime example. Unfortunately, my country, Australia, was quick to introduce federal legislation which has made it an offence to host content which may be offensive and to provide access to content which may be inappropriate for minors.

Some of the states have enacted

complementary legislation in their jurisdictions. School libraries have largely been constrained to implement filters on Internet connections despite widespread understanding of their inefficacy. The national legislation introduced a complaints based regime but since its introduction few complaints have been lodged and fewer accepted [6]. This has indicated little community support for the regime or, indeed, concern about the issue.

Similar measures have occurred or been contemplated in

other countries. They are unlikely to be any more successful but their consideration raises serious issues for information professionals.

These are grave issues with which we deal. They underline the importance of our professional commitment to free access to information: "To promote the free flow of information and ideas in the interests of all Australians and a thriving culture and democracy", in the words of the first object of the Australian Library and Information Association [7]. It is a commitment which goes to the heart of societies which aim to provide the widest opportunities for their peoples.

13

This aspiration sets a high benchmark for professional conduct when it is coupled with ALIA's third object, "To ensure the high standard of personnel engaged in information provision and foster their professional interests and aspirations". And, indeed, ALIA challenges its members to participate as "members of a profession committed to intellectual freedom and the free flow of ideas and information" [8] with a shared set of core values [9]:

1. Promotion of the free flow of information and ideas through open access to recorded knowledge, information, and creative works. 2. Connection of people to ideas. 3. Commitment to literacy, information literacy and learning. 4. Respect for the diversity and individuality of all people. 5. Preservation of the human record. 6. Excellence in professional service to our communities. 7. Partnerships to advance these values.

In justifying these values, the free flow of information and ideas is claimed to be necessary to a thriving culture, economy, and democracy and to be supported by library and information services, which represent "a legacy to each generation, conveying the knowledge of the past and the promise of the future".

I have used these phrases because they come from my country and they offer a concise summary of our key professional values. But their inspirational sentiments are not bounded by the coastline of Australia. They express universal values, values which all library and information workers must hold dear. Although the words may

14

differ from country to country, culture to culture, they are not culturally contingent values, as I have argued elsewhere [10]. They are fundamental values which ensure that all individuals and all communities are able to maintain and develop their cultures and languages, express their opinions, and further their development.

Our

professional support for those values can assist students to prepare for their careers, mothers to intrigue and stimulate their children, and indigenous peoples to communicate their knowledge.

In 1997, when meeting in Copenhagen, IFLA established the Committee on Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (see FAIFE at http://www.ifla.org') which was soon joined by the FAIFE Office thanks to the generous support of Danish and other Nordic librarians and agencies. IFLA/FAIFE is a core activity within IFLA to defend and promote the basic human rights defined in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The IFLA/FAIFE Committee and Office seek to promote free access to information and freedom of expression in all aspects, directly or indirectly, related to libraries and librarianship. IFLA/FAIFE monitors the state of intellectual freedom within the library community worldwide, supports IFLA policy development and cooperation with other international human rights organisations, and responds to violations of free access to information and freedom of expression.

Its work has been described in many articles and reports

which can be found on the FAIFE website.

The current year, 2002 has seen two major events in the campaign to strengthen freedom of access to information.

15

On 1 May 2002, the IFLA Internet Manifesto

[11] was launched.

Through it, EFLA

asserts that:

•

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual both to hold and express opinions and to seek and receive information; it is the basis of democracy; and it is at the core of library service.

•

Freedom of access to information, regardless of

medium and frontiers, is a

central responsibility of the library and information profession. •

The provision of unhindered access to the Internet

by libraries and

information services supports communities and individuals to attain freedom, prosperity and development. •

Barriers to the flow of information should be removed, especially those that promote inequality, poverty, and despair.

It continues by establishing principles of freedom of access to information via the Internet and noting the need to develop strategies, policies, and plans to implement the Manifesto.

The second major event was the proclamation at the 75 th Anniversary of EFLA in Glasgow of The Glasgow Intellectual

Freedom

[12].

Declaration

on Libraries,

Information

Services

and

This important document highlights the inextricable

connection between libraries and information services and the development and maintenance of intellectual freedom, on the one hand, and the reciprocal core responsibility of the library and information profession worldwide to uphold intellectual freedom. Through pursuing its aims, libraries and information services

16

can help to safeguard democratic values and universal civil rights and promote the well being of all the world's peoples.

These key documents express the values discussed above. They underline the critical importance of a principled approach to our professional work, an approach which embodies and articulates the ethical considerations discussed in the chapters of this work. By engaging with the issues and adopting the principles into our professional practice we can extend ourselves personally and professionally and better fulfil our obligations to our clients and communities.

17

NOTES 1. Oppenheim, C. and Ν. Pollecutt, Professional associations and ethical issues in LIS. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2000. 32(4): p. 187-203. 2. Frederiksen, C. and F. Bakken, Libraries in Kosova /Kosovo. 2000, IFLA/FAIFE: Copenhagen. http://www.faife.dk/. 3. Frederiksen, C. and F. Bakken, Alleged destructions of books in Serbian in Mitrovice/Kosovska Mitrovica.

2001, IFLA/FAIFE: Copenhagen, http://www.faife.dk/mitrorep.htm.

4. United States of America. Congress, USA PA TRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism ) Act. 2001. http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html. 5. A L A , CIPA web site. 2002, American Library Association, http://www.ala.org/cipa/. 6. Australian Broadcasting Authority, Six-month report on co-regulatory regulation:

scheme for Internet content

January to June 2001. 2002.

ftp://ftp.dcita.gov.au/pub/media_attachment/six_month_report6_130202.rtf. 7. A L I A , Constitution of the Australian Library and Information Association Limited. 2000, Canberra: Australian Library and Information Association, http://www.alia.org.au/govemance/constitution/. 8. A L I A , Statement on professional conduct. 2001, Canberra: Australian Library and Information Association, http://www.alia.org.au/policies/professional.conduct.html. 9. A L I A , ALIA core values statement. 2002, Australian Library and Information Association. http://www.alia.org.au/policies/core.values.html. 10. Byrne, Α., Freedom of access to information and freedom of expression in a pluralistic world. IFLA Journal, 1999. 25(4). http://www.ifla.Org/V/iflaj/ilj2504.pdf. 11. IFLA, The IFLA Internet Manifesto. 2002, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. http://www.ifla.org/III/misc/im-e.htm. 12. I F L A , The Glasgow Declaration

on Libraries, Information Services and Intellectual

Freedom.

2002, International Federation o f Library Associations and Institutions, http://www.ifla.org.

18

ARGENTINA ARGENTINIAN LIBRARIANS, FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF PUBLIC SERVICE Stella Maris Fernández, Sociedad de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas Historical background To understand the librarian's panorama of the Republic of Argentina it is necessary to keep in mind that Argentina is a vast territory of 2.776.656 square kilometres populated by 36 million inhabitants according to the latest census (2002). Demographically, the population is concentrated in certain provinces and in the main urban centres, with a population density of 11,7 inhabitants per square kilometre. Moreover, the population is politically divided in 23 provinces. In this environment the librarian's movement has been marked by an educational economic policy that has not demonstrated or understood the importance of libraries. The lack of a librarian policy is noticeable, and library planning is not a part of educational and cultural planning. Adding to this, a permanent political uncertainty exists, with the orientation changes according to who governs institutions. Political positions are in most cases filled by people who do not understand or know the library profession, nor are they interested in libraries.

From the XVII century under Spanish dominance, important private libraries already existed on the territory that would become Argentina. In the XVIII century schools and monasteries of the Jesuit order had libraries that were passed into the hands of the Dominican and Franciscan orders after the Jesuits were expulsed. At the beginning of

19

the XIX century, in 1810, with the first national government, the first public library was built in Buenos Aires. In 1884 it became The National Library.

The first school of librarians was created in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires in 1922. This was also the first school of university level in Latin America. At present, there are in Argentina 25 schools of librarians, 9 of which are universities (7 official and 2 private). Two of the 16 remaining schools depend on the Ministry of National Education while the rest depend on provincial Ministries of Education. One of the features of this system is the irrational geographical distribution of the schools. Some are concentrated in one city and in one province, leaving areas of the country without schools of librarianship. This is indicative of the lack of planning and shows that the country is not considered as one organizational unit. It also reflects a failure to take into account the necessities of human resources. Instead, one responds to isolated, sporadic initiatives and political and individual objectives of the day.

The degrees granted by schools of librarianship are: auxiliary librarian, school librarian (2 years' duration), professional librarian (3 years' duration), bachelor, professor and doctor (the last three are at university level). The doctoral degree is conferred only by two schools. The master's degree has newly begun to be introduced, and is so far available only in one school but it is in the process of being implemented

in other

schools. Although the possibility of the doctorate exists, librarians seem not to be interested in it.

20

The education system in librarianship is characterized by a lack of uniformity in the study plans, in the number of subjects, in their denominations, in the intensity and number of courses that one becomes trained in, and in the demand of languages. This reveals that a clear idea does not exist on the basic nucleus of disciplines to teach, neither on the minimum contents required, nor on the professional profile that is wanted. The librarian's formation for public libraries is neglected. Meetings have been held between leaders and teachers of the university schools on many occasions to identify unified approaches as regards study plans. Yet the surrounding reality, specially outside the province of Buenos Aires, the economic problems and the lack of specialized human resources, as well as the lack of equipment, have in several cases blocked developments.

Permanent education does not accommodate planning and programming that includes the existing requirements of the profession. The latter depend on the availability of economic resources and specialized human resources to fill the institutions. This has the effect that the interests of institutions in university education as well as in professional associations are centred on technological aspects of education. Still, there are no concerted and cooperative actions among the different institutions with a view to avoid overlapping of efforts and to facilitate a larger range of possibilities and better use.

Research does not seem to attract librarians who limit themselves to daily chores, in the "metier" of librarianship. There are few appropriate stimuli such as economic incentives or diffusion of research through publications. Librarians are not trained to carry out research and there is in general little experience in research. In many universities

21

apathy, or economic anguish forcing people to hold more than one job, have even led to the suppression of the requirement of a thesis presentation to obtain a bachelor's degree. In consequence, Argentinian literature on librarianship is almost nonexistent. In recent years the following periodic publications came out: GREBYD /Noticias (Bulletin of the Centre of Studies and Professional Development in Librarianship and Documentation stopped being published in 2001);

Referencias Association of Graduate Librarians of

the Republic of Argentina, ABGRA, 1994); Boletín de la Sociedad de Estudios Bibliográficos Argentinos (1996);

Revista Argentina de Bibliotecología

(Argentine

Society of Information, 1998); Libraria, correo de las bibliotecas (Library of Congress, 1998); Infodiversidad (Society of Librarian Research, 1999) and Información, Cultura y Sociedad

(Institute of Librarian Research, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the

University of Buenos Aires, 1999). To these should be added some magazines from various provinces within the country, revitalized a little over the last years, namely Boletín de la Asociación de Bibliotecarios de Rosario - province of Santa Fe- y A.B.C, Informa (Association of Cordoba Librarians - province of Cordoba). There were, not long ago, two periodic publications, now nonexistent: Documentación

Bibliotecolögica

(Bahía Blanca, province of Buenos Aires, 1971, edited by the Centre of Documentation of the National University of the South, probably the most important magazine of the profession at the time) and

Bibliotecología

y Documentación

(1979), edited by

ABGRA - which reached only 10 numbers - in which works of great importance appeared. Unfortunately, one of the characteristics of this type of publication is its brief appearance. Even worse is the fact that the National Library does not fulfil its duty of compiling the national bibliography. In a sense this task was partly assumed by the Chamber of the Book. By an agreement celebrated on 25th June 1981 between the

22

Argentine Chamber of the Book and the Secretary of Culture of the Nation, the Chamber took over the tasks linked with the inscription and registration of books included in Law 22399/81. Said agreement establishes the obligation that every book edited in Argentina carries the ISBN printed, and an annual list of books of the immediate previous period is to be published.

With the purpose of rescuing what is published in the country, even when it is by areas, there are systems which try to compile what is produced in the country within a certain topical field. This is what the System of Information in Social Science, REDICSA, does with the publication of the Bibliografia Ciencia, Política,

Economía,

Sociología.

Argentina

de Ciencias Sociales,

Antropología,

This is also what is done by the National

Institute of Science and Technical Hidrics, INCYTH, with its analytic catalogue of the works produced by that body.

Non-governmental organizations try to improve this situation by lending their support to research, to permanent education and to contribute not only to the publication of their magazines, but also to the publication of research. NGOs such as the Argentine of Information

and the Society of Librarian

Research

research results. Other examples are the Argentine

contribute to the publication of

Society of Bibliographical

which also promotes actions of improvement, and the Association Documentalists,

Archivists

and Museologists

Society

of

Studies Librarians,

of Mar del Plata (province of Buenos

Aires) which was created in 1999. Contributions to the bibliography have also been made by The Bibliographical

Institute Antonio Zinny and The Bibliographical

Centre of

the University of Cuyo.

23

Library structure, organizations, professional unions In the country there are various types of libraries with different objectives and user categories: school libraries (corresponding to establishments of primary and higher level), libraries of public reading represented by the so-called popular libraries, and public libraries. The two last types differ in origin and maintenance form. Popular libraries have developed as fruits of the interest of the community, and they are run by members of the community through a fee that they contribute. The public libraries depend on an official body either at the national, provincial or municipal level, which is in charge of their administration. Children's libraries most often constitute a section inside the libraries of public reading. As for university libraries, specialized libraries and The National Library these have been commented on above. The Library of Congress was originally created to support legislators, but presently it has a hybrid character. Besides its first function it plays the role of a public library. Finally there are a number of documentation centres.

To assure a continuous flow of information and to solve the lack of bibliographical control ol literature generated in the country, units of information have been organized in nets and national systems that cover areas and certain topics of interest. Examples are the Net of Libraries of the Armed Forces, REBIFA; the National System of Educational Information, SNIE; the Net of Information in Social Sciences, REDICSA; the Collective Catalogue

of Manager Libraries,

CACOBE; the National

Net of the Planning

Argentina, RED NAPLAN, Argentina, the Federal System of Information for and Development,

of

Planning

REFIPLAN, the Net of Nets, UNIRED, formed by CACOBE,

REDICSA, NAPLAN; National Net of Information in Sciences of the Health, RENICS;

24

System of Libraries and of Information, SISBI; National Net of University Libraries', National Academic Net, (RAN), Internet Net Argentina, Argentine Centre of Scientific and Technical Information,

CAICYT, Net of the National Commission of Atomic

Energy, National Net of Documentation and Information in Administration·,

National

Net of Documentation and Information of Public Administration, RENDIAP; System of Information and Documentation of the National Institute of Agricultural

Technology,

SIDINTA, National System of Information in Agricultural Sciences of the Republic of Argentina, SNICA; National Institute of Science and Technical Hidrics, INCYTH; Argentine institute of Rationalization of Materials, IRAM, Vitruvio Net - net specialized in art architecture, design, urbanism-; Argentine System of Artificial Computer Science, Argentine System of Juridical Computer Science, SALT, etc.

The mid-XX century was a time of librarian boom in the country, characterized by the creation of different types of libraries and of librarians' schools in different locations of the country, by the organization of congresses and professional days and by the appearance of librarian associations. The first Argentinian librarian association was created in 1939 in the province of Santa Fe, although it quickly disappeared. At the moment 13 provincial associations exist, two of them denominated "schools" and one denominated "national" created in 1958. The latter is Association of Graduate Librarians of the Republic of Argentina, ABGRA, which grants membership to graduate librarians of the country with a professional training of minimum of three years' studies. The remaining associations have similar statutes and are characterized by low membership. They have sought to remedy this by not requiring members to have a professional title, only that you have worked in a library. As a result many have as

25

association

members

also

archivists,

documentalists,

museologists

and

data

programmers.. Low membership numbers mean that many associations do not have headquarters. Instead they use their president's residencies as occasional headquarters. Such associations have scant economic resources, they lack administrative staff, they have difficulties in organizing courses and congresses. They also lack a permanent organ of diffusion for their activities such as a bulletin or magazine. If these organs exist they are of limited circulation. These associations do not carry out cooperative actions with other associations but rather act in isolation. In contrast, ABGRA has a larger amount of resources, it has its own headquarters, a magazine, it carries out an annual congress - in 2002 the 36th National Meeting of Librarians will be arranged.

These

meetings were carried out previously inside the country on a rotation basis, which gave better chances of participation and of attracting librarians of the interior. In recent years the meetings have only been arranged in the city of Buenos Aires.

Other professional associations linked with specialized thematic areas include the Association of Biomedical Libraries also exist, the Association of School Libraries, the Argentinian Association of Computer Sciences and Documentation, and others. In recent years some regional associations have been created, such as the Association of Schools of Librarians of the South Cone, 1991, the Ibero-American and Caribbean Association of Education and Research in Librarianship, Science of the Information and Documentation, and Archive in 1996 and the Association of Ibero-American National Libraries, AB IN LA.

26

Constitutional and legal considerations. Freedom of expression Existing legislation on libraries and their operations is modest. In 1870, during the presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Law 419 was passed. Sarmiento was the great propeller of popular libraries, and besides encouraging their creation, he set up as supervisory body the Protector

Commission

of Popular Libraries. This law was

replaced in 1986 by the Law 23.351, which established the development and support to popular libraries. The law also modified the name of the supervisory body to National Protector Commission of Popular Libraries, CONABIP. This body secures a special base for its support through the proceeds of a tax on gambling, lotteries and other games as well as through private contributions. At the same time the law recommends the provinces to adopt similar laws.

The passing of this law generated in almost all provinces laws which made reference to popular libraries and/or to the creation of librarian systems and/or the creation of Provincial Protector Commissions, reporting to the Secretary or Undersecretary of Culture. These provincial laws were in some cases ahead of the national law because they helped spread a uniform librarian system composed of popular, public, school, special and even municipal libraries.

On 10th January 1936, the Ministry of Justice an Public Instruction (at present: Ministry of Culture and Education), by File n° 604, letter P, year 1936 entrusted the National Counsel Of Education (nonexistent nowadays because the schools are now dependent on the provincial governments and the government of the City of Buenos Aires) to establish school libraries and to provide regulations for their organization. Now that the

27

National Counsel of Education has disappeared, those regulations are not applied anymore.

School libraries are not included in any legal norm. The recent Law of Education 24.195 passed in 1993 does not mention them at all. This is also the case in the Law of Superior education, 24.521, passed in 1995. University Law 22.207 passed in 1980 includes the national, provincial and private universities recognized by the State. This is paradoxical considering that in 1886, the University Law called the Avellaneda Law, in its statutes dedicated the XIII chapter to the libraries of the Faculty.

A national System of Libraries does not exist, although this question was discussed at many of the Congresses of librarians and although a preliminary design of Federal System of libraries services of the Faculty was presented without success to the legislative power in April of 1996. There were many factors that bore on this decision: the absence of governmental librarian planning at the federal level, the disinterested politic power to support the development of libraries, and the lack of social conscience concerning the importance and need of libraries.

The country does not have explicit legal norms on freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is regulated by the Constitution, the fundamental Law of the Nation and it emanates through articles 14, 31, 32 and 33, all which refer, in some form, to freedom of speech.

28

Artide 14th 'All inhabitants of the Nation enjoy the following rights according to the laws that regulate their exercise, that is: to work and exercise all licit industry; to navigate and to trade; to solicit from the authorities, to enter, to remain, to travel and to leave Argentinian territory; to publish their ideas in the press without previous censorship; to use and to have their property; to associate with useful ends; to profess their beliefs freely; to teach and to learn.'

This article is reinforced by the following:

Article

'No inhabitant of the Nation will be forced to make what the law does not

command, neither deprived of what it does not prohibit'

Article 28th 'The principles, guarantees and rights recognized by previous articles, cannot be altered by laws that regulate their exercise.'

Article 31s' 'This Constitution, the laws of the Nation that, in consequence, are dictated by the Congress and treaties with foreign powers, are the supreme law of the Nation; and the authorities of each province are forced to conform to it, irrespective of any disposition to the contrary that are contained in the laws or provincial constitutions.'

Article 32nd 'The federal Congress will not dictate laws that restrict the freedom of print or establish federal jurisdiction to this effect.'

29

Artide

33rd 'The declarations, rights and guarantees that the Constitution enumerates,

will not be understood as negation of other rights and guarantees not enumerated, but as bom from the principle of the sovereignty of the town and the government's republican character. '

Why codes of ethics or conduct have not been adopted Argentina does not possess a code of professional ethics. The topic has not been discussed at meetings or Congresses, neither does specific literature exist. In publications that refer to librarianship in general or to administration, the topic is not considered. However, there are rules of ethical behavior in which all officials, and in consequence all librarians, are immersed. These rules relate to the environment of the Congress and a National Commission of Public Ethics looks after the execution of duties and obligations. Surprisingly, the Law of Education 24.521, mentioned previously when referring to university superior education, in chapter 2 refers to the autonomy and scope of institutions and affirms (in clause E) that university institutions should "Formulate and develop study plans, plans of scientific research and of extension and services to the community including the teaching of professional ethics as an autonomous subject."

The impact of information age on libraries The impact of the era of information is perceived to some extent in all the types of libraries of the country that use modern technological equipment, although the latest technology. The impact is without any doubt greatest in the specialized and university

30

libraries. These have received aid under programs such as the FOMEC (Fund for the improvement of university quality), the SIU (System of University Information) and the Net of University Interconnection (RIU). The general tendency is the creation of internets connecting existing centres of information and putting on-line the catalogues of each unit. Enhanced net communication unifies bibliographical wealth, and currently efforts are being made to improve technological equipment and develop an integrated system of administration of libraries (software), to form databases and train librarians and users.

Internet is now available in many libraries, university libraries, specialized libraries, the National Library, Library of Congress, the Teacher's Library and even school libraries of the city of Buenos Aires. In 2001 a donation by the Foundation Martin Varsavsky to the government of President of the Nation, Dr. Femando de La Rúa, allowed the initiation of the project 'Educate Gate'. This is a national state project based on three basic pillars: a gate of educational contents, a plan of educational training and a connectivity plan to apply first to secondary level schools and secondly, to primary level schools. The connectivity plan will facilitate the use of computers in schools and their connection to Internet, and also training. At the moment these plans have been interrupted as a result of changes in the government, and a new educational budget. The objective, however, was the computer training of teachers, parents and students. The success of the plan will depend on the number of connected schools.

Progress is slow, on the other hand, as far as the implementation and acceptance of the new and sophisticated services of the so-called virtual libraries are concerned. In 1995

31

the National University of Cuyo (province of Mendoza) created the Integrated System of Computerized Libraries, SIBI. Since then advances have been made towards the development of seamless libraries. These facilitate a dynamic and effective access to current information through connecting all types of material held in different locations.

32

BIBLIOGRAPHY Constitución de la Nación Argentina. Santa Fe-Paraná. 1994 Fernández, Stella Maris. Situación del sistema bibliotecario argentino. Sus falencias, sus aciertos, sus necesidades, propuestas para solucionar la situación./Parada, Alejandro. Hacia una teoría de la creación del Sistema Federal de Bibliotecas e Información (SIFEBI). Buenos Aires: Sociedad de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas 1998, 236 p. Fernández, Stella Maris.- Giunti, Graciela. Planes de estudio de las Escuelas de Bibliotecologia, Archivología y Museologia de Iberoamérica. Buenos Aires: Sociedad de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas. 1999, 193 p. Ley Federal de Educación. Ley 24.195. Ley de Educación Superior. Ley No 24.521 Lucero, Alberto Ataúlfo, Relator Mesas redondas sobre un Sistema nacional de Servicios de bibliotecas e información. Informe final. Buenos Aires, ABGRA, 1995. Penna, Carlos Víctor. Estrategias para la creación de un Sistema Federal de Bibliotecas e Información. Buenos Aires: ABGRA, 1997 Sabor, Josefa E.EÌ inquietante futuro de la bibliografia argentina Mar del Plata: Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Biblioteca Central. 1986 Sabor, Josefa E. La investigación en Bibliotecologia. En Reunión Nacional de BiBliotecarios 21a. Buenos Aires 7.-10 ag. 1985. Buenos Aires: ABGRA ,1985. 10 p. Sabor Riera, María Angeles. Contribución al estudio histórico del desarrollo de los servicios bibliotecarios de la Argenti Resistencia: Universidad Nacional del Nordeste 1974-1975 Zago, Manrique ed. Bibliotecas populares argentinas. Buenos Aires: Zago, 1995. Internet Asociación de Bibliotecarios Graduados de la República Argentina, ABGRA (http://www.abgra.sisbi.uba.ar) Biblioteca Nacional (http://www.bibnal.edu.ar/der.htm) Ministerio de Economia, Centro de Documentación e Información (http://www.cdi.mecon.ar) Comisión Nacional Protectora de Bibliotecas Populares - CONABIP (http://www.conabip.gob.ar)

33

Educar (http:// www. educ. ar) UNIRED (http://www.cib.cponline.org.ar:82/unired.htm) Universidad (http://www.spu.edu.ar)

34

CANADA ETHICS AND THE CANADIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: BUILDING ON A PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM Toni Samek, University of Alberta

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference

and to seek, receive and impart information

and

ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. — Excerpt from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19.

Introduction The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms "guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society." This charter directs that, "Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association. 7 It is within this philosophical context that Canadian library ethics exist.

In this chapter, the institutional framework of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) is used as a lens through which to examine library ethics in the Canadian context.

The

35

chapter's intellectual content is organized by the following five discussion sections: (1) the institutional framework of the CLA, (2) a brief history of the CLA's search for a Canadian library charter or statement of philosophy, (3) an introduction to contemporary rhetoric on Canadian library ethics, (4) a reflection on Canadian library ethics in an emergent global and digital society, and (5) closing comments. Throughout this chapter, references are made to American librarianship, as Canadian librarianship has developed in close connection with its neighbor to the south.

Institutional Framework of the Canadian Library Association In order to develop an appreciation for Canadian library ethics, it is necessary first to establish a sense of basic Canadian library philosophy. For the purposes of this chapter, the CLA's mission and values are used as a general reflection of basic Canadian library philosophy.

The CLA was founded in 1946 and incorporated under the Companies Act on November 26, 1947. CLA is "a national, not-for-profit, voluntary organization, governed by an elected Council and Board of Directors." Five constituent divisions comprise the CLA, respectively representing the interests of academic, public, school and special libraries, as well as library trustees.2

The CLA's mission is "to promote, develop and support library and information services in Canada and to work in cooperation with all who share our values in order to present a unified voice on issues of mutual concern." 3 It is worth noting that the CLA's mission

36

makes explicit reference to shared Canadian library values.

The CLA defines these

values as follows: •

"We believe that libraries and the principles of intellectual freedom and free universal access to information are key components of an open and democratic society."

•

"Diversity is a major strength of our Association."

•

"An informed and knowledgeable membership is central in achieving library and information policy goals."

•

"Effective advocacy is based upon understanding the social, cultural, political and historical contexts in which libraries and information services function." 4

The CLA make explicit reference to intellectual freedom.

And this chapter is intended to

show how intellectual freedom, which inherently includes the principle of free and universal access to information, is the foundation on which the CLA's ethical framework is built and shaped. The origins of this foundation extend at least as far back as the early 1950s.

Historical Background on Canadian Library Philosophy and Intellectual Freedom The CLA's big sister organization, the American Library Association (ALA), founded in 1876, adopted its first statement of library philosophy, the Library's

Bill of Rights, in

1939. As documented by Elizabeth Hulse in The Morton Years: The Canadian Association,

Library

1946-1971, a parallel Canadian library charter was first proposed by the

Ontario Library Association at the annual CLA conference in Toronto in 1951.

The

37

proposed charter was intended "to encompass the tights of the Canadian people with regard to library service, the responsibilities of libraries, and the duties of government." A special committee chaired by Dr. Gerhard R. Lomer of McGill University prepared a draft charter, of which a revised version was introduced at the annual CLA conference in Banff in 1952. The draft charter was referred back to the committee for further work. Hulse suggested that Canadian librarians of the day were perhaps "better at more downto-earth undertakings" because the charter project "soon lapsed." 5

In the meantime, however, Canadians' escalating concerns about obscenity in the early 1950s prompted the CLA to explore the idea of formulating a formal statement on censorship. In 1958, a newly appointed Committee on Undesirable Literature went so fajas to prepare a brief for the Senate titled the "Sale and Distribution of Salacious and Indecent Literature."

This brief served as an important caution to the professional

community to be wary of censorship as a "dangerous instrument which must be handled with the utmost caution and skill."

The brief also expressed the Committee's

dissatisfaction with the status quo method of the banning of books in Canada. In 1958, the CLA passed a firm statement "opposing recent proposals to incorporate a definition of obscenity in the Criminal Code." The Committee perceived such a definition in danger of limiting freedom of inquiry.6

Just as in the United States, where efforts to promote intellectual freedom were initially sparked by incidents of censorship, by 1961 the focus of the CLA Committee on Undesirable Literature had changed from censorship and obscenity to the more expansive

38

issue of intellectual freedom. 7 And in December 1961, two decades after the ALA's creation in 1940 of a Committee on Intellectual Freedom to Safeguard the Rights of Library Users to Freedom of Inquiry, the CLA Council and the Committee on Committees followed suit and formed a counterpart Canadian Intellectual Freedom Committee.8

The terms of reference for the Intellectual Freedom Committee were: "To examine to what extent, if at all, the communication of information, ideas and/or works of the imagination (through printed media) should be prohibited by law." Kathleen R. Jenkins (Chief Librarian, Westmount Public Library and a past-president of CLA) was appointed as Chair. Membership of the Committee was comprised of a mix of "writers, members of the reading public, publishers, book sellers, library trustees and librarians, all of whom [were] members of the Association."

The Committee reported directly to the CLA

Council.9

Initially, the Committee on Intellectual Freedom set to work planning both a statement on intellectual freedom and a general information campaign aimed at both the library community and the general public. John Archer, who chaired the Committee between 1962 and 1966, initiated the printing of both the ALA's Freedom to Read Statement and Library Bill of Rights in the March 1962 issue of Canadian Library.10

That same year,

the CLA's legal adviser warned that in his view the committee's activities were out of sync with its terms of reference. Archer, however, countered that he intended to spend his first year as Chair devoting his energies to raising the Canadian library community's

39

awareness of censorship issues in order to ready them for a formal statement on censorship.11

And under his direction from March 1962 to March 1963, four articles on

intellectual freedom were published in three issues of Canadian Library.'2

In one article

titled "This Freedom," published in the March 1963 issue, Archer eloquently observed that "Librarians are custodians of our culture and our freedom" and that intellectual freedom "is the sine qua non of a free society."13 This article, in retrospect, can be seen as a pivotal step toward articulating a Canadian library philosophy.

Over the next several years, the Committee on Intellectual Freedom continued its effort to develop a formal statement. Both English and French versions were prepared. Finally, following a pre-conference workshop on intellectual freedom in Banff in 1966, reported to be one of the most dynamic sessions in the history of the CLA, 14 a statement on intellectual freedom was passed by the 21s< Annual Conference of the Canadian Library Association - Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques in Calgary.15

This statement was the first documented Canadian library charter.

The statement

asserted, for example, that "Intellectual Freedom is essential to the health and development of society," and that "Libraries have a primary role to play in the maintenance and nurture of intellectual freedom." 16 Hulse observed, "Though arrived at through a different process a number of years later and expressed in a broader philosophical context, this statement was in some ways the charter of library rights that had been proposed in the early 1950s. It defined the place of libraries and librarians in

40

Canadian society, a society derived from a rich and varied racial, religious and cultural heritage."17

In March 1968, the CLA Council approved a decision to create two national library organizations. The CLA was to be the English speaking organization and the Association Canadienne des Bibliothécaires de Langue Française (founded as the Association Catholique des Bibliothèques d'Institutions in 1943 and renamed in 1948) to be the French counterpart.18 Over the next several years, the Intellectual Freedom Committee underwent various incarnations and was finally newly minted in 1973.

The new

Intellectual Freedom Committee soon became involved in "countering a campaign by the Church of Scientology to remove several works critical of it from libraries." Following a campaign of "data collection, consultation with association counsel, the issuing of an advisory memorandum prepared for the association by the committee, and an active media information" the Church of Scientology abandoned its censorship effort in the fall of 1974.19

This issue served to raise the awareness of the CLA membership that

intellectual freedom was a concern. The Intellectual Freedom Committee capitalized on this growing interest by drafting a new statement on intellectual freedom.

On June 27, 1974, the CLA adopted its Statement on Intellectual Freedom at the annual conference in Winnipeg.

In two years time, it was followed by an important sister

document, the Code of Ethics Position Statement, in 1976. Since 1976, as explored more fully below, the two documents have been inextricably linked.

Thus, historically,

41

intellectual freedom has been at the heart of Canadian library philosophy and its accompanying ethical framework.

Contemporary Rhetoric

The CLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom

On June 27, 1974 the CLA's Executive Council approved a new Statement on Intellectual Freedom, based on the 1966 statement.

The Statement on Intellectual Freedom was

subsequently amended twice; once on November 17, 1983 and again on November 18, 1985. It now reads as follows:

"All persons in Canada have the fundamental

right, as embodied in the nation's Bill of

Rights and the Canadian

Charter of Rights and Freedoms,

expressions

creativity

of knowledge,

thoughts publicly.

and intellectual

This right to intellectual freedom,

activity,

to have access and to express

to all their

under the law, is essential to the

health and development of Canadian society.

Libraries have a basic responsibility for the development and maintenance of intellectual freedom.

It is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions

of

knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some elements of society may

42

consider to be unconventional,

unpopular or unacceptable.

To this end, libraries

shall

acquire and make available the widest variety of materials.

It is the responsibility

of libraries to guarantee the right of free expression by making

available all the library's public facilities and services to all individuals and groups who need them.

Libraries should resist all efforts to limit the exercise of these responsibilities

while

recognizing the right of criticism by individuals and groups.

Both employees and employers in libraries have a duty, in addition to their responsibilities,

institutional

to uphold these principles. "20

In its final directive, the Statement on Intellectual Freedom assigns responsibility to the "institutional foundations" of the practice of individuals. 21

To support this rhetoric, in

June, 1974, the CLA Council passed a three-part resolution (subsequently carried by membership at the Annual General Meeting) outlining a series of measures that would ensure funding, legal assistance, and other supports for Association members who became involved in cases of "alleged infringement of intellectual freedom." 22

Part one of the resolution resolved that the CLA's Executive Director "be empowered to act immediately on the Association's behalf when cases of alleged infringement of the intellectual freedom of members are brought to its attention." Part two called for the

43

"establishment, funding and administration of a separate legal defence fund for the use of members of the Association who require legal assistance during their involvement in cases where their intellectual freedom has been infringed." And part three resolved that a collection of relevant materials on "intellectual freedom and its legal aspects in Canada" be made available in the Association's offices, and that, perhaps most importantly, "in the event that suit involving intellectual freedom is brought against any member or members, that CLA provide funds and legal assistance for said member." 23

The importance of this tripartite resolution cannot be overestimated.

As American

librarians John Buschman and Mark Rosenzweig have asserted more recently in another context, if librarians are "individually and collectively exposed to risk without adequate support, then the larger public freedom the profession seeks to protect is undermined." 24

South of the border, American librarians " threatened with loss of employment or discharged because of their stand for the cause of intellectual freedom, including the promotion of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of librarians to select for their collections from all the world's written and recorded information" can draw on the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund. 25 This fund, however, is not an ALA fund.

Currently, should a Canadian librarian become involved in a case of alleged infringement of her or his intellectual freedom, there are three key points to consider: (1) librarians in Canada are not legislatively controlled and protected, (2) most Canadian librarians are

44

under collective agreements, and (3) Canadian law provides many protections for workers in general.

Upholding intellectual freedom and combating censorship can be risky business.

And

because Canadian (and American) librarianship is unregulated, no librarian, library, or library Board is forced to comply with the directives in the CLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom. Thus library ethics come into play.

The CLA Code of Ethics Position Statement

At the 1975 Annual General Meeting of the CLA, one year following the adoption of the Statement on Intellectual Freedom, and the accompanying resolution on institutional support for Association members, the CLA membership recognized "the need for" a code of ethics. 26 A committee was created to prepare a draft code, which resulted in two documents, a code of ethics and a set of guidelines for employment practices. Ultimately, in June 1976, again at the CLA's Annual General Meeting, a Code of Ethics Position Statement was approved. It was subsequently reaffirmed in 1995 and reads as follows:

"Members

of the Canadian Library Association

responsibility

have the individual

and

collective

to:

45

1. support and implement the principles and practices embodied in the current Library Association Statement on Intellectual

Canadian

Freedom;

2. make every effort to promote and maintain the highest possible range and standards of library service to all segments of Canadian

3. facilitate

society;

access to any or all sources of information which may be of assistance

to

library users;

4. protect the privacy and dignity of library users and staff. "27

In its first directive, the CLA's Code of Ethics Position Statement underscores the ethical responsibility to uphold the Statement on Intellectual Freedom.

In theory, then, a

Canadian librarian must uphold intellectual freedom in order to fulfill her or his ethical responsibilities.

Furthermore, this first requirement subsumes the second directive

regarding equity (e.g., equal service for all), the third directive regarding access (e.g., universal access to all points of view) and the fourth and final directive regarding privacy (e.g. confidentiality). Equity, access, and privacy are core library values related to, and subsumed by, the ethic of intellectual freedom.

But in 1994, Canadian librarian Richard Ellis, in the most extensive critique of the CLA's Code of Ethics Position Statement to date, made a strong case for arguing that Canadian librarianship's self-identified professional jurisdiction, as embodied in its rhetoric, is both

46

tenuous and contested, especially where promoting and upholding intellectual freedom are concerned. The CLA's Code of Ethics Position Statement, he noted, is addressed to CLA members (a diverse group consisting of more than librarians).

"What ethical

guidelines of any substance," asked Ellis, "could apply to commercial suppliers of goods and services, library trustees, librarians, individuals interested in libraries and libraries themselves?"

The CLA's Code of Ethics Position Statement directs CLA members to "support and implement the principles and practices embodied in the current" CLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom.

But the Code of Ethics Position Statement is directed at CLA

members while the Statement on Intellectual Freedom is aimed at institutions.

With

respect to intellectual freedom responsibilities, Ellis argued, it is not clear who is being addressed.

Ultimately, then, the two documents fail to seamlessly complement, or

support, one another.

Although the ALA's Code Of Ethics is addressed to "librarians", Ellis found, it too is problematic. By addressing librarians exclusively, he asserted, the ALA's Code fails to address institutional responsibility. Moreover, he cautioned, librarians lack the kind of "control over the environment of their practice" that doctors and lawyers have. 28 Thus institutional guidelines for employment practices come into play.

The CLA Human Resource Management Practices Position Statement

47

In February, 1995, the CLA's Executive Council approved the following Human Resource Management Practices Position Statement aimed at library employers: "Within

the framework

of applicable

federal

and provincial

legislation

and

of

agreements with unions and employee groups, libraries should establish, maintain and distribute

current

written policies,

principles

with respect

to the

•

recruitment and selection of staff;

•

terms and conditions of employment, including hours of work, employment

status;

following human resource management

•

terminations; job analysis, design and evaluation;

•

compensation

•

salaries;

•

benefits;

•

48

practices:

•

•

and procedures

structures;

performance standards, performance

management;

discipline;

•

training, development and career

planning;

*

workplace health and safety;

•

labour relations, including collective

•

employee relations, including employee

bargaining; assistance;

•

resolution of workplace disputes and grievances;

•

access to and retention of human resource information

systems."29

Unlike the Intellectual Freedom Statement and the Code of Ethics Position Statement, the CLA's Human Resource Management Practices Position Statement does not explicitly address intellectual freedom concerns. However, intellectual freedom could surface as an issue embedded in a defined area of practice, such as discipline. In the United States, for example, a University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) librarian named Jonnie Hargis received disciplinary action after responding to a mass e-mail sent by a UCLA library system co-worker in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. The co-worker's e-mail cited a 1973 speech by Gordon Sinclair titled "The Good Neighbor."

In his

response e-mail, also disseminated widely on departmental lists, Hargis criticized the United States administration.

Library administrators encountered Hargis'e-mail and

asserted that it violated a library policy that prohibits e-mail messages to be sent to department lists. Hargis was suspended without pay from September 17 to September 21, 2001. The sender of the original e-mail, which was not critical of the United States administration, was not subjected to any disciplinary action.

This American library

example illustrates how intellectual freedom is an important issue for library workers, and not just for the public they serve. In North American librarianship, the recognition of the need to apply the principle of intellectual freedom to library workers, and not just their public, first emerged in the context of the 1930s progressive library movement in the United States. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, this discourse flourished against the backdrop of the politics and

49

culture of "Sixties" society.

Following two quieter decades, progressive library and

information studies discourse regained momentum in the 1990's. This recent momentum was sparked by the many social, cultural, economic, political, legal, and philosophical issues introduced by an emergent digital and global society. Library Ethics in an Emergent Global and Digital Society In 1994, Canadian librarian Richard Ellis observed that the Code of Ethics Position Statement is imprecise. "Generic goodness" and "best efforts" directives like the one to "maintain the highest possible range and standards of library service," he argued, lack tangible guidelines and require interpretations.30

Since 1994, this issue continues to

heighten in light of another of Ellis's assertions—that "a strong statement of ethics may assist the profession orient itself in a time of considerable stress and questioning."31

At present, the Canadian public is likely more familiar with the CLA's Statement on Intellectual Freedom than its Code of Ethics Pösition Statement, because the former document is the one that is most often referenced in library policies probed by the public (e.g., selection policies, meeting room policies, Internet access policies, etc.). But since their adoption in the 1970s, the Statement on Intellectual Freedom and the Code of Ethics Position Statement have been complemented by an ever growing number of CLA positions statements and endorsements, CLA briefs to government and government officials, and other CLA resources, such as toolkits and government documents. These CLA documents are designed to help individuals to interpret and contextualize the general language of the Statement on Intellectual Freedom and the Code of Ethics Position Statement and to apply it to specific issues introduced by an emergent global and

50

digital society.

These new thematic layers add to the philosophical foundation of

Canadian librarianship primarily in matters related to intellectual freedom (e.g., access, diversity, privacy, equity). And these layers are indicative of the number, range, and complexity of issues (often contested) that have, to date, faced librarians in an emergent global and digital society.

Examples of recent CLA position statements and endorsements include the following 32 : •

endorsement of the I FLA Position on the World Trade Organization

(January,

2002), •

Canadian

Guidelines

on Library

and Information

Services for Older

Adults

(November 2000), •

Canadian Library Association

Perspective

on the World Trade

Organization

Meetings (November 1999), •

Canadian

Guidelines

on Library

and Information

Services for People

with

Disabilities (February 1997), •

Internet Access (November 8, 1997),

•

Corporate Sponsorship Agreements in Libraries (June 21, 1997),

•

Copyright (November 5, 1995),

•

Information and Telecommunication

•

Library Service to Linguistic and Ethnic Minorities (June 1987), and

•

Citizenship Access to Information Data Banks - Right to Privacy (June 1987).

Access Principles (June 18, 1994), and

Examples of CLA briefs to government and government officials include the following:

51

•

CLA Response to the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues issued by the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate, Industry Canada and the Copyright Policy Branch, Canadian Heritage (September 15, 2001),

•

Canadian Library Association submission to the House of Commons

Finance

Committee - An Investing in Libraries: An Investment in the Nation's Information Infrastructure (September 11, 2000), and •

Brief Submitted to the Access to Information Review Task Force (June 1, 2001 ).

Examples of other CLA resources include: •

Internet Toolkit designed to assist libraries. Net Safe; Net Smart: Managing and Communicating

about the Internet in the Library. Paper prepared

by the

Executive Council Task Force, •

Internet Service in Public Libraries - A Matter of Trust,

•

Letter to Fidel Castro in support of IFLA's position regarding

independent

libraries in Cuba, •

Information Rights Week Proclamation and Suggested Activities, and

•

Government Documents on such subjects as the Digital Copyright Paper by the Copyright Forum (June, 2001), the 'Letter to Prime Minister Chrétien in response to Resolution 4.1 passed at the 56th Annual General Meeting related to the Access to Information Act, and An Assessment of the Impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services on Policy, Programs and Law Concerning Public Sector Libraries Study by Steven Shrybman (June, 2001/

52

Looking ahead, the CLA's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) Steering Committee intends to table a resolution at the CLA's Annual General Meeting for the membership to endorse an official CLA statement on GATS. This meeting will take place at the Annual Conference in Halifax in June, 2002.

The above examples of CLA documents developed to complement the Statement on Intellectual Freedom and the Code of Ethics Positions illustrate that, in recent years, the CLA has been an active agent of democracy, through its development and maintenance of intellectual freedom (and accompanying opposition of censorship), both in Canada and globally as well.

Closing Comments A comparative study of the CLA's Code of Ethics Position Statement and the ALA's Code of Ethics, performed by this author in January 2002, indicates that the American document has evolved to be more detailed as well as to draw special attention to recent social issues, such as intellectual property.

In this author's view, it is time again to

review the CLA's Code of Ethics Position Statement. This review should, at minimum, take into account Ellis' comments, the broad context of an emergent global and digital society, and a parallel review of the Statement on Intellectual Freedom. (Incidentally, the current Terms of Reference of the CLA's Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom include the instruction to periodically review the Statement on Intellectual Freedom.)

53

Perhaps most importantly, a new review of the Code of Ethics Position Statement and the Statement on Intellectual Freedom should be informed by a prior review of the CLA's mission and values. Contemporary controversies over Internet access, obscenity, and hate speech, for example, have heightened professional and public awareness of the importance of considering limitations to freedom of expression imposed by legislation. Controversies over global free trade agreements have highlighted the importance of understanding our ever-changing economic context.

And, of course, the events and

aftermath of September 11, 2001 have prompted the Canadian library community to revisit its basic ethics and core values under the guidance of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

On October 4, 2001 IFLA disseminated a press release titled "Terrorism, the Internet, and Free Access to Information" calling for the removal of barriers to the free flow of information, "especially those that promote inequality, poverty and despair" and urging the library community to "redouble" its efforts "to see free access to information and freedom of expression worldwide." 33 EFLA also called for respect and understanding of the diverse cultures of the world. Globally, the library and information profession is now grappling with challenging fallout issues such as social responsibility, library neutrality, censorship, confidentiality, patron records, preservation, library employee freedom of speech, legislation, and access to government records. Canadian librarianship, like that of any other nation, has a responsibility to this human rights agenda in an increasingly global society.

54

Canadian library ethics have been built and shaped on the philosophical foundation of intellectual freedom. This is as it should be because this foundation has provided the CLA the opportunity to play a democratizing role in society. This role supports the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19. The challenge for the future is how to strengthen the philosophical foundation of intellectual freedom to better support the weight of serious issues introduced by an emergent global and digital community.

To do so requires critical

reflection on the ethos of the CLA's mission, its values, its Statement on Intellectual Freedom, and its Code of Ethics Position Statement.

It also requires a vision for the

future that is informed by a human rights agenda.

Author's Note In this author's view, one of the most important ethical issues to track in the coming months and years is that of library employee freedom of speech on professional and policy issues. On the future horizon in the context of the ALA, is a vociferous call from library activist Sanford Berman (and supporters) for the ALA to add a seventh point directive to its Library Bill Of Rights (first proposed in March 1999), which reads as follows: "Libraries should permit and encourage a full and free expression of views by staff in professional and policy matters." In July 2001, the Committee on Professional Ethics of the ALA adopted a special explanatory statement of the ALA's Code of Ethics titled "Questions & Answers on Librarian Speech in the Workplace." The document states, "Through the Library Bill of Rights and its Interpretations, the American Library Association supports freedom of

55

expression and the First Amendment in the strongest possible terms. The freedom of expression, however, has traditionally not been thought to apply to employee speech in the workplace." However, in answer to the hypothetical question~"Since librarians have a special responsibility to protect intellectual freedom and freedom of expression, do librarians have a special responsibility to create a workplace that tolerates employee expression more than other professions?"—the document states, "Yes ... If librarians are denied the ability to speak on work related matters, what does that say about our own commitment to free speech? We need to demonstrate our commitment to free speech by encouraging it in the workplace." 34 Unless the ALA's Library Bill of Rights is amended, by the addition of the proposed seventh point directive, American librarians remain in a "catch-22" situation. Librarians in Canada, and everywhere, should closely monitor this issue, because it strikes at the heart of all that we do. Warm thanks are extended to my friend and colleague Dr. Alvin Schräder for his insightful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.

56

NOTES ' http://www.efc.ca/pages/law/charter/charter.text.html 2

http://www.cla.ca/about/historv.htm

3

http://www.cla.ca/about/niission.htm

"Ibid. 5 Elizabeth Hülse. The Morton Years: The Canadian Library Association, 1946-1971. Toronto, Ex Libris Association, 1995, 34. 6

Ibid, 51.

7

Ibid.

* "Committee On Intellectual Freedom" Canadian Library 18:4 (January 1962), 146. 'Ibid. 10

Canadian Library 18:5 (March 1962), 182-185.

11

Hulse, The Morton Years, 51-52.

12

Steven Horn, "Intellectual Freedom and the Canadian Library Association." Canadian Library Journal 35:3 (June 1978): 209-210. 13

John Archer "This Freedom" Canadian Library 19:5 (March 1963): 330.

14

Horn, "Intellectual Freedom," 210.

15

Canadian Library 23:3 (November 1966), 193.

16

Ibid.

17

Hulse, "The Morton Years," 52.

18

Ibid., 73-75.

19

Horn, "Intellectual Freedom," 211.

20

http://www.cla.ca/about/intfreed.htm

21

Richard Ellis. "Responsible Practice: A Review of CLA's Code of Ethics." Feliciter 40 (September 1994), 41.

22

"Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 26-27 June 1974, Resolution No. 15," Canadian Library 32:3 (June 1975): 208. 23

Ibid.

57

24

John Buschman and Mark Rosenzweig. "Intellectual Freedom Within the Library Workplace: An Exploratory Study in the U.S." Journal of Information Ethics (Fall 1999), 39. 25

http://www.merrittfund.org/

26

Ellis, "Responsible Practice," 44.

27

http://www.cla.ca/about/ethics.htm. Incidentally, the CLA has a separate code titled "Special Collections Interest Group Code of Ethics." See http://www.cla.ca/about/special.htm. 28

For full text of the A L A ' s Code of Ethics, see http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oifyethics.html

29

http://www.cla.ca/about/liuman.htm

30

Ellis. "Responsible Practice," 44.

31

Ibid., 41.

32

http://www.cla.ca/about/poslist.htm

33

http://www.ifla.0rg/V/press/terr0rism.htm

34

"Questions and Answers on Librarian Speech in the Workplace: An Explanatory Statement of the ALA Code of Ethics." Adopted July 2001. American Library Association, Committee on Professional Ethics.

58

COSTA RICA LIBRARIAN ETHICS IN COSTA RICA Deyanira Sequeira, National University Historical background Professional ethics has been at the basis of the librarianship movement in Costa Rica since the creation of the National Library. When the first university (Universidad de Santo Tomás, 1888) was abolished, the government decided to name the university library the national library. The National Office of Public Libraries was founded two years later, in 1890. The copyright law was sanctioned in 1896, and the National Library is today in charge of the register. The building of the National Library was completed in 1907 and was demolished after a new building was built in 1972. Three years later, a major reorganization of the library services was decided by the government, and the National Library together with the public libraries system are presently under one office at the Ministry of Culture. The Libraries General Office started to work in 1975, and many capacities of the National Library are diminished. Many important functions have been taken over by other government offices, the copyright register among them.

The codes of conduct were established and observed in the National Library under the leadership of prestigious Costa Rican writers and scholars. At that time, the University of Costa Rica library started to function and to join forces with the National Library and the Library Association to control the bibliographic production of the country and decide on

59

matters of personnel ethics and copyright law.

The ethics codes are among the regulations of the library and were reinforced by the Society of Friends of the Library founded in 1968, and the professional union (Colegio de Bibliotecarios) established on May 21st, 1974. A survey was conducted in the 80's in order to gain support for a large plan of public library buildings, but just a few isolated ones were built. Funds started to be more and more scarce when international financial institutions such as the IMF imposed very hard economic policies on the country. The education and culture areas of the economy did not receive much attention, and all the system of public libraries depended on the goodwill of their communities to function.

In the 80's the school libraries received attention and resources from the OAS, but this effort was not sustained and disappeared one decade later. In the phrasing of Castells no part of society can advance on its own, and we need the whole community to grow. Some efforts to build cooperation and networks to share resources in the university libraries had limited scope due to excessive regulations.

Library structure and organizational considerations There was a qualitative transformation of the University of Costa Rica in the 60's, with the introduction of the General studies and humanities as a requisite for entering any school or Faculty. The library had to expand and face new challenges, and to choose whether to centralize services and collections or to opt for a decentralized system. The first scheme was chosen and this decision had important ethical repercussions in the long run. In 1968, librarians who did not agree with a more authoritarian and centralized managerial practice

60

left the University Library. These librarians started a new project in another public university where they envisioned a movement toward liberalization, decentralization of collections, and training of personnel of rural areas of the country and toward a larger participation in the training of personnel in the Central American and Caribbean regions. This movement started in 1974 and made its impact felt in the professional union that was starting at the time.

A centralized and somewhat authoritarian library management on one side and a more autonomous movement on the other were competing for funding, and this obstructed cooperation and network formation. The Library schools tried to prepare the colleges through national meetings and conferences for the new network environment. These issues were at the basis of all the librarianship movement till the 90's when the strong influences of the globalization and the new information technologies changed the library scenery. When the new technologies entered the country, librarians had a very weak library union, were making isolated efforts in the specialized libraries of the country and, in general, were not ready for the enormous challenges that the networked environment imposed. The informatics and computers schools and personnel took the front row, and started giving products and services that belonged to the field of librarianship.

The X X I century starts with a renewed librarianship movement toward cooperation and integration because the scarcity of resources needed to face the challenges of the networked society makes it clear that cooperation and integration are the only possible solution. But Costa Rica as a whole has not yet with full force entered the Central American and Caribbean region to participate and support broader information projects

61

toward a larger integration and sustainable development. Some projects supported by universities in the Central American region did not succeed due to a lack of resources and due to political struggle, although some projects are being reinitiated in the XXI century.

Constitutional and legal considerations Freedom of expression is supported by the Costa Rican constitution since 1871, and lies at the basis of its democracy and civilized way of living. The difficulty is to determine the border line between, on the one hand, newspaper writings that are considered an obligation in order to inform the public, and on the other hand the extent to which such writings should be kept private out of respect for certain public personalities. The courts are deciding these issues on a case-by-case basis. There is a strong movement toward getting a code of ethics and rights of writers approved by the National Congress. The main issue at the present time deals with the intellectual property rights.

The Costa Rican legislation protects intellectual property rights for the creation of new knowledge in order to provide an incentive to undertake the effort, and to bring foreign investment to the country. But patents, trademarks, trade secrets, software and copyrights in a globalized context represent more the production of the first world countries while the underdeveloped countries are becoming the users who transfer payments to the first. Much of the knowledge of our people is received in the form of software and new technologies that become the property of transnational companies working in our country. These sell their products to the rest of the world. This state of affairs is not fair or ethical. From a social perspective it is important to disseminate knowledge at no cost in order to help the sustainable development of the so called third world. This is a fair issue.

62

Why codes of librarian ethics or codes of conduct have been adopted The professional librarians union (Colegio de bibliotecarios de Costa Rica) adopted a code of ethics in May 21st 1974, in order to have professional librarians working in the libraries, and to force the government authorities to give jobs to graduates from the new School of librarianship. Another issue was that the growing number of school libraries did not hire trained personnel and the union wanted to regulate that too. It was difficult to accomplish the latter, but after strong negotiations with the Ministry of Education, a program was established to train teachers already working at the school libraries.

In the 80's there were agreements with the Ministry of Education and the OAS to start training programs for Central American and Caribbean personnel at the National University. This was a very important issue because ethics was seen not only a matter of professional behavior but as a larger commitment: to face the solidarity and cooperation challenges of the region.

The impact of the information age on libraries In January 2000, the Global Economic Forum (Davos, Switzerland) launched the initiative called global digital gap. A group devoted itself to studying ways of bridging the digital gap on a basis of change and growth for the countries updating their technological and communications infrastructure. Since then, many sectors have participated in the initiative, including a former president of this country.

The initiatives of the global economic forums convened by the powerful G7, as we know, are strongly criticized. About the gap it is said that it is a digit-mania and that it is a

63

stratagem of the G7 in order to avoid facing more direct forms of reducing the debt of the poor countries. It is said that it distracts from the true poverty problems such as unemployment or the fiscal deficit. They think that the digital gap will end up separating the information owners from those who cannot access it, being unable to pay the intellectual property rights. It is said that being connected does not represent social, economic, educational, or political benefits, and that access to relevant information is not used to transform the conditions of vulnerability in which masses of population live.

On the other hand some think that those who really introduce changes in our development are the people with vision, energy and hope, and - with Castells - think that not a single sector must advance but the society as a whole. We think that ICT is not something to take to the poor but instead let the poor themselves decide which are the best forms to use them for their benefit.

The digital gap is a central problem in the information society and it cannot be obviated, but the information policies cannot rest purely on technical or economic aspects. They have to integrate ethical considerations that are at the basis of universal access to free, truthful and relevant information for all. To be connected to what? To be connected for what? It could be to participate in academic networks, or community networks, but it is also used in our country to connect to big gambling networks of no much use for the poor people of the country. Although Costa Rica is dealing with the digital gap in several ways, librarians are not fully aware that telecommunications and computers are the new tools of the job.

64

Universal access This requires a technological infrastructure that is under a government monopoly: electricity, telephone service, and Internet are services provided by governmental agencies that sometimes lack the capacity of innovation required by theses technologies. But society knows better and thinks that ICT is a strategic resource too valuable to be left to the caprices of the market. Other technologies important in rural and isolated communities are not entering the country yet, e.g mobile Internet connections. We have examples in our country of the efforts made to give Internet access to the entire population at no cost. The government has defined this access as a basic need. Other programs at the primary school level try to train students, although school libraries are not participating in the effort. The establishment of knowledge centers in the communities, tele-centers in hospitals and clinics, post offices or municipalities are waiting for leaders to take the initiative. There are examples of cyber-centers in poor countries as Jamaica, and mobile units in Asia, Internet coffee bars in our country, and a Lycos project to take new TIC to a Costa Rican rural area called Los Santos. There are cyber-bars in Europe of the East, and e-mail boots in India and Mongolia and the UN has set the goal to have universal access by the year 2005. This poses a big challenge to Costa Rican libraries which are not yet fully aware of all these possibilities.

Training and content The 4 billion pages of the Internet could educate all the population of the world. But training is required so that people can use information effectively.

The network offers contents mostly in English, and the government finds easier to

65

conclude agreements with the larger countries of the region to purchase foreign educational packages, instead of facing the challenge to train teachers so that they are able to place indigenous contents in the network.

Closing the digital gap implies having an information-trained population, and librarians should be helping to train a more imaginative, innovative, creative, and artistic labor force.

Online education The quality and relevance of the information delivered to the students, in a changing world, is of secondary interest for our Ministry of Education, which remains more worried about the number of days that teachers attend schools. The utilization of new technologies designed to create capacities and to train participatory citizens, is not a priority aspect in this race for quantity instead of quality in our education. These are ethical issues which the librarians face.

School libraries in private schools are taking the front row in the building of technological infrastructures that permit a different type of instruction, and to address the issues of going from transmitting information to the construction of knowledge. It will be necessary to decide on tactics and strategies to follow in the digital era, to experience more and to accept the challenges and risks of the networked world. Although one of the four Costa Rican public universities is called "distance university", on line courses are not a major goal yet. We still wait for:

a. An open university where all the courses (beginning with some) are online for any

66

Costa Rican or Nicaraguan or Central American of any age, sex or ethnic group. A university where professors wish to share their lectures, seminars, studies, and research with others, in order to increase the educational level of our people, so that they are ready for the digital era. b. A university network which devotes resources to the training of professors and teachers, so they can place their courses online and handle courses in the digital environment, that shares experiences and designs strategies of cooperation with other nations of the region, and designs tools for a diverse educational environment. c. It is said that our country already has Internet II functioning with 731 RDSI connections to 128 Kbps. We still have some way to go to cope with lines of 155 megabytes per second that support more technologically advanced educational programs. But we can take advantage of experiences that are carried out in this country in order to connect schools and universities through virtual classrooms and teleconferences. One example is the Lincoln School Project LAZOS which is networking several public schools in the country.

The informative and digital revolution presents a historic opportunity to the third world that makes it possible to develop their own productive and creative capacities to be integrated into the global economy. Closing the digital gap is a prerequisite for the creativity, development, and sustainability of our countries.

Impact of codes on library activity and society. The failure of policies centered on the market has attracted the attention of institutions, academics, and international organizations to ethics. In all fields there have arisen ethical

67

guidelines for professional groups, codes of ethics for specific fields of the knowledge. The teaching of ethics is promoted in the curricula of different university faculties, and the UNA invites Cardinal Rodriguez to give the inaugural lesson on ethical issues. So ethics is there, but it is necessary to include ethics in information policies if we want information to support

the development and the sustainability.

There are some difficulties in

promoting an ethical approach: specifically one that differentiates between the public interest and the private, between the need for participating in a market where profit is the main interest, and societal needs and values.

If we regard ethics as a search for values, virtues, and principles that people require in order to live together in peace, mutual respect, and justice, then there are few aspects of information that do not admit an ethical perspective. If ethics is that search for the truth, "the anticorniptor par excellence" which in the phrasing of Cardinal Rodriguez, puts the cause of humanity before the cause of the State, then information is a spade in this struggle for retrieving the truth and the credibility of our government and institutions.

However, we can begin to draw a map that includes aspects such as the digital gap, research, publications, online education, copyright, electronic trade, etc. If we think of competition, critical to stimulate the effective use of knowledge, or information needed in the labor markets and social safety nets, we start thinking of all the mechanisms that our society requires to retrain its labor force that makes our economy more competitive. We can also mention the financial markets, the brains of the knowledge-based economy, or openness to international trade that puts extra pressure on our producers to improve their performance. Information appears as it is: the strategic resource we have to promote

68

sustainable development. But general statements take us nowhere, and therefore it is important to design strategies that focus on our information policies and practice.

Cardinal Rodriguez says that policy is the art of doing the common good, and that the role of the ethics is to define what this good consists of. The Victor Sanabria Chair (CVS) at the National University points out that the search for truth and for the common good is facilitated through the participatory method, through a road that we all share. Information policies should then encourage the participation of the communities at all levels where decisions are made: the political parties, the municipalities, the clinics and hospital and the central government.

Even UNDP reduces ethics to a simple violation of human rights, forming a separate chapter from concepts of equity, inclusion, sustainability, etc. JA. Chaves1 does not underestimate the efforts to consolidate personal ethics, or to fight against the corruption of the institutions, but he stresses rather the need to include another dimension in the analysis of the economic policies, as a better method in order to achieve greater justice and equity. For the CVS ethics is played in all the processes, and the important thing is to create conditions of possibility so that the society achieves sustainable development. According to JA Chaves and Amartya Sen, development consists of a process of expansion of freedoms: policies, economic, social, safety. If we adhere to the presentation of both authors, information would be the instrument that supports these processes of search for freer beings but information itself has to be truthful and free. Here the role of the librarians, the teachers, or communicators (the info-mediaries) is essential, because they have to select better informative resources to deliver them processed to a public who does

69

not have time to carry out this colossal task. But they should go much further: utilize information rationally, following a method: identification of the sources, accessing them, understanding them, providing a context, and communicating them to colleagues. But if we wish this method to be ethical - according to the CVS - we should take into account other aspects.

"the ethical character is located and is defined by an emphasis in the process and not in the results, and it is guaranteed that a process is ethical when all interested parties to a problem are represented in the discussion and, when all the theoretical perspectives have been analyzed for all involved, and when the fundamental impact that such policies have on the social structure and on the environment have been

analyzed2"

Issues like intellectual property rights and many others that are related to the policies of information, could be analyzed following the participatory methodology proposed by the CVS. Only thus we can we make sure that policies are framed within ethics. Costa Rican Librarians have to find a balance through dialog and multidisciplinary approaches. Capacity building is a hard task to be accomplished in isolation. Sharing resources and knowledge through networks seems the right thing to do at the present. As managers of information, librarians should focus on using public finances to tackle poverty seriously, and to be aware that being efficient workers is not enough, it is also required that one is committed and able to work in a coordinated manner in relation to many educational, scientific and cultural organizations in the country and in the region. Costa Rica was represented at the Summit of the Americas held in Quebec this year. There, the Heads of

70

State agreed o n a declaration and agenda to connect the hemisphere:

"We, the democratically elected Heads of State and Government of the Americas, meeting in Quebec City, recognize that a technological revolution is unfolding and that our region is entering a new economy, one defined by a vastly enhanced capacity to access knowledge and to improve flows of information. We are convinced that the promotion of a Connectivity Agenda for the Americas will facilitate the beneficial integration of the hemisphere into an increasingly knowledge-based

society.

We share the goal of providing all citizens of the Americas with the opportunity to develop the tools to access and share knowledge that will allow them to fully seize opportunities to strengthen democracy, create prosperity

and realize their human potential.

Connectivity

will open new

opportunities to our society in all areas, for which equal access and appropriate training are necessary 3 ".

L e t ' s hope w e shall s e e m a n y active librarians c o m m i t t e d to this effort in the future. T h e f o l l o w i n g is the C o d e o f Professional Ethics approved b y the Costa Rican C o l e g i o d e Bibliotecarios. W e h a v e to insist o n the importance o f c o m b i n i n g it with s o m e strategies or procedures to ensure its e f f e c t i v e n e s s .

COLEGIO DE BIBLIOTECARIOS DE COSTA RICA4 CODE OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS5

CHAPTER I GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1.

Every librarian b e l o n g i n g to the U n i o n 6 is obliged to a c k n o w l e d g e the present c o d e and

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can not allege not to know it. 2. The librarian must be aware of his social and professional duties toward the users and the community and to collaborate toward improvement of the profession. 3. In and beyond professional activity, the librarian should maintain a behavior

in

accordance with honor, the dignity of the profession and the regulations of this code. 4. The Honor Court will classify the faults against this code, which are submitted by the Board of Directors, according to their gravity, and will present a judgement to the Board together with the sanctions for each case. All arguments and discussions of the professionals, whether public or private, must observe the ethics of respect among professionals, institutions and users.

CHAPTER Π LIBRARIAN DUTIES TOWARDS THE UNION

6. To acknowledge and obey the laws and regulations of the Union, and all the resolutions of the ordinary and extraordinary General Assemblies, all the resolutions of the Directing Board and to be faithful to this code. 7. To accomplish all duties acquired when entering the Union. 8. T o responsibly fulfill any job accepted in the Union. 9.

Not to use the Union for advertising purposes.

10. To responsibly collaborate in jobs which benefit the profession. 11. To be attentive to the Union in order to accomplish its objectives.

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CHAPTER III LIBRARIAN DUTIES TOWARDS THE PROFESSION

12. To enhance the profession by acting with dignity at every moment, adjusting to norms and not committing actions against professional decorum. 13. To maintain and strengthen public trust in the profession by means of professional efficiency and positive outputs. 14. To work with commitment to enhance the intellectual level of the profession and keep the professional ideals alive. 15. To keep in mind that librarianship and information sciences are professions with social projections which bear a strong relationship with the development of the country. 16. To assure that freedom of information is in accordance with information ethics. 17. To respect, and have everybody respect, the principles of librarianship and information sciences and to abstain from working in jobs that do not harmonize with the spirit of the profession. 18. To promote the professional recruitment of personnel with adequate capabilities. 19. At all times, to maintain cooperation with his peers and to stimulate relationships among other institutions and professional organizations. 20. To constantly renew and strengthen general and specialized professional expertise. 21. To participate in specialized activities similar to librarianship and information sciences that would benefit and broaden the span of the profession.

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CHAPTER IV L I B R A R I A N DUTIES TOWARDS OTHER MEMBERS OF HIS PROFESSION

22. To be loyal and show a strong desire to cooperate with his peers, keeping in mind that solidarity is an important element for growth and improvement. 23.

To share technical know-how and experience that can be useful to accomplish

professional tasks. 24. To support resource sharing and cooperation among their institutions. 25. To work toward integration of all the library and documentation services within a national information system. 26.

To proceed in accordance with the moral and social norms of living without

discrimination by ethnic group, nationality, religion, political views or socio-economic conditions. 27. To abstain from saying offensive expressions toward peers or from giving public opinions against the prestige of the profession, and to inform the Board of Directors anything that goes against the moral and ethical statements of this Union. 28. Whenever it is necessary to value the professional accomplishments of peers, to do so in a constructive manner, and express opinions with the only purpose of improving the profession. 29. Being cordial and well mannered at all times and behave with propriety in discussions that might surge among members of the profession. 30. To work toward cohesion among all members of the profession for the benefit of librarians. 31. To abstain from deliberately and falsely accusing any member with harmful intent.

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CHAPTER V LIBRARIAN DUTIES TOWARDS THE INFORMATION UNIT

32. An information unit is any library, documentation center, center of bibliographic information, learning resource center and the like. 33. To act with responsibility and to protect the installations and resources of the library in which he/she works or are related with. 34. To make accessible to society all the information and knowledge of the bibliographic collections, using professional tools and techniques. 35.

To make sure that the bibliographic collection is relevant to the interests of the

community served. 36. To behave with loyalty and cooperation toward co-workers and accept teamwork when needed. 37.

To refrain from using the Unit resources for personal benefit or in detriment of

services entitled to users. 38. Not to take advantage of the job to obtain personal benefit of any kind or enter into any kind of business using the institution's title. 39. To exert discretion on certain working or administrative matters that could do harm to the library or its employees. 40. To try to teach a sense of user responsibility towards the proper use of installations and library resources.

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CHAPTER VI LIBRARIAN DUTIES TOWARDS USERS

41. To give library services to all those who require them, without any discrimination or bias based on their ethnic, religious, political or nationality status, or as a means to get any personal advantage. 42. To give professional help to users and have them feel at ease within the library installations and free to ask for the information they need. 43. To refrain from spreading any private or confidential information related to the users that could do any harm. 44. To be aware of the intellectual level of the users in order to act accordingly when giving information.

CHAPTER VII LIBRARIAN DUTIES TOWARDS SOCIETY

45. To make accessible to society all the information and knowledge of the bibliographic collection, using the professional tools and techniques. 46. To try to build a collection that is adequate to the interests of the users community. 47. To strive to have an information unit that responds to the socio-cultural needs of the community served and thereby to achieve leadership among the rest of cultural institutions. 48. To consider the information units and their services as an important source of national resources and of public interest. 49. To make an effort for the library to effectively contribute to research activities involved

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in the scientific and technologic development of the society. 50. The librarians should make the library a dynamic element that supports the sustainable development of the societies, and also for the fulfillment of the democratic values, the freedom of expression and access to all ideas - a fundamental human right51. To conduct cultural extension activities.

CHAPTER V m LIBRARIAN DUTIES TOWARDS SIMILAR PROFESSIONALS

52. The librarian should strictly respect the rights of professionals from similar disciplines and carry on cordial relations with them and also demand respect for their own rights. 53. The librarian should give to the other professionals the minimum required information, and should not entrust to others functions that pertain to the librarian capabilities. 54. The librarian has the obligation to be courteous and kind with non-professional library personnel and give them guidance and advice, and not to take any type of personal advantage from his position.

CHAPTER IX DISCIPLINARY SANCTIONS

55. The disciplinary sanctions mentioned in the law of the Union (Colegio de Bibliotecarios) are to be imposed independently of the civil, job or criminal responsibilities involved. Therefore, neither a pending cause or a final trial by the common courts are obstacles to impose sanctions. But the statements made by the Union Honor Court, because

77

they refer to the internal system of this Union, could not be used as a probe in trials brought before the common courts. 56. Every fault against this Code of Ethics is to be sanctioned according to Chapter IX of the Union law. And the Honor Court can - based on art. 45 of that law - impose the following sanctions for violating the established norms: a- Private written warning. b- Temporary suspension of professional work according to fault, c- Expulsion from the Union and permanent suspension from professional work.

57. The sanctions are to be imposed according to the gravity of the actions, the violation of norms and its consequences following these stages: a- Private reprimand when the violation and its consequences are minor, b- Temporary suspension from 1 to 15 days when the violations are considered critical, c- Expulsion from the Union and permanent suspension from professional work when the violations are of extreme gravity.

When applying sanctions of the types "b" of "c" they should be published in the Official Newspaper (La Gaceta)

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NOTES 1 JA. Chaves. De la Utopía a la politica econòmica: para una ética de las políticas económicas. Salamanca: San Esteban, 1999. 2

Id.

3

CONNECTING THE AMERICAS. In: http://www.suminit-americas.org/Documents. Consulted on Feb. 27th, 2002. 4

Translated by Deyanira Sequeira

5 The present code is a revision approved by the Ordinary General Assembly on Oct. 2nd. 1991. The first code was approved in 1974. when the Union was established.

6

The term "Colegio" was chosen because the members did not want the name "union" at a time when that name had political connotations. They preferred a professional organization with the name "Colegio" which does not translate well as "College".

BIBLIOGRAPHY Camacho, Kemly. La internet, un gran desafío para las organizaciones de la sociedad civil centroamericana. San José, ago. 2001. En: http://www.acceso.or.cr/public/retos.shtml. Visited on Mar. 6th, 2002.

Castells, Manuel. The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture (Vols. I-III), Oxford: Blackwell, 1996-1998; 2nd edition, 2000

Chaves, Jorge. De la Utopía a la política económica: para una ética de las políticas económicas. Salamanca: San Esteban, 1999.

Martínez, Juliana. Entornos nacionales y acceso a la internet en América Central. San José, ago. 2001. En: http://www.acceso.or.cr/public/entornos/ Visited on Mar. 6th, 2002.

Sequeira, Deyanira. Bibliotecas y archivos virtuales. Santa Fe, Arg.: Nuevo Parhadigma, 2001. 149p.

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RELATED SITES Libraries: http://www.costarricense.com/esp/servicios_publicos/bibliotecas http://sibdi.bldt.ucr.ac.cr

Government:

http://www.mfoweb.co.cr/costa_rica/gobierno.html

Telecommunications:

http://ice.go.cr/asisomos/proyectos/proyectos.htm

Ethics: http://wTvw.jp.or.cr

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ESTONIA COLLABORATION BETWEEN ESTONIAN LIBRARIANS' ASSOCIATION AND ESTONIAN LIBRARIES Maije Tamre, Concordia International University Estonia Introduction The development of librarianship in newly independent Estonia has been revolutionary. While trying to reach their desired and established goals, libraries have faced difficulties mainly because of the economical, political or cultural conditions. Economical difficulties in Estonia have hindered the procurement of information resources at the modern level of information demand. The main reasons are the insufficient public procurement policy for library services, unresolved problems in library and acquisition policies and unsatisfactory national financing schemes that would support the integrated development of a library network. In spite of that, the library network is relatively stable, and forms part of the state informational infrastructure (Eesti riigi 1998).

In terms of the development of libraries in Estonia, the past decade can be described as a period of main actions and achievements, particularly the establishment of the Estonian Libraries Network Consortium (ELNET) (Eesti Raamatukoguvôrgu), the implementation of automated library systems and modernization of basic library work processes, the adoption of legal acts which regulate library activities, the harmonization of copyright law, the procurement of information resources necessary for the development and

81

consolidation of Estonian statehood, economy, science and culture, the creation of conditions necessary for the preservation of national heritage, and new developments in the conservation and digitization of library collections (Raamatukogud 2002).

Today there are 1,220 libraries in Estonia, 585 of which are public libraries, 542 school libraries, and 93 research and special libraries (Raamatukogud 2002). After the establishment of private universities in Estonia, the number of university libraries may grow (in 1993 there were 8 and in 2000 there were 13 private university libraries), since every university is legally obliged to provide access to library services needed in the learning and teaching processes (Nôuded 1999).

Research and Special Libraries in Estonia The basis for the operation of the library network is the work allocation between the libraries, which is based on collaboration and mutual agreements. In 1994 the status, principles of activities, levels of acquisition, and library obligations were divided among the libraries. In addition, 11 central research libraries were appointed.

Rapid changes in the development of Estonian statehood have brought about changes in the legislation. According to the new legal acts (Teadusraamatukogude 2002) the libraries must apply for the status of research library. The Minister of Education of the Republic of Estonia will decide by June 2002 the list of research libraries. This in turn will put academic libraries under an obligation to improve their work constantly.

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During the period of independence, international cooperation of Estonian libraries has shifted from the exchange of publications or bibliographic information and interlibrary loan to participation in international programs and projects (Raamatukogud 2002). Integration in international librarianship demanded the standardization of the rules for statistics, subject indexing, classification, and bibliographic description. It also required the adoption of ISBN and ISSN systems, the respective centers for which are in the National Library of Estonia (Eesti). The European information and documentation centers are located in the Tartu University Library (Tartu Ülikooli), Concordia International University Estonia Library (Concordia), and the National Library of Estonia.

Information technology is considered one of the most important factors that have influenced the development of academic libraries during the decade. Since 1999 the member libraries of the ELNET Consortium (Eesti Raamatukoguvorgu) have stopped updating the card catalogs and the whole cataloging process is now done electronically. Over ten years, the collaboration between libraries and respectable publishing companies and suppliers has been established. The limited budget and the growing price of research literature have made it important to determine acquisition priorities, organize the collaboration between the libraries in the field of collection development, like sharing resources. In the 1990s acquisition priorities were secondary information. Currently the priorities have turned to online academic journals and full-text databases. A good example of library cooperation is the license agreement of purchasing EBSCO full-text databases, where 12 libraries have participated. Initially, the project was sponsored by the

83

Open Society Institute in Budapest and EBSCO's project Electronic Information for Libraries. In 2002 it received financing from the Estonian State budget.

Public Libraries in Estonia After the administrative reform in Estonia in the 1990s, local governments started to maintain public libraries. In 1992 the Public Libraries Act of the Republic of Estonia came into force and it protected public libraries during the reorganization period, as the conditions for the establishment and rearrangement were stated by this law. Additionally, for traditional tasks, public libraries have extra functions, like the Internet public access points. In 1991 - 2000, 322 public libraries were renovated or moved into new premises. From year to year reader services have become more intensive: the number of loans, library visits, and people who visited libraries have grown. During the last five years, the catalog price of the books has increased more than threefold (Raamatukogud 2002). This is one of the reasons why the frequency of library visits increased 1.55 times during the last ten years, which has had an impact on librarians' daily workload. In order to respond to the reader demands and expectations, the state funds and local governments' budgets for library acquisitions ought to have been almost ten times higher. In order to help librarians with collections development, "The Recommendations for Public Libraries' Collection Building" has been worked out by the working group of acquisition of public libraries.

In 1996 an automation program of public libraries was launched at the state level, during the first stage of which the rural and city central libraries were supplied with computers

84

and a Finnish software program, Kirjasto 3000 (Vorumaa). Today there are many software programs that libraries use in everyday work. At the end of the year 2000, library software was used in 34% of our libraries. The central libraries in Tallinn (Tallinna Keskraamatukogu) and Tartu (O.Lutsu) joined ELNET Consortium (Eesti Raamatukoguvörgu) and made preparations to use the integrated library system INNOPAC (Raamatukogud 2002). The internetization of public libraries started in 1996, when the Open Estonia Foundation supported the opening of Internet public access points in the libraries. Currently, there are 215 public libraries with permanent Internet connection. According to the Public Information Act of the Republic of Estonia, all public libraries are to have permanent Internet connection by the end of 2002. The weakest part of the internetization project is the organization of Internet training for librarians which is not coordinated nationally (Veskus 2002).

School libraries in Estonia A school library network has not been finally completed in Estonia. After the Ministry of Culture and Education was split in 1996, school libraries remained under the administration of the Ministry of Education. At the same time, the decreed national and regional centers remained under the control of the Ministry of Culture, which was the reason why the school libraries system and coordinated management was entangled (Raamatukogud 2002). Today the textbook supply system is working satisfactorily in school libraries, although for basic collection development there have not been allocations from the state budget. Still, about 20% of Estonian school libraries have been able to become modernized study centers and provide comprehensive support to the

85

learning processes (Raamatukogud 2002). In order to help and support librarians in their work and protect school libraries, the Ministry of Education has issued an order, "The Principles of Work Organization in School Libraries," and a school librarian's handbook has also been published (Kurel 2002).

Estonian Librarians' Association The Estonian Librarians' Association (ELA) (Eesti Raamatukoguhoidjate) was founded in 1923 and reestablished in 1988. According to its statutes, ELA fulfils three goals: to support the development of librarianship, enhance the education of librarians and information specialists, and protect their professional interests. In 1989, 506 librarians were members of ELA; in 2001 the membership figure had risen to 716. Besides the membership fee ELA has also received financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia, which reflects ELA's importance in the society. Various committees, working groups and sections dealing with special issues are currently operating at ELA, involving about 200 active members (Raamatukogud 2002).

ELA has effective cooperation projects with academic and public librarians; one vivid example is the UDC tables translated into Estonian. Since 1993 a terminology committee has been working at ELA. The goal of this committee is to introduce and organize Estonian language terminology in the field of librarianship and information science in collaboration with linguists (Raamatukogud 2002). The result of this work is the terminology database that will soon be accessible the Internet as well.

86

ELA has also had a crucial part in the initiative of automation processes in libraries. The ELA's automation committee has grown into ELNET (Eesti Raamatukoguvôrgu). The working group on acquisitions is working on amendments to the "Legal Deposit Copy Act" in order to get guarantees that the publishing companies send copies of their printed matter to the legal deposit libraries.

The members of ELA represent ELA at different International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions' Committees and Sections (since 1989), and European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations. ELA takes part in international projects of Central and Eastern Copyright User Platform and Central and Eastern Europe Licensing Information Platform, etc. ELA enjoys especially good and supportive working relations with the library associations in Latvia and Lithuania, and also in the United Kingdom, Finland, and other Nordic countries (Raamatukogud 2002).

Code of Ethics of Estonian Librarians Informatization in a society raises new problems for all individuals, including librarians and information specialists. It is important to distinguish the roles that librarians need to fulfil in the new environment of communication. In addition, the moral norms and new requirements should be considered in the information society. The requirements for the profession of librarians also result from the changes in society. The changes in the roles of librarians and information specialists bring new challenges to the professional ethics, and the development of librarianship. When talking about professional ethics we think

87

about the moral requirements that should be followed by representatives of a certain profession. Individuals identify themselves through their profession and every profession has certain ethical norms and moral ideas, attitudes and special demands that apply to these specialists.

In Estonia, since the 1970s and 1980s, the problems of librarians' professional ethics have been in the focus of librarians' attention every now and then. In 1982, a paper on the methodology of librarian's professional ethics and etiquette of inter-communication was published (Raamatukoguhoidja 1982). In 1990-1992 courses on reader services and professional ethics have been organized (Raamatukogud 2002).

It seems that problems concerning professionalism and ethical behavior always become important during critical times in society when libraries have to prove their importance. Librarians were faced with dilemmas about valuing and protecting their profession. Although the discussions about and the need for the necessity of a code of ethics for librarians have been initiated several times, for some reason, the enthusiasm and the initiative have disappeared and the goals were not achieved. In 1999 the author was was chosen for the Library of Congress/Soros Foundation fellowship program, ELA gave her the task of obtaining information about the experience from American colleagues. The project of the code of ethics was initiated together with professionals in the C. Walter & Gerda Β. Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at the University of Illinois Library, where the necessary help and support was provided.

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In October 1999, the ELA Committee of Education initiated with the support from Concordia International University Estonia, a two-day seminar where the questions of library ethics were raised. The seminar was sponsored by the Open Society Institute in Budapest. The aim of the seminar was to ask Estonian librarians about their needs concerning a code of ethics and what a code of ethics should include. The organizers decided that a code of ethics could not be written in the office-silence in some ministry or in one single dominant library. It was important that every librarian, even in most distant village in Estonia, should be part of it and contribute to the code. So the participants of the seminar were from all types of libraries (public, school, and academic libraries). After having listened to presentations and the results of intensive group-work,

the

representative body decided it was the right time to start working on the text of the code of ethics. The seminar appointed the members of the working group whose task was to prepare the code of ethics according to the guidelines received from the seminar and organize appropriate discussion groups among librarians.

The library ethics team worked out the main principles of the code of ethics. They took into consideration the previous work done by Estonian (Helene 1969) and Lithuanian librarians (Raamatukogu 1999). Also, the principles of the codes of ethics of some other countries like Sweden, the United Kingdom, etc., were taken into consideration. It was understood that the code of ethics defines general goals and requirements for the profession and its responsibilities in society. The code is short and contains requirements that are the basis for professional behavior in the relationship between a librarian and a user (reader), in the communication with colleagues and the representatives of other

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professions. The requirements o f the code are the basis for all information specialists and do not depend on job titles or on employing institutions. In addition to the code o f ethics, the identity o f the profession is defined by the professional requirements (standards), where the requirements for qualification and competency are presented.

The draft o f the code of ethics was also given to experts from Tallinn Pedagogical University and Tallinn Technical University who made their comments before the release o f the final version. Their opinion was included in the text o f the code. The range o f the code o f ethics project was set as broadly as possible and every librarian who was interested in the problem had the opportunity to propose changes to the code for one whole year. Discussions about the text o f the code were held at several seminars and meetings. Librarians found the most disturbing fact in the text o f the code to be that it included general principles and that there were no precise norms and behavioral rules for specific situations. It seemed that concrete examples or ways to solve problems were expected. Still, the goal o f the team was to make a code where moral requirements and values were the basis for the professional action. The code o f ethics shows the importance o f the profession and its exclusiveness in society. The requirements for professional skills, standards for behavior and customary rules o f service, internal rules, and contracts o f employment will be compiled considering the field and character o f the job and special requirements. In these cases, the general principles o f the code o f ethics will also be followed (Rannap 2001).

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The

code

has

resulted

from

librarians'

and

information

specialists'

fields

of

responsibility. Librarians are responsible to society, library users, library or information center, and librarians, and also for the development o f their profession. Responsibility to society includes collection development, storing and access to resources. The code o f ethics determines responsibilities for users, which principles are orientation for users and services. The main principle is to provide the highest possible level and impartial services, to be tolerant and to have benevolent attitude towards all library users.

Librarians are expected to follow the requirements presented in the code o f ethics voluntarily. They will be evaluated in case o f undesirable behavior, damaging action, or not acknowledging moral requirements. It does not mean that they will be legally judged or other legal sanctions will be applied. Instead their attention will be drawn to their unethical behavior. Hopefully, E L A will never have to discuss unethical behavior. The fact that a profession itself is conscious of its ethical authority and formulates its code o f ethics is considered as the criteria o f professionalism. This is one way to evaluate even further the status o f librarians and information specialists in society (Rannap 2001).

Finally, the goal o f the code o f ethics is to give guidelines for ethical behavior and it should automatically reduce unethical behavior and exclude the need for punishment for irrelevant behavior. Still, the code o f ethics is not able to create miracles, no matter how precisely the requirements are written. The code o f ethics should be like a compass for proper behavior; it has to be popularized and accepted by professionals (Tallo 1999).

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Code of Ethics of the Librarians and Information Specialists of Estonia (Approved by the Council of ELA 14 February 2001.)

•

We are responsible for building, and maintaining the collections and for providing access to the resources, and via these actions we guarantee the fulfillment of the information need of our users and the preservation our cultural heritage for future generations

•

We provide open access to the global information with our well-organized book collections,

information resources

and services. By establishing

a

national

information treasury, we take part in international information exchange.

•

We provide the highest possible level and impartial services to all library users without any discrimination on national, racial, age, religious or social bases.

•

We acknowledge each person's, every social group's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information, and we protect intellectual property rights. We follow the laws, agreements and standards applying to our professional work.

•

We pay much attention and respect to our relations with co-workers and try to avoid everything that might hurt collégial relations.

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•

We love our work and value highly our professional dignity. We enhance and develop our knowledge and skills and follow the best traditions of our profession. Each librarian and information specialist is responsible for the future of our profession by giving personal effort to the development of the profession. Our professional competence guarantees the trust and respect of society towards the library and our profession.

•

Our relationship with the representatives of other professions is based on mutual respect and the willingness to cooperate.

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REFERENCES Concordia International University Estonia http://www.ciue.edu.ee (20.03.2002). Eesti Akadeemiline Raamatukogu [Estonian Academic Library] http://www.ear.ee/ (20.03.2002). Eesti Raamatukoguvörgu Konsortsium [Estonian Libraries Network Consortium] http://www.elnet.ee (20.03.2002). Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu [National Library of Estonia] http://www.nlib.ee (20.03.2002). Eesti riigi kultuunpoliitika pôhialused // Riigi Teataja / ( 1 9 9 8 ) 81 1353. Estonian

Libraries

on the Internet http://www.ee/www/Reference Materials/Libraries/welcome.html

(20.03.2002). Helene Johani : kirjanduse nimestik / L..Gasman, K. Laherand, I. Vesmes. Tallinn. 1983. 24 p. Kurel, Vaike. Kuidas elavad Eesti, Läti j a Leedu kooliraamatukogud // Raamatukogu Meres, Tiiu. Pilk peeglisse // Raamatukogu

(2002) 1 p.34-35.

(1990) 1 p.32-35.

Meres, Tiiu. Raamatukoguhoidja : isiksus ja elukutse // Raamatukogu

(1989) 5 p. 19-23.

Nöuded eraiilikooli j a era rakenduskörgkooli öppe- ja teadustegevuseks vajalikule ôppemateriaalsele baasile // Riigi Teataja Lisa (1999) 27 334. O.Lutsu nim. Tartu Linna Keskraamatukogu [Tartu Public Library] http://www.lut5.ee/ (20.03.2002). Raamatukogu- j a infotöötaja kutse-eetika: seminari ettekanded / Eesti Raamatukoguhoijate Ühingu koolituse toimkond, Concordia Rahvusvaheline Ülikool Eestis. Tallinn. 1999. 54 p. Raamatukogud j a raamatukogundus taasiseseisvunud Eestis: 1991-2001 / Anu Nuut. Tallinn. 2002. 238 p. Raamatukoguhoidja kutse-eetika ja suhtlemisetikett : metoodiline kiri / Hans Jiirman, Anti Kidron. Tallinn. 1982. 13 p. Raamatukoguhoidja kutse-eetika j a suhtlemisetikett: metoodiline kiri / Hans Jürman, Anti Kidron. Tallinn. 1982. 13 p. Rannap, Evi, Krista Talvi. Raamatukoguhoidja j a infotöötaja kutse-eetika. Raamatukogu Rannap, Evi. Raamatukogu- ja infotöötaja eetikakoodeksist // Eesti aastaraamat

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2000. (2001). p.88-90.

(1999) 6 p.37-38.

Raamatukoguhoidjate

Ühingu

Tallinna Keskraamatukogu [Tallinn Central Library] http://www.keskraamatukogu.ee (20.03.2002). Tallinna

Pedagoogikaiilikooli

Raamatukogu

[Tallinn

Pedagogical

University

Library]

http://www.tpu.ee/library/(20.03.2002). Tallinna Tehnikaulikooli Raamatukogu [Tallinn Technical University Library] http://www.lib.ttu.ee/ (20.03.2002). Tallo, Ivar. Kommentaar avaliku teenistuse eetikakoodeksile II Jurídica (1999) 4 p.164-167. Tartu Ülikooli Raamatukogu [Tartu University Library] http://www.utlib.ee/ (20.03.2002). Teadusraamatukogudele

ja

arhiiviraamatukogudele

esitatavad

nöuded,

teadusraamatukogu

ja

arhiivraamatukogu nimetamise tingimised ja kord // Riigi Teataja Lisa (2002) 13 163. Veskus, Meeli. Internet rahvaraamatukogus // Raamatukogu (2002) 1 p.7-8. Vorumaa Keskraamatukogu [Vôni County Central Library] http://lib.werro.ee (20.03.2002).

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FINLAND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS - A FINNISH OUTLOOK Kerstin Sevón, Ekenäs Public Library In Finnish society inherent Nordic values and norms on one hand, and international professional contacts through the years on the other, are factors that form present professional values. They are defined by professional organizations, mediated to some degree through education and more through practice, and are interpreted by members of the library community. In 1984-1988 general principles of library work were formulated, with limited impact. The growing crisis of the profession, and practical problems in everyday work, call for a new discussion on ethics and good practice.

Society, values and social change Professional ethics, which express the profession's norms and values, are dependent on existing values and moral concepts in society. Post-war Finland has generally been judged as pragmatic in its attitudes to the world. Throughout the years, many political leaders have quoted the words of President J.K. Paasikivi (President 1946-1956) about the acceptance of facts as the beginning of wisdom. Political pragmatism, partly as means of national survival, could be seen in the relations to the former Soviet Union. Practical politics also characterized the long process leading Finland to the membership of the European Union. On a macro level, society could be described as a stronghold of utilitarianism. Another dominant feature in the politics of the millennium shift is a wide consensus between the political parties. Accordingly ideologies play a minor role, and there is little discussion on principles.

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The post-war building of the Nordic welfare model was certainly rooted in the general idea of equality, but there were also strong utilitarian arguments for a common basic standard of living, good health and social care, and for giving all of a small population a possibility to a maximum development of their potential intellectual capacity, through a common, free system of education from primary school up to the university.1 I claim that the same pragmatism, which in many cases has proved successful when it comes to practical results, can be found on a micro level in the library field. Another national Finnish characteristic is said to be a weakness for modernity, which can be seen in the quick acceptance of new technology through the past century whenever it occurred. This has been vital for the development of the library system. In the European Union (EU) Finland soon became something of a laboratory for the information society.

Laws are based on common agreement and they mirror the general conception of justice in society. The Republic has a constitution based on Nordic values and legal tradition. There is also a deeply rooted tradition of respect for proper legal forms by both authorities and citizens, which goes back to the struggle for a constitution under the more than a hundred years of Russian rule2. In recent studies Finland, together with Denmark, ranks first among the states with regard to lack of corruption. There is a long list of membership in international organizations and this binds Finland to follow treaties, rules and recommendations set by for instance UNESCO and the European Council. Long before becoming a full member of the European Union, which happened in1995, Finland started to harmonize its legislation with that of the European Community and the EU. This was done on a Nordic basis within the Nordic Council.

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In matters of administrative openness, copyright and other fields, vital for library and information work, Finland has been active inside the EU. In common interest with other Nordic countries, Finnish representatives work for openness and better public control of the Union. The membership has brought changes to the national agenda, primarily concerning copyright, which had another starting point in previous national legislation, not duplication of works but focus on the author, and on general agreements for the lending right. The new solutions have not altogether been in the line of the libraries but more of the production and distribution side - and not automatically to benefit the author or public interest.

Basic civil rights, like the inviolability of human dignity, the right of the individual to participate in and exert influence on the development of society, equality before the law, and freedom of expression and right to access of information are stated in the Finnish constitution: "Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information opinions and other communications without prior invention by anyone." 3 The right to access to information is expressed in the Constitution as follows: " Documents and recordings in the possession of the authorities are public, unless their publication has for compelling reasons been specifically restricted by an Act. Everyone has the right to access to public documents and recordings." 4 The idea was developed further with a new Act on public information in the 1990's, where the local administration is given the task to inform citizens actively on public matters even before decisions are made. There are educational rights, and the rights to language and culture. There are two official

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languages, Finnish and Swedish, and special legislation for the rights o f the Sami, as an indigenous people.

Religion plays a fundamental role for the value base o f a nation. Finland can be characterized as secularised, although the vast majority o f the population, about 86% (1997), are members o f the Lutheran Church, and 1% o f the Greek Orthodox Church. There is a strong sense o f work moral, which can be traced back to the old protestant virtues. When unemployment spread due to structural changes in the 1990's, it meant more than loss o f income to many people. They did not just feel the loss o f professional identity, but their human dignity was somehow affected.

With an interval o f ten years, sociologie surveys are made o f citizens' general conditions, attitudes and life style5. These studies are a good mirror of the changes society has experienced in addition to what mere statistics can tell. The sociologist J.P. Roos relates the various attitudes and life styles that were revealed more to generations, formed by the circumstances during historic periods, than to social groups or income. The first one is the generation o f wars and shortage, bom in the beginning o f the 20th Century with great grandchildren today, which adopted an ascetic and economical lifestyle. The next one is the generation o f rebuilding and upswing, born in the

1920's

and

1930's

and

likely

to

be

grandparents

by

now.

For

them,

entrepreneurship and settlers' spirit were typical. The large group bom under World War II or soon after, experienced a quick rise in the general living standard and movement from rural to urban surroundings. Social mobility within this group was frequent and likely a result o f a general educational reform. This generation saw itself

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as an agent of change in the 1960's and 70's, but since revolutionary forerunners have become part of the present establishment.6

The next generation, bom in the 1950's or after, are often characterized as individualistic consumers. Before the economic crisis in the 1990's, the assumption by Robert Inglehart from the 70's, that less materialistic and softer values would grow stronger, seemed to come true with those under 35. But research on attitudes do not sufficiently support the tum towards a new, post materialistic culture with a stronger sense of morals, and a more critical attitude towards consumption society.7 Anita Rubin's investigation of young people's expectations for the future shows rather conservative attitudes and expectations: For their own lives they do not expect any great changes from life today, traditional values will last, although they tend to picture the future in dark colours with pollution and other threats to society and life in general.8

Libraries and their roots A well-developed library system is an acknowledged part of the Finnish information society. It realized shareware in a network long before the internet. The library is seen as a common good, a manifestation of the welfare state and of a covering education system for lifelong learning. Not only public libraries but also university and special libraries are open to the general public. National pioneers were inspired by AngloAmerican ideas in the first decade of the 20th century.9 One of these, Einar Holmberg, went for a study tour to the U.S.A. in 1910 and reported with enthusiasm about free access to books from open shelves, good premises, story telling to children, cooperation with schools, interlibrary loans, long opening hours, efficient cataloguing,

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branch libraries, exhibitions and lectures. The librarian was no longer a rigid guardian of books, but an active force in society. Holmberg, who then was employed as a library consultant by a society for public primary schools, and later became director of a university library, already saw the need for a proactive professional role with the task, not just of meeting existing needs of literature, but also to awake and develop them.10 If the terminology would be slightly changed to include information needs, with reference to information skills and lifelong learning, it would be all right for today. The most prominent creator of the national public library system, Helle Kannila, who was inspired by Holmberg, would recognize much the same ideas today that she propagated for already in the 20's.

Society changed dramatically around the previous centenary shift. In 1906 there was a total reform of parliament from four chambers to one, with universal suffrage, although Finland was still a grand duchy under Russia. The idea of all citizens' participation in decision making of common interest was to be put into practice. The tradition of unbiased openness, which is part of the success story of libraries that followed later, was rooted already around 1910 in arguments for absolute impartiality concerning lingual, political and other matters: "Every class and every opinion must be able to confide in the library without fear for any guardianship. It cannot be the task of a library for instance to foster conservative or liberal citizens, but if possible create good conservative and good liberal ones."11 This was before the civil war in 1918, which took place after the declaration of independence from Russia in 1917, and socialism is not even mentioned as an alternative political movement, although it certainly had entered the national scene.

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Libraries for higher education and research grew with the universities and other institutions and primarily serve the purposes of their parent organization. They are, however, also open to the general public and their catalogues are accessible online and their collections through interlibrary loans. Information exchange is effective through use of a common computer system and digitization projects. A network of public libraries covers all municipalities in the country. Their basic services, including access to electronic information, are free of charge by law. As a result of a conscious policy the degree of automation (covering 99% of the municipalities in the year 2000) and access to electronic information, also directly for the visitors, is very high. There are considerable yearly grants paid by the state to the municipalities, who are responsible for their public library service. When it comes to national library policy-making and agreements there is the disadvantage of two different administrative units at the Ministry of Education to decide about academic and university libraries on one hand, and public libraries on the other. The Helsinki University Library is the national library by law, but in practice serves only the university and academic libraries. The public library network is supported by a central library of its own, the Helsinki City Library. As a result of a major educational reform, polytechnics for higher vocational education were established in the 1990's, and their libraries have been the fastest growing sector in recent years. School libraries are mostly poor so far, and schools tend to use public libraries more and more due to new learning methods.

The present Public Libraries' Act sets the aims and goals for municipal libraries in accordance with the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto (1994). Equality, promotion of the free flow of information and ideas, of civic skills in democracy as social order, and the citizens right to the cultural heritage, to information also in new forms and to

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lifelong learning are the main ideas found in both documents. The Act begins: "The objective of the library and information services provided by public libraries is to promote equal opportunities among citizens for personal cultivation, for literary and cultural pursuits, for continuous development of knowledge, personal skills and civic skills, for internationalisation, and for lifelong learning. Library activities also aim at promoting the development of virtual and interactive network services and their educational and cultural contents."12

Associations and trade unions Although the state takes an active part in the development of libraries, much is done on a voluntary basis. The Finnish Library Association, which is a non-profit organization, open to everyone interested in library matters, is the dominant actor on the national scene. But there are other associations with a general interest in the library and information field. The Finnish-Swedish Library Association pays special interest to lingual minority service besides engagement in general matters. There is a special association for academic and university libraries, and one for information specialists. Members and others are informed about news activities from periodicals and on the net. There are also associations for medical librarians, music librarians, and students in information science. The Aland Islands have a regional library association of their own.

Employees belong to several trade unions, depending on their education and their employer. The older, separate union for librarians working in public libraries, became part of a larger group with other municipal specialists, all under the central organization for academics, AKAVA. My impression of this development is that it has

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made the profession less visible although there are other advantages in a bigger league. There is no licencing procedure for library professionals, but the present public library legislation sets the level of special education in the field for both library directors, other librarians and library officials. Library officials and other staff members belong to two other central unions, who, like A K A V A , representatives

of

the

employer.

"Academic

negotiate with the central

Information

Specialists"

is

the

organization for librarians at special libraries including those who work in the private sector. This organization is also a member of the central union A K A V A through membership in the league of research workers.

Although there are many spokesmen — or perhaps because the voices are too scattered - and in spite of the high esteem of libraries by the general public, known from many inquiries - salaries are low compared to work tasks and the long education, and to the development of salaries of other expert groups in the public administration. Public library staff is on the bottom of the scale, and salaries are about 29% below those of the same professionals in the private sector. There is a severe crisis coming up when all those who started their career in the 1970's, and who still dominate work life are retiring (over 60% of the librarians in public libraries will leave within 10 years). Those who graduate from universities have a wide range of alternatives to choose from, and they are expected to prefer other kinds of jobs because of other values than earlier generations. The problem exists not only in the library field. It is part of structural change and part of the crisis of public authorities and public service.

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Professional education and research Professional education is traditionally an important source of basic values and attitudes for implementation later in practice. There are two main categories of employees in Finnish libraries, librarians and library officials, both with a specialized education in the field. The present education of librarians on a university level dates back to 1971, when the first chair of library and information studies was founded at the University of Tampere within the faculty of social science. Full-scale studies in the information field on an academic level were later established at two more universities, the Abo Akademi University and the University of Oulu. The word "library" was gradually left out from the names of the departments to signal a more general, scientific approach. It has been pointed out that universities do not give professional education, but the qualifications students gain through their studies make their exam useful as a measure of competency for jobs in libraries. Then there are still many professionals working in the field with an older education, which outspokenly prepared for a library career. Where representatives for these two groups work together newcomers go through a socialization process to the tradition, values and tacit knowledge of librarianship.

Academic education and research aim at mediating and applying an investigating and critical attitude towards practice and the object studied. It also aims at value neutrality. Still no education is value free. Teachers can choose between declaring their point of view openly or expressing it just through their presentation: You choose what to present within a subject field, you focus on certain aspects, your enthusiasm or lack of engagement shines through your presentation. There is generally some degree of identification with the profession one teaches for, although teaching itself is a profession and needs its own identification. University teachers' scientific merits are

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what count for an appointment, and their primary identification is likely to be that of the researcher. Consequently the transmission of values and ideologies cannot be expected to take place in an academic context.

The education of library officials on a more practical level than the academic one at colleges of trade and administration was consolidated in the 1980's, and the name library assistant was left behind. In the 1990's these studies were transformed into a higher level of polytechnic education as part of a national reform of vocational education. These new officials stand on about the same formal level of education as basic education for librarians before it was developed into an academic one. There is no exact figure on the number of professionals, but converted into man years, there were about 3500 librarians and library officials in the public libraries.13

Research on university level is well established, and it covers a wide range of topics. Research on the profession itself and questions concerning professional ethics are comparatively rare. But there is some research on topics of interest concerning access to information, and censorship. Reijo Savolainen's doctoral dissertation on the access to scientific and technical information and the charging for library and information services from 1989 deals with a topic of special interest, not just from a political, but also from an ethical viewpoint. The way of reasoning around the "complicated political and economic problems associated with the balance of public and private interests", is useful in spite of the fact that some time has passed since Savolainen's comparative studies in some countries on "free or fee" were made. 14 In a webpresentation on the present state of Finnish public libraries by the Ministry of Education, dated July 2001, is said that "(—) the principles underpinning public

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library services is to support and encourage free access to sources of knowledge and culture and the availability of high-quality information for all citizens regardless of their place of residence or financial standing". 15

Kai Ekholm's doctoral dissertation about banned books at the end of World War II covers the theme censorship in Finland with special focus on public libraries. After Finland lost the war against the Soviet Union literature, considered hostile to the winner, was removed from bookshops and libraries on the orders of the Allied Control Commission. Apart from bookshops, which got a precise list of removals, librarians were to decide themselves what to take away from the open shelves. Two main categories could be distinguished, propagandists war literature and criticism of the revolution and the Soviet system. The amount of copies was nearly 30.000. Ekholm characterizes the removals as a form of politically directed market censorship, and not an ideological one, because some of these books were very widely spread in people's homes, and popular ones were published in new editions soon afterwards. 16 The situation is compared to attempts of political censorship in other countries, like McCarthyism in the U.S.A. and American Library Association's reaction, manifested in the Library Bill of Rights. In 1958, twelve years later, the libraries were given a free hand with these books by the Ministry of Education. 17

The war time and post-war behaviour of Finnish librarians is interpreted as dutiful and obedient rather than political and authoritarian by Ekholm, but he wonders what their values and priorities actually were. 18 The answer is most likely that they followed the general trends of society from outspoken nationalism to reluctant obedience. Later there were few direct cases concerning freedom of expression and censorship and book

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publishing, but probably much precaution. Ever since the 60's libraries have had a liberal policy, and one of the secrets behind the very high Finnish lending rates is undoubtedly openness and lack of pointers. Public libraries are not identified with the authorities deciding what citizens should read.

Those who were responsible for the new university departments naturally gave their views of the domain of information science and the development of the profession in lectures and articles. There is indirect information in many studies about the librarian as an actor in the information field, but few of them are concerned with the library and information profession itself. There were two theses within information studies for the master's exam in social science on the theme of professional identity in the beginning of the 1990's. Tajja Lehtinen looked at the professional identity within the library and information field, and Tuija Nevala at the socialization process and the professional identity of the librarian.19 My own ongoing research is concerned with the changing professional role of the librarian in an educational context, where attitudes and values form a natural action base. In 1991 I produced a Nordic report on professional ethics in the library field, ordered by the Literature and Library Committee of the Nordic Council of Ministers, which, however, was written outside the research community.

Principles of library work When a professional code of ethics is formulated at least three questions arise: What values are important to professional work and consequently to the profession? How is good practice defined and described? How will the profession try to conduct the behaviour of its members?

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Even before that there is the question of the motive: Why does the profession want to formulate a code? There are common ideas of what library work is good for, and of good and bad professional behaviour anyway, maybe with less reflection and more varied interpretations, if it is not agreed on, formulated and presented publicly. What happens in practice when good principles as such stand in conflict with each other?

In spring 1984 there was a work party on professional ethics set by five library organizations, two professional unions, one for academic and university librarians and the other for librarians serving the general public, both members of the Academic Union AKAVA, and three library associations, the big Finnish Library Association, the small Finnish-Swedish Library Association, who was the initiator, and the association for academic and university libraries.20 The original task was to formulate a code of ethics for the librarians. In the years before, several other criteria of professionalism, as defined by sociologists, had been achieved: The profession was organized, there was specific academic education in the field, a theoretical base was built through systematic research, the profession was acknowledged by society through legislation, the service profile was obvious, and common good was placed before personal benefit. But there was no code of ethics, and of course autonomy and power were limited in the public sector.21

Signals from the biggest principal, the Finnish Library Association with many members who were non-professionals, resulted however in redrafting of the task: The principles were to concern all employees of the library. There were the two main categories of employees, librarians and library officials, both with a specialized

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education in the field, and the officials with an ambition to strengthen their position at that time. It made sense when one of the officials at a seminar in 1985, arranged by the work party, said: "The librarian cannot realize his or her ethical goals without the aid of the library official, and the library official cannot perform his or her job without ethical goals." Of course libraries and their clients would benefit from a conscious and reflecting staff. In the democratic spirit of the generation, which entered the scene in the 60's and 70's, it was not considered appropriate not to promote equality in the work place, although the meaning of equality tended to be "all alike". But one can also question the use of criteria on professionalism, which derive their origin from a different work culture. Working life in Finland differs in many respects from that of the U.S.A. Now only the union of librarians was against abandoning the original task and concentrating on the tasks and responsibilities of the librarian.

The work party made a draft of guidelines for general discussion at meetings and seminars, and in the library press. "In search for the idea of librarianship" was the title of a debate book compiled and partly written by group members. It held explanations of the basic concepts ethics and moral, discussions on responsibility and solidarity, on the library as a passive information supplier or an influential actor, on service versus authority, etc. 22 The work process aimed at as much discussion as possible, because a code of ethics demands both individual internalisation and collective acceptance to have any real impact. Because of the many principals there was no consideration about procedures for handling malpractice. One basic thought was to formulate "yes-ethics" that encourages instead of "no-ethics" that forbids. Other existing codes and guidelines, both for other professions and for librarians in other countries were studied closely. The work on the Principles caught attention in other Nordic countries, so there

110

was interaction between people who were interested in this kind of discussion. The first incentive to start the process came in fact from an article on the work with a British code at the Library Association,

described

and commented

by

Bob

Usherwood 23 . Librarianship is truly international, and the influence from the worldwide professional community on national solutions cannot be overestimated.

As a result of many compromises four principles of conduct were set "which the organizations in the library field agree on, and which all employees follow", as the smallest denominator in common, "too theoretical" by some, and "too practical" by others. They cover 1) library work and society, 2) service to clients, 3) professional knowledge, and 4) the work team or community. The work party's explanations and comments to each of them were seen as vital to their application. The starting point is everybody's right to share the cultural heritage and intellectual achievements of mankind, and the aim of library work to promote a free flow of information and ideas through broad collections, and the expertise of the staff. Impartiality in collection building and dissemination is advocated in the comments with limitations only when the information is in conflict with the Declaration of Human Rights' of the United Nations.

Another starting point for library work is to respect every client. They are to be met equally and information about clients is confidential, which was not obvious to all at that time. There are limitations to the responsibility of the staff for the information, and this is commented: "The library staff has the right, though, to expect that clients have a critical and responsible attitude to the information he or she gets. The client is responsible for how and to what he or she uses the information." Respect for the client

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also comprises active information about services offered, and the obligation to observe clients' suggestions and wishes.

Library staff is obliged to develop their professional skills and to mediate good professional practice to new employees in the field. Professional knowledge is vital to the development of the field and libraries cannot function without professionals. Education is the base for professional knowledge, but it has to be renewed in a changing environment. Part of it is also to acknowledge the limits of one's own knowing. There is to be respect for others working in the same field. Library work is often teamwork. The staff realizes and develops common aims and goals, and practice for library work. Employees are expected to act with respect for others in the field, to support each other, and they have the right to express themselves and to be heard in democratic order.

Conflicts can arise between common principles of library work and the employer's demand for loyalty, and between the professional and private role of an employee. As a citizen everyone has the right to his or her own opinion of society, and ethical and religious conviction, but in library work freedom of opinion and diverging opinions are to be accepted by the employee. The benefit of the client is to be the guideline for the employee and the mission of the library to safeguard the free access to information.

Maij atta Okko, who was professor at the University of Tampere when the Principles of library work were discussed, was asked to comment the proposal. Her starting point was an analysis of the structuring of library work. "Library and bibliographic work" includes work in libraries and other institutions. She was critical to the focusing of the

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service tasks and contacts with the public, which she found too limited to cover the various aspect of library and information work. Library work is part of the social value field: Professionals work for the benefit of others, for people to reach the value objectives they strive for. But this is not sufficient as a frame for professional identity. Maijatta Okko's conclusion was that the profession faces a crisis and this should be worth a closer study regarding the future and the fast technological development. 24 The Principles were accepted at the annual meeting or board meeting of all the participating organizations in 1989, except by the largest one. The annual meeting of the Finnish Library Association just noted them in the minutes, which meant less attention to the text and less publicity. - One important reason for the lack of engagement in the Principles was probably the fact that practical problems were comparatively few at that time. Libraries were simply going well.

The Nordic report on the state of the art from 1991 inspired to a follow-up. On the initiative of the Danish library director Johannes Balslev it was followed by a Nordic survey in 1993 with the aim to compare theory with reality, that is to see how librarians judge and would act in a number of practical work situations.25 There were no observations made with the 481 answers, so the results only show what librarians themselves express about the cases given them in a questionnaire with the headline "Eight questions to librarians about matters of conscience" In reality there were more questions, because each case held several related alternatives. The results of the survey confirmed the assumption that Nordic librarians generally have the same basic set of values. However, there was disagreement about some question across the national boarders, primarily about solidarity versus protectionism (our books, the interest of our customers versus those of other libraries), user payment, and violation of the law. But

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there were some national varieties, too. Finnish librarians were for example generally more positive to network cooperation for lending materials than their colleagues at that time. Collection building tended to be demand oriented, lending rules and other regulations could be put aside in special cases. Political pressure to discard materials was not accepted, but the principle of equal service would not always be followed: Exceptions were made for social reasons and when the library could take some PRadvantage of it.26

Ethics - a resource lost? A young librarian at the time of the Principles, Risto Vuoria, argued that the formulation of a common code is important as a sign of the profession's attempt to take an active role in the development of the field.27 This opportunity was not really taken, although a code can be given multiple use, externally to inform the general public and give a certain service quality guarantee, and internally to rise consciousness, to gather forces round a common core, for guidance of members and problem solving in practice. It is useful because it can be communicated.

Martti

Lindqvist, who is an acknowledged expert on ethics in health care, describes ethics as a capacity for internal guidance and critical evaluation of one's own activity, existing in the tension between realism and idealism. He advocates "everyday idealism" as a good starting point for professional rules. By publishing its rules the profession takes an independent responsibility for its work, and declares that it voluntarily devotes itself to certain aims. There is discussion and conceit on what is important in the profession. 28

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Social change seems to accelerate, and the rapid shift of values arouses the question whether there is any lasting core of basic values? Can any norms for guidance be set? When interest in ethics and moral is expressed, it is concerned with utilitarian, and not absolute values. Uncertainty among librarians is bigger now than in the 1980's. Will there be a library profession in the future? When the library of the Finnish Parliament renewed all of its work titles, the director of the library was the only one still to be called librarian. Is information specialist just a new label with higher social status, put on the old profession, or will the value base be another one, more directed towards commercial interests? As a result of a heavy work load for many years, people seem too tired to discuss matters of principle now, they just struggle to get on from day to day in their workplaces. But with the lack of principles, other factors, mainly economic and technical, and hard values behind them, take over. Technical solutions have clearly had a steering effect on the development of the field.

University librarians tend to get caught by the growing economic protectionism at the universities, both regarding the relationship between the library and the departments and faculties, and the relationship to other libraries and the general public. A university library director, Päivi Kytömäki, expressed in 1996 her fear for an information society, where just the well educated and solvent are able to get the information they need for whatever purpose, and he asked rhetorically, if that is what we want? 29 The tendency towards the principle "every man for himself' has not stopped, although the most important national databases were opened for free public use not long ago, as a result of successful, national library politics. National problems can be solved politically, but when it comes, for example, to international licensing policy, the challenges are really big.

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The traditional, neutral role is questioned in some situations. Lack of information in society is seldom the problem, but lack of qualitative selection - quality defined by different criteria, depending on the needs of the client and his or her ability to take to it. The situation is different from that of other times, and of other places at present. The old scenery has been changed by the Internet and its widespread use. How does the library, as a public institution, combine the free use of the open network with laws in force and general, social norms? The library is a public space, open to visitors of all ages. The exposition of, for example, racist and drug propaganda and pornography, abusing children, on the screens, are discussed among librarians, well aware of the arguments pro and con from before. Now some of them call for some common action line. Should there be a different policy for children versus adults? Should librarians just declare that this is not our problem, we primarily promote the free flow of information without restrictions? Even in the section on freedom of expression in the Finnish constitution itself there is one restriction mentioned, that is restrictions by law, related to pictorial programmes, for the protection of children. At the time of the latest legal reform the problem of pornography with children on the Internet had just been arisen, so it was specially noticed.

Public libraries face the growing restlessness in society. When the rights of the client were pleaded earlier, there is now need for observing the rights and safety of the employees. Librarians may be caught in old trains of thought concerning new forms of entertainment. The use of video games is restricted in some libraries, although there is a large collection of exciting books and video films for the public. The logic of this should be discussed, too. Does library policy matter at all, when everything is

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available elsewhere? Or do client expect libraries to have a certain profile, to make certain use of public funds? And what about neutrality in combination with the need for tutorial aid in the library, due to new learning methods? This task calls for a more active professional role, and some degree of steering students' use of the library. The professional role needs to be clarified anew. There is uncertainty about how to handle practical situations at work today, as these few examples show. So the question, how good professional practice should be redefined, waits for an answer now, and certainly in the future, too.

Counteraction There are, in fact, many positive signs of conscious action to promote the good information society, which does not exclude part of the citizens. Neither librarians nor central administrators have accepted a passive role towards technology. Financial support is given by the Ministry of Education to local libraries for the development of contents on the net. The production of contents from the fields of humanities and arts on the net has been specially encouraged. Gateways are built both centrally and locally to open up electronic information, which is expected to be of interest, generally and for more specialized information needs. This brings quality criteria to the agenda once again. There is a centrally organized "ask the librarian" service on the net to make use of special knowledge in the field. More user friendly technical solutions are constructed. The Helsinki City Library was given the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Access to Learning award in the year 2000 for enabling outstanding public access to culture through the internet.

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The lack of a philosophical discussion does not mean lack of awareness. Of course there are several other action levels for librarians, above all the political field, but library politics works from another angle and serves the purpose of political decision making. The key words used, cost efficiency, service quality, provision of contents, etc. show that professional activity has followed the general trends. The most important recent document is the report of the Finnish Library Policy Committee, appointed by the Ministry of Education in 1999 with the task "to identify the challenges arising in the civil information society and seek concrete solutions to them". The report was completed in December 2000 and the vision presented says something about values, in fact it sounds quite familiar: In Finnish society, the public library is an active and effective institution, easily accessible and easy for people to visit. The public library is open to all and strengthens democracy, passes on cultural heritage and supports multiculturalism. builds and promotes the community spirit. adds value to collections of documents by selecting and organizing different materials. is a learning environment, supporting learners of all ages, promotes comprehensive literacy - including media literacy, is a good work community of competent professionals. networks with partners, making their collections and services available locally, has collections and services, which are accessible through networks (digital library). is a desirable partner and contributes to the success and welfare of the region. 30

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The researcher Anita Rubin, whose study of young people's images of the future was mentioned before, quotes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "As for the future, your task is not to foresee but to enable it". To enable future library work, also in new forms, not for its own sake, but for the value it brings to society, could be a common guideline for librarians.

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NOTES

' Updated, general information on Finland in a short, popular form by experts is available on the internet: Facts about Finland, (Keuruu, Otava) http://virtual.finland.fi. 2

Finland was a grand duchy under the Russian emperor in 1809-1917 after six centuries of Swedish

rule. 3

The Constitution of Finland. 11 June 1999. Section 12. Available:

http://www.om.fi/constitutioxi/3340.htm (January 2002) 4

Ibid., Section 12.

5

The results of these and other surveys are described in Swedish in Antti Karisto & Pentti Takala &

Ilkka Haapola, Finland i förvandling. Levnadsstandardens, livsföringens och socialpolitikens utveckling I Finland. (Porvoo - Helsinki - Juva: WSOY 1998). 6

J.P. Roos, Suomalainen elämä. Tutkimus tavallisten suomalaisten elämäkerroista. (Suomalaisen

kiijallisuuden seura, 2 ed., 1987) ,pp.53-59. 7

Antti Karisto & Pentti Takala & Ilkka Haapola, Finland i förvandling. Levnadsstandardens,

livsföringens och socialpolitikens utveckling I Finland. (Porvoo - Helsinki - Juva: WSOY 1998), pp. 188-189. * Anita Rubin, 9

Kerstin Rosenqvist (Sevón), "Biblioteksväsendet" in Finlands svenska litteraturhistoria. Andra delen:

1900-talet. Uppslagsdel. (Helsinfors, Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland & Stockholm, Atlantis, 2000) pp. 367-372. - Einar Holmberg was originally inspired by the Swedish librarian Valfrid Palmgren's book on libraries and public enlightenment from 1908. 10

Kerstin Rosenqvist (Sevón), "Frin folkbibliotek till allmänna bibliotek. Bibliotek i Svenskfinland —

Svenskfinland i biblioteken" in SFV-kalendern 2000 (Helsingfors, Svenska folkskolans vänner 2000) pp.43-68. " Einar Holmberg, Nya mil och nya medel, Nâgra tankar om biblioteket och dess betydelse vid upplysningsarbetet. (Helsingfors, Svenska folkskolans vanner, 1911), pp. 40-41. 12

Library Act 1998, Finland.

13

Kiijastopoliittinen ohjelma 2001-2004. Työryhmän muistio. Helsinki, Opetusministeriö 2001, p. 115.

14

Reijo Savolainen, Tieteelisen ja teknisen tiedon tavoitettavuus ja kirjasto-ja informaatiopalvelujen

maksullistaminen. (Diss., Tampere, Tamperen yliopisto, 1989), p. 397.

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15

Kirsti Kekki, Public libraries in Finland - Gateways to knowledge and culture. (Ministry of

Education, Culture and Media Division, July 2001). Available: http://www.minedu.fi/minedu/culture/libraries gatewavs.html (January 2002). 16

Kai Ekholm, Kielletyt kiijat 1944-1946. Yleisten kirjastojen kiijapoistot vuosina 1944-46. (Diss.

Oulun yliopisto, pubi. Jyväskylä, Things to come, 2000), p.173. 17

Ibid.,English summary, pp. (19-20).

"Ibid., p. 180. " Tai]a Lehtinen, Kirjasto-ja palvelualan ammattikunnan ammatti-identiteetti (Tampere,Tampereen yliopisto, 1990) and Tuija Nevala, Kirjastonhoitajan ammattiin sosiaalistuminen ja ammatti-identiteetti (Tampere, Tampereen yliopisto, 1992). These are available only in microfische at the university. 20

Kerstin Rosenqvist (Severn), Biblioteksetik och bibliotekarieetik. En rapport for Nordiska Litteratur-

och Bibliotekskommittén. (Kobenhavn, Nordisk Ministerrâd, 1991), pp. 61-65. 21

Kerstin Rosenqvist (Sevón), Ibid., pp. 15-21.

22

Kirjastotyön ideaa etsimässä. Keskustelua kiijastosta 6. (Helsinki, Kiijastopalvelu, 1986).

23

Bob Usherwood, 'Towards a Code of professional Ethics", Aslib Proceedings 33 (6) June 1981, pp.

233-242. 24

Maijatta Okko, Kirjastotyön etiikka ja ammatti-identiteetti. Kirjastotiede ja informatiikka 6(4): 1987,

pp. 105-113. 25

Johannes Baislew & Kerstin Rosenqvist, Bibliotekarien och samvetet - en rapport om nordisk

bibliotekarieetik. TemaNord 1994:604. (Kobenhavn, Nordisk Ministerrâd, 1994). Also published in Danish with the title Bibliotekren og samvittigheden - en rappost om nordisk bibliotekar-etik. (Fakse Ladeplats, Jbim, 1994) 26

Ibid., pp. 222-223.

27

Risto Vuoria, "Ammattietiikan määrittely on ajankohtaista", Kirjastolehti 5/1985, pp. 214-215.

28

Martti Linqvist, "Etiikka on voimavara", Yhteenveto 3/2001, pp. 8-9, and the book Ammattirla

ihminen (Helsinki, Otava, 1985). 29

Päivi Kytömäki, Korkeakoulukiijaston arvot ristipaineessa: Kirjastotoimen ja tiedonvälityksen eettisiä

kysymyksiä. Signum, vol. 29 no 5, 1996, p. 98-102.

121

30

A wide range of culture and quality information retrieval in the library. The salient points and

proposals in the Finnish Library Policy Programme 2001-2004. Committee's report. (Helsinki, Ministry of Education 2001).

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ICELAND LIBRARIAN AND INFORMATION SPECIALIST ETHICAL ISSUES: AN ICELANDIC PERSPECTIVE Svava H.Friögeirsdottir, Upplysinga- og skjalastjómandi - ANZA Ltd.

Are librarians in the new millenium in more need of codes of ethics to resolve ethical conflicts? Is the flow of electronic information creating more ethical dilemmas? I have I asked myself these questions and many more over the last seven years since I graduated with a BA degree in library and information science from the University of Iceland. My thesis1 dealt with ethics in libraries and librarianship. While writing the thesis many ethical dilemmas, which I had not been aware of, came to light. Among them were issues regarding the profession and the role of the librarians within and outside the working place. Ethical issues have increased over the years as the profession and culture have changed in the Information Age.

Libraries and librarianship in Iceland Iceland has no long library tradition. The first Icelandic reading society, predecessors of the public libraries, was founded in 1790. Now there are over 100 public libraries in the country and they are becoming more important to society. The first public library laws were passed in 1955, to which amendments were added in 1963 and 1978. In 1997 a new law was passed. Connected with that law is a codicil stating that in the next five years (1997-2001) the government will give grants to support public

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libraries to offer the latest technology available and to enhance the connection to the digital information network.

The National library was founded in 1818. The library is the oldest Icelandic research library and was for a long time the only library in Iceland that acquired foreign literature. The University of Iceland was established in 1911 but the University library was not formally opened until 1940. These two libraries merged in 1994.2 Today there are about 45 research libraries in the country.

The education legislation stipulates that elementary schools must have a library or school media centre. Unfortunately, not all elementary schools can boast school libraries of their own, but in all secondary schools library services are provided.

Library education was established at the University of Iceland in 1956. The curriculum in library and information science (LIS) is designed as a part of the BA program. Research master degrees can now be achieved from the University of Iceland. Before 1956 a few Icelanders had graduated from library science schools abroad, the first one in 1921. Today more and more librarians use distance learning via universities abroad to get master degrees in LIS. Only one librarian holds a doctoral degree in library science.

There is a lack of discussion of the role of libraries in Iceland, both from a political point of view and in society in general. But libraries are generally not victims of censorship and there are no systematic examples of censorship.

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Some ten years ago it was not common for libraries to have guidelines and policies of acquisition and collection management. Today a number of different types of libraries have similar guidelines.

A new library system3, Aleph, has been selected as a national library system. This is a big development and can be beneficial on a national scale. At the same time it can create ethical dilemmas if the implementation process of the system does not reduce such dilemmas from the outset.

Icelandic legislation4 regarding intellectual freedom, librarianship and libraries The Icelandic Constitution from 1944 states that "Every person has the right to express his thoughts in print, nevertheless, he shall be responsible for them before the Courts. Censorship and other restrictions on the freedom of expression in print must never be enacted." Censorship and free access to information are often discussed in newspapers and journals in relation to unlimited access of minors to materials, especially pornography, on the Internet. The Information Law No. 50/1996 regulates the conditions for exercising the right of access to public information, i.e. government and municipalities' documents. These include information within the public administration. This right is increasingly used by journalists with success.

The aim and purpose of Law on Public Libraries No. 36/1997 are described as follows: "Public libraries are institutes of knowledge and culture. Their purpose is to provide people, children and adults with ready access to a diverse repository of books and other media, including computer equipment and information in machine-readable form. Libraries shall promote free and uninhibited access by the public to information

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and repositories of knowledge. Libraries shall, each in its own area of service, endeavour to support cultural activities and to make available to the public information on public institutions and services. Their objective shall be to promote the Icelandic language, encourage lifelong learning and promote interest in reading. All Icelanders shall be entitled to avail themselves of the service of public libraries. All municipalities are required to provide such services pursuant to this Act. All public libraries shall organise their activities so as to enable the best possible co-operation of the libraries in the country in their service to users." A link is formed between Law on Elementary Schools No. 66/1995 and the Public library law. The Law on Elementary School states that "Every compulsory school shall have a resource centre. The school resource centre shall serve as one of the principal aids to school activities and the facilities, books and other instructional materials it is equipped with and its personnel shall reflect this".

A local authority may combine public library facilities with those of the school resource centre, provided this does not, in the opinion of the School Board and the principal, reduce the value of the centre for the school." This last sentence in the law is widely used by small municipalities.

Laws on Secondary Schools No. 80/1996 states that "Every upper secondary school shall have a resource centre. Its role is to serve as information centre for pupils and teachers. It shall be equipped with books and audio-visual materials, together with other resource materials connected with the subjects taught in the school. [...] The activities of the school resource centre shall emphasise the training of the pupils in independently seeking information and using data banks."

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Many other laws relate to access of information, e.g. the Law on National Archives No. 66/1985, the Law on National and University Library No. 71/1994 and others that deal with storing and allowing access to electronic information about child abuse, pornography and other criminal issues.

Internet filters and Icelandic libraries Internet access issues will be more and more hard to deal with. The use of Internet filter software is not common in public libraries but is widely used by elementary schools and secondary schools. The most widely used filter software is the Icelandic created filter software INfilter. The INfilter 5 database currently contains material in the following categories:

1. Websites with pornography as main content. 2. Websites that contain both pornography but also non-pornographic material. 3. Websites that contain material promoting violence and violent material. 4. Websites that contain leisure and recreation material. 5. Websites that contain gambling and lottery sites.

In category 1 are grouped only web hosts where pornography is the main content of the entire host. In this class there are not web hosts that contain mixed content unless a website (In many cases there are many sites on a host) on the host is primarily based on pornography. In category 2 there are listed web hosts that contain both general material but also pornography in marginal quantities and scale. In category 3 are listed web hosts that contain violent material, e.g pictures from crime or accident scenes, gross racism, nazism, neo-nazism and so forth. In category 4 there are websites

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intended as leisure and recreation such as movie sites. This category, though, is intended for companies and institutes that worry about that their employees wasting time and bandwidth in fetching movie trailers or sound files on the Net. In category 5 are listed major gambling and lottery sites.

There is always a question if it is right to prevent access to information/images on the Internet by using net filters. Are net filters the best solution? Will they protect children and teenagers from exposure to ideas and images claimed to be damaging? Answers to this question may vary. I believe it helps both parents, school administrators and even librarians to know what type of information children / teenagers are looking for on the Internet and also to prevent them from finding information / images that are commonly accepted as damaging to them. I think it is important for Icelandic libraries to adopt a statement on library use of filtering software similar to what the American Library Association declared in 1997s. We cannot now or in the future eliminate all access to information/images on the Internet, which are pornographic, or typified by hatred or violence. Terminologies and technology prevent this and no filter software can be so perfect that it prevent access to such information/images. Filtering products do not help teenagers to leam how to assume responsibility for adulthood. They do not help them to make independent critical judgements, how to say "no" to unwanted sexual advances, how to live vicariously through stories rather than dangerously through experience.

Who are professional librarians? One of the real battles for the professional recognition for librarians is waged in the information market place. Librarians in Iceland have in my opinion not been

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successful in communicating to the public what librarians do or why they consider their duties professional in nature. The permeation of computers throughout the workplaces calls for a better perception of librarians' roles. This often results in competition with other information professionals within and outside the organisation. The growth of networked information systems and the popularity of end-user searching threaten to diminish, or even eliminate, the librarians' traditional intermediary role in the information-seeking process. Librarians have to clearly articulate their roles and must define these roles for themselves, in their professional associations, and must also define their roles to those they hope to serve with reasonable standards of good practice.

John Balnaves divides ethics into three parts in his article about "Ethics and Librarianship". These parts are: Moral philosophy is the study of what we mean when we talk about good or bad, right or wrong in the context of human behaviour. Moral philosophy does not tell us what is good or bad or what we ought to do. It attempts to analyse the nature of moral utterances. [...]

Moral discourse is talking or writing about what people ought to doubt what makes a person a good person. It may take the form of exhortations or of moral codes or of discussions about the goodness or lightness of particular actions or kinds of behaviour. Moral discourse is concerned to discover or to explain what is good or bad, right or wrong, or what we ought to do. [...]

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Morality is human behaviour insofar as it may be considered good or bad, right or wrong. It does not entail study or discourse. Morality is doing. Moral discourse is talking about morality. Moral philosophy is talking about moral discourse.7 This definition of ethics is exactly in my opinion what ethics is about and what ethics means to a profession like librarians. In my opinion aspects of human behaviour, such as deciding what is good or bad, right or wrong, can vary with community and time. Therefore we may not generalise about ethics for the entire world, because the world is composed of many different cultural communities. By adopting a code of ethics Icelandic librarians have now recognised how to respect ethics in the way described by Balnaves.

It may be difficult to separate the professional obligations of each librarian from the personal obligations which the librarian has to himself/herself and to the cultural community within which the librarian lives. Librarians are sometimes asked to give professional advice and work also outside working hours. Sometimes their advice and decisions can eliminate the advantages of their competitors or even their own profession. In such cases a conflict builds up between personal and professional duties. Professional associations and libraries need therefore to let their members and employees become aware of what their most important obligations are. This is what the Icelandic library and information science association has done by adopting code of ethics.

According to Lindsey, Jonathan and Prentice8 the librarian's ethical discussions are mostly held in professional associations, both formal and informal. These discussions

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provide guidance for human behaviour towards library users and professional colleagues. In my opinion these ethical discussions are in Iceland most likely to be within the librarians' workplaces, the libraries. This is where the ethical issues and problems in the librarians everyday work appear and this is where librarians solve ethical issues and dilemmas. It is therefore important to create a code of ethics for the profession and to educate librarians in ethics in order to resolve ethical dilemmas. Each library association should also have a disciplinary/ethical committee to solve major ethical issues and dilemmas, which involve their members.

In 1984 the American Society for Information Science (ASIS), identified a few ethical areas, which play important roles in our daily routines. These areas are: conversion of data, secrecy, pricing, computer crime, security, copyright, information/academic freedom,

profession/employed/working

security, and communications

between

users/employers, colleagues, and false information. 9 I would like to add to this list the following areas: selection of material, online searching, service, the Internet, electronic data interchange, public relations and information service. In our electronic information age we must be aware of the reliability of information and be able to select information, which has the most, reliability and which also comes from trustworthy sources.

Professional code of ethics In my opinion every profession should have their own a code of ethics. But why do professionals require codes of ethics? To answer this question, one must first look at who prescribes the ethics of a profession. Sobolewski says in his lecture on professional ethics that primarily it is the professionals themselves, through their own

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peer group organisation or association, who define, within and in respect of the law, what constitutes ethical behaviour. The reasons for this are that ethical behaviour broadly provides a means of self-regulation, it discourages interference from external or non-professional parties, and provides an exclusive status for members. 10

It is far from always clear what is right or wrong in human work-related behaviour, or when and if there is an ethical dilemma regarding the profession outside working hours. With a clear and well written written code of ethics librarians can reduce the conflicts that can arise. According to J. Bekker we may define a code of ethics as a statement on excellent behaviour and as rules that have developing influence on our working behaviour (as distinct from personal behaviour). He also says that the perfect code of ethics should be simple, clear and trustworthy, equitable, realistic and performable, it should cover the primary aims of the profession and be positive. The codes should take count of colleagues, the profession, employer, client, country and culture."

These views are in my view right and good. A code of ethics should

provide guidance in terms of good professional behaviour.

What should be stated in the Icelandic librarians' code of ethics? In my view a code should include professional behaviour, statements on confidential information, lifelong learning, intellectual freedom and the development of the profession. A code of ethics should also always be in harmony with the ethical rules that are commonly agreed by the cultural community. The fundamentals that are most common to the librarians and to the theories of library and information science should also be stated in the codes in order to facilitate co-operation among librarians. Without codes of ethics, librarians as a profession could appear to be disadvantaged. Thus they could be

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deprived of autonomy and invite control and influence from outside their profession. They might also lose or even fail to gain for themselves a level of prestige resulting from their self-regulation and promotion of their own professional interests. Prospective clientele might also not have the means of accessing the level of service to which they are entitled or of fully benefiting from their relationship with the members of the library profession.

Icelandic librarians code of ethics The Icelandic Librarians Association established the first code of ethics for librarians in Iceland in 1995. At the general meeting12 of the association the 29th April 1996 the code of ethics was finally approved.

There was a merger of four library associations in Iceland in November 1999 and a new united association of professional librarians and paraprofessionale was founded. The name of the association is Upplysing - Félag bókasafns- og

upplysingafrœda.

(Information - the Icelandic Library and Information Science Association). The main objectives of Information - the Icelandic Library and Information Science Association are as follows: •

To strengthen co-operation among libraries and the professionals working in the information field.

•

To encourage the development of Icelandic libraries.

•

To work for the recognition of the importance of the services of libraries and information centres within the Icelandic society.

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•

To work with other Icelandic organisations with similar objectives and to strengthen contacts with organisations with similar objectives in other countries as well. 13

One of the first items on the agenda of the board of the new association was to elect members to revise the code of ethics. The members agreed at the associaton's annual meeting in May 2001 on the revised codes of ethics. There were no major changes, apart from a formulation stating that the code relates to members of the association, including both librarians and para-professional librarians.

In the association newsletter the disciplinary committee published their working rules which had not been previously published. The working rules are clear and state how failure to comply with the code of ethics is dealt with at committee level. 14 In my view it is important to have not only a code of ethics bu also a diciplinary committee. It gives the librarians and to the para-professional

librarians

a

level

of

professionalism.

Information - Association of Library and Information Science: Code of Ethics 1. A member must provide everybody access to knowledge and information regardless of the format of the information, language or placement. In that way the member gives support to democracy, equal rights and freedom of expression. 2. A member should create links between the client and knowledge. The member accomplishes this by collection, preservation, organization and the provision

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of access to information collections in a professional way according to the aims and principles of the institution/company which he works for. 3. A member must serve both the individuals and the community by promoting the use of information, reading books and by drawing attention to the wealth that lies in the nation literature. 4. A member must do his professional duties with accuracy and faithfulness and show the client respect regardless of religion, sex, gender, political views, nationality or social status. 5. A member should reserve confidentiality regarding individual information, e.g. about loans from library collections, information requests and other services. A member who works in an institution/company, should not give information which is not relevant, which must be treated as confidential, about the operation of the institution/company. Confidentiality applies even after the member has left the professional working place. 6. A member should advise different ways to get required information. It should be noticed in beginning of the service if clients have to pay for the service. A member must inform the client if he knows that client can get the same service for less or no fee. 7. A member must always endeavour to get the most accurate information. He must get advice from other colleagues or point out other ways if he feels that he cannot solve the request in perfect manner. 8. A member must maintain and enhance professional knowledge and skills. He should be aware of innovations in library and information science and also other in other professions that support his work responsibilities

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9. A member should guard the respect and honour of the profession and strengthen their reputation. A member should treat colleagues with respect and failthfulness, and avoid putting a bad light by untrustworthy attitudes. He supports cooperation within the working class, communicates his professional knowledge and should take a part in professional debates in a professional manner. 10. A member must respect the codes of ethics and professional knowledge of other professions. 11. A member's work and decisions should always be performed with professional appreciation. 12. A member should always work with a clear mind towards the aims of the institution/company. 13. A member must not let pressure from individuals or special interest groups, e.g. towards collection management or service. He should not use his working conditions for his own personal advantage or for propaganda. 14. Failure to meet to these requirements will be responded to by an admonition from the association ethics committee. Repeated failures can lead to the member being considered expelled from the association. 15

The Icelandic librarians' code of ethics thus consists of fourteen articles. It states the librarian's duties in relation to the main and primary fundamentals of moral behaviour and library and information science as a profession, duties to clients, colleagues and the working place. The code of ethics is not divided into chapters according to duties. It is well written and positive in spirit. A member of the association is obliged to ensure access to, and facilitate the free flow of, information. Intellectual freedom is to

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be maintained through appropriate collection development and be unbiased and without censorship. Members are to be skilful and accurate in their assistance and service. Members must maintain confidentiality and be professional rather than make personal judgements in actions and decisions. Failures to comply with the rules and duties set out in the code of ethics are become a matter considered by the Ethics Committee. Serious professional misconduct, if proven, renders the member of the association liable to be admonished or to be given appropriate guidance as to his or her future conduct. Serious professional misconduct makes the member liable to be expelled or suspended.

I was only aware of one library that has officially adopted their own guidelines of good service and choose of collections for seven years ago. But now many libraries have adopted service and acquisition guidelines. Libraries must have clear statements about acquisitions, their service and the relationship of the librarian, communications with colleagues, sponsors, users and suppliers. Conflicts and ethical dilemmas are then reduced. This has not been a problem in Icelandic libraries but if the libraries state their service clearly to their users then of course users know what they can expect from the library.

Practicing good librarianship in the information age has created ethical issues. Good librarianship is rooted in client-centered service values and attitudes. Technology and market forces have changed the relationship between librarians and information users. Information vendors' direct marketing to end-users and the rise of the Internet (and proprietary databases) threaten the librarians' traditional role of serving as an intermediary between information and the end-user. The initial promise of direct

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access to electronic information is often overstated. The need is for librarians to teach users how to search effectively for information online and for advocating clients' interests with information producers. Teaching end-users how to search databases and how to critically evaluate online information for accuracy and relevancy follows the tradition of bibliographic instruction. Librarians have for a long time understood the complexities of the information-seeking process. In Iceland there is a free access for the whole population of the country to various full-text databases like Web of Science, ProQuest 5000, SiteBuilder and many more through the

Internet,

www.hvar.is. For best efficiency this requires librarians to teach end-users effective database selection and search techniques. It also requires the recognition of the limitations of electronic research and the need to verify the authenticity of online sources. For a island nation like Iceland with high demand for information electronic access to information through the Internet is very important in order to be able to keep abreast for new technologies and developments. Public libraries and the National and University Library as well as provide accès, mostly free of charge, to the Internet for their users.

Conclusion Icelandic librarians, like other librarians throughout the world, must be aware of the various ethical issues and dilemmas that could face them in the profession or in work. These ethical dilemmas could arise with respect to access of information, privacy, copyright, and confidentiality. By adopting codes of ethics, librarians benefit as a profession but also provide the general community not only with the expectancy but also rather the guarantee of a high degree or standard of service, assistance and propriety. Codes of ethics also prescribe client confidentiality and professional rather

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than the personal motives o f the librarian to provide service. Good practice should be the standard against which librarians' professionalism is measured. For librarians the heart o f good practice lies in maintaining the core values o f librarianship while adapting to continually a changing information environment.

B y adopting a code o f ethics Icelandic librarians have clearly articulated their roles as a profession. In my opinion this code of ethics should be revised regularly in accordance with professional and cultural developments.

Icelandic librarians face more ethical issues now with online searching in onlinedatabases that are free o f charge. They must provide guidelines how to search and these guidelines must be unbiased o f ethical issues. This is hard to accomplish in the electronic information age. Therefore the selection o f databases has to be made based on good service level guidelines. Icelandic libraries should in my view also adopt at least acquisition guidelines to help librarians build new collections and if they exists the guidelines should be visible to the clients.

A s librarians enter the new millenium, they are going to be increasingly challenged by the technical and social changes that are altering our world. The advent of the Internet and its consequent challenges to reference service, collection development, and user expectations, as well as the constantly changing moral character of the community must cause librarians to reexamine some o f their core values and principles.

Access to information is very good in Iceland, both by legislative and cultural aspect. The use o f net filters should be more in elementary school and Secondary school. I am

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not sure that net filters should be used by public libraries. If libraries are going to they should make a statement about it. Then they are preventing access to information and their users should be aware of that.

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NOTES

' S.H.Fridgeirsdóttir (199S). "Siôfraeôi bókasafíia og bókasafnsfrzeñinga". Háskóli Islands, ΒΛ ritgerö í bókasafns- og upplysingfraeöi. Verkefnisnúmer: 952. 2

Landsbókasafn Islands - Háskólabókasafn (http://www.bok.hi.is) [Reading date 09.04.02].

3

The library system website is http://www.landskerfi.is.

4

Icelandic legisation by the government can be reached at http://www.althingi.is

5

INFilter (http://www.infilter.net/info.phtml) [Reading date 09.04.02],

6

American Library Association (1997) Statement on Library Use of Filtering Software.

(http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oiffilt_stm.html) [Reading date 09.04.02]. 7

J. Balnaves (1990). "Ethics and librarianship" in: G.E. Gorman (ed.) The Education and training of

information professional : comparative and international perspectives. Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, p. 228. 8

J.A. Lindsey and A.E. Prentice (1985). Professional ethics and librarians. Phoenix: Oryx Press, p. 3.

9

R. Cupurro (1985). "Moral issues in information sciences", Journal of Information Science, Vol. 11,

No. 3, p. 119. 10

M. Sobolewski ( 1994). Lecture on professional ethics, University of South Australia, 1 June 1994.

" J. Bekker (1976). Professional ethics and its application to librarianship. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University, pp. 209-214. u

The Icelandic libarians associaton. General meeting notes. 29th April 1996

13

Th. T. Thorarinsdóttir (2001). The Merger of the Icelandic Library Associations.

(http://www.bokis.is/ISLANTI2.doc) [Reading date 15.02.02], 14

Starfsreglur sidanefhdar Upplysingar. Fregnir Vol. 26, No. 2, p. 24.

15

Sidareglur Upplysingar - Félags bókasafns- og upplysingafrœôa. Fregnir Vol. 26, No. 2, pp 22-23.

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JAPAN THE CODE OF ETHICS OF THE JAPAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Yasuyo Inoue, Dokkyo University

Introduction In 1980, the Annual General Conference of The Japan Library Association (JLA) approved its Code of Ethics. The Code is based on "the Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, revised in 1979". The Statement is a self-discipline guideline for both libraries and librarians. The Code of Ethics gives concrete shape to the Statement in relation to individual library staffs. The Code of Ethics is divided into several parts, such as the discipline of the individual librarian, service regulations, and the role of the librarian as a member of a professional organization and of society. The purpose of the Code of Ethics is the realization of the Statement in terms of making explicit the responsibilities of libraries in Japanese society to library workers, including not only professional librarians in every type of libraries but also non-professionals, information workers, archivists, Bunko (home library)-managers, volunteers and so on. This is therefore a strong, autonomous code for all types of library staff.

The Statement

clarifies the responsibility of libraries with respect to preserving the fundamental right of intellectual freedom by making our resources and facilities available to the people. The Statement introduces that the duty and responsibility for library and librarians are based on the Constitution of Japan, that sovereign power resides with the people and aims to preserve the freedom of people to express and exchange their ideas and opinions.

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It is essential for libraries and librarians to perform their duties and

responsibilities in daily library activities. The Statement explains as follows (1);

"(1)

The right to know and the freedom to express are two aspects of the same

principle. The freedom of expression is realized by the preservation of the right to know. The right to know is related inherently to the freedom of thought and conscience and all other fundamental human rights. Under our Constitution, they shall be maintained by the continuous endeavor of the people.

(2) All people are entitled to have free access to any necessary materials and they should be able to use them freely. Moreover, libraries are the institutions that must provide these functions.

(3) Free from political or social pressure, libraries shall make their materials and facilities available to all people by every means possible, including inter-library cooperation.

(4) We should remember that Japanese libraries once did not fully ensure the people's right to know, but on occasion participated in "thought guidance" of the people. In view of this, libraries should fulfill their responsibilities to defend and expand people's right to know.

(5) All people have equal right to use the library. There shall be no discrimination because of race, creed, sex, age or any other reason. This right shall be guaranteed also foreign nationals who live in this land.

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(6) These principles of intellectual freedom in libraries shall be fundamentally applied to all types of libraries."

The Code of Ethics shares a common philosophical foundation with the idea of the Statement above. It requires the strong self-awareness of every library worker to improve professional capability. It intends to develop the professional philosophy of every library worker in all types of libraries, and to emphasize the mutual foundation common to all library workers and to assist in making them useful organs in society. Furthermore, "the substance of the Code has been generated from wide-ranging professional experiences in the Japanese society. These experiences have been discussed, selected, summarized, and edited as the Code of Ethics for Librarians. The necessity for such a Code was keenly realized recently due to the devotion of a single enthusiastic librarian and due to the efforts of a single library. Still, however excellent individual librarians and libraries cannot always satisfy all user demands, and the group effort of librarians has come to be regarded as a good solution to the problem. Moreover, it has also been realized that library development in Japan has reached such a stage that the ideal image of librarians should be discussed by librarians, library users, and members of the governing authority as a topic of mutual interest" (2).

The gap between the ideal situation and reality is still wide, even though at the time of the foundation of the Code of Ethics people believed that "the professionalism of librarians will be firmly established among library users once librarians are supported by public trust. Then professionalism will be recognized by the government as the official status of personnel in libraries. The establishment of the professionalism of

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librarians will result in better services to users, and all the fruits of better services will be given back to society. The adoption of the Code is the first step toward this goal" (3). The debate based on the Code of Ethics has continued and is expected to become more heated in today's information society.

Brief historical background Libraries and librarians before World War 2 The 1867 revolution turned Japanese society from being a samurai-centered society to the Meiji society, a so-called modem, European-influenced society. People gathered in "Sinbun Jyuuransho" (private newspaper reading rooms) to get information about social changes. To the Meiji government these meeting spots seemed like venues of antigovernment activism, so they were often banned and forced to close. The government also often prohibited the publication and dissemination of newspapers. At the same time, government and local authorities in several big cities had established the National library and many local libraries. Yukichi Fukuzawa (1834-1901) who was the founder of Keio university, introduced the concept of the European "bibliothèque" in Japan. These libraries were open mainly to male taxpayers. Librarians were book keepers theie except librarians like Hangetu Yuwasa (1858-1943), head librarian at Kyoto prefecture library) or Tomosaburou Sano (1868-1920), head librarian at Yamaguchi prefecture library. A few libraries, including theirs, set up rooms for children and female users, open stacks, free use, mobile library services, cooperation to elementary schools and so on. Eitarou Komatsubara who was Minister of Culture, ordered libraries to make people use them free of charge and to provide access to open stacks, provide children's services

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and cooperation with schools, expand the library system and introduce mobile library services in 1910. But the Meiji government pursued a militaristic policy and fought several wars in Asia at the timer. Libraries were regarded as places to "educate" and guide people along the "good" direction of the Meiji government. Although farmers or youth groups set up their own libraries for self-education, these libraries had been shut down through the time of war.. Most librarians functioned as book keepers and adhered to the ideas of the government. Still, some librarians were against the movement. A local librarian, Kiyosi Tajima, wrote in his diary (4) that a military policeman visited his library one day, and tried to confiscate a book which explained the map and culture of Japan which he insisted would give information to the enemy. Tajima argued that if he really thought so, he must come back with the official paper ordered by the Minister. The military policeman did not pursue the matter and left the library. Such cases of opposition rarely happened. Most librarians did what they were ordered, and seemed to act as a tool of militarism.

Emergence of Code of Ethics and Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries After losing the war, Japan was occupied. American military power acting through GHQ tried to reform Japanese society, including schools and libraries. In 1950 the Library Law was enacted (5). The Law covered public and private libraries, and included the idea of free services in public libraries. The law also addressed the education of librarians, certificates of librarians and library assistants. From 1952 to 1954, a discussion occurred on the status of libraries and librarians related to the Korean War. Japan had constitutionally given up having military powers. There was a feeling that Japanese librarians ought to pursue peace. The discussion at the time centered on

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whether libraries and librarians could do anything during the Korean War. McCarthyism was then felt in Japanese society , not only in the US. A contentious point was whether libraries and librarians should have taken sides during he war. Many felt that libraries and librarians should offer their materials, information and services to the best o f our ability, independently and on neutral ground. A result o f this discussion was the adoption in 1954 by the National Council o f The Japan Library Association o f the Statement on Intellectual Freedom.

This first version of the Statement was an exercise in self-discipline for both libraries and librarians, and it also aimed to publicize the mission o f libraries and librarians in society.

Still, the quality and duties o f professional librarians and non-professionals

were not clear. In 1964, an Interim Committee On Librarians' System was founded. A main topic o f discussion in this committee was the role o f librarians in national university libraries and the analysis o f their work content. Two descriptive lists o f professional and non-professional duties in libraries were introduced and discussed by the committee (6). A public library also published a report on librarians' system (7). Still, the professional status o f librarians was not clear, so employers have· tended to demote

professional librarians into clerical jobs. For example, a librarian who had

worked for a long time at Toyo university library (private) was reshuffled into a clerical position, and she sued the university. Similar charges were brought before the courts by a school librarian who sued Kitakyushu city and a public librarian who sued Arakawaku in Tokyo. They failed to legally prove the professional status o f librarians. Even today the working position as a professional librarian is not firmly established.

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In 1966 at the time of the Annual National Conference of the JLA a Session on Problems of Librarians was organized. There were librarians who rejected to have the session because the theme of librarians' working situation in their view was more appropriate for a labor union meeting, not the JLA conference. (8) The Code of Ethics is composed of several parts, one part is mainly about the code of ethics for library staff and another part is about professional duties. The former is influenced by the discussion and settlement of the Statement of Intellectual Freedom, revised 1979, and the latter is connected with the struggle to secure a stable, professional status for librarians in libraries.

Working conditions in libraries involve various problems. Many library staff were (and are now) women, and there is a need to ensure the working situation both for professional and female workers. In 1968, an Ad Hoc Research Committee On Women Librarians was organized at JLA. Later this committee was combined with the Research Committee On the Problems of Librarians. In 1970, the Research Committee On the Problems of Librarians was founded as a committee of the JLA. In the same year, the committee publicized the intermediary report on Librarians' Professionalism in the Library Journal of JLA. In this article the committee insisted on the necessity of a Code of Ethics. Since then librarians in Japan have debated and discussed the Code of Ethics.

In 1973, a librarian at Yamaguchi Prefecture Library concealed several books from users, especially a certain politician. This became an incident which was reported by newspapers nationwide. The Statement of Intellectual Freedom is meaningless if librarians are not willing to adhere to a professional code. It was therefore felt that the

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Statement of Intellectual Freedom needed to apply to all librarians. The Research Committee on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries was accordingly established as a committee under the JLA. The discussion on the Code of Ethics has been related to revising the Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries. In 1979, the Statement was revised, and in 1980 the Code of Ethics was approved at the Annual General Conference of the Japan Library Association.

The interpretation of the Code of Ethics and Japanese Librarianship Interpretation of Code of Ethics The Code of Ethics is composed of 12 sections, and is divided into several parts. Section 1 is about the fundamental attitude of the librarian, sections 2-6 deal with the code of ethics as a professional, sections 7-9 are about a library worker as a member of institution, section 10 is about cooperation among libraries, and sections 11-12 relate to Freedom of Expression. The Code of Ethic requires all library staff, both professionals and non-professionals, information workers, even library volunteers to keep the code in mind and to pursue library work according to its principles. The debate concerning what is professional work was not resolved by The Code, and this important matter therefore continues to be ambiguous, as Hideki Minai recently has pointed out (9) .

The interpretation of the Code of Ethics was reprinted as below; (10)

1. The foundation of the work of a Librarian lies in the pursuit of his duties in accordance with the known expectations of society in general, and of the needs of the users in his library in particular.

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A library is established on the basis of the expectations of society and the known needs of users. From this, the object and the main function of the library can be deduced. The object is to assure the people's right to know; the main function is to make library materials available to the people. Accordingly, it must be the fundamental professional concern of the Librarian to endeavor to predict, grasp, analyze and materialize such expectations and needs.

2. A Librarian should not discriminate among or against library users. All people in the community have an equal right to use the library. A Librarian should devote himself to maintaining a standard of unrestricted, impartial and active service in the provision of library materials, and should not discriminate among or against library users on account of nationality, race, creed, sex, etc. A Librarian should also endeavor to afford library facilities to those who have not yet enjoyed library services.

3. A Librarian should respect the confidentiality of each library user. In order to assure people's freedom to read, a Librarian should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not divulge his name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties, and should resist all pressures to do so except as required under due process of law. This duty is carried out by all staff members, both professional and non-professional, and both full-time and part-time.

4. A Librarian should honor the Freedom of Libraries in collecting, preserving, and proffering library materials. A Librarian should collect, organize, preserve and proffer library materials on the basis

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of professional knowledge and judgment. In pursuing this goal, he should not yield to pressures or attempts at censorship of any kind. He should not collect and proffer library materials on the basis of his own private interests, nor in an attempt to gain personal financial benefits.

5. A Librarian should make it his professional aim to familiarize himself, as far as possible both in and out of his library, with materials recording human knowledge and experiences. It is not an easy matter to be familiar with all the materials in a library, but a Librarian should increase his efforts to do so. The Library user expects the Librarian to have adequate knowledge of the materials he proffers. The stronger the demand for library materials, the bigger the expectation regarding professional knowledge. Moreover, it is necessary to recognize that professional knowledge will be constantly under test in collecting and proffering materials that will satisfy reasonable demands, including those of present non-users.

6. A Librarian should apply himself to necessary professional training, both as an individual and as a group member . In order to satisfy the requirements attendant upon the status of a professional person, a Librarian should study and acquire knowledge regarding the following : (1) library users, (2) library materials, and (3) techniques for organizing and proffering library materials, and relating such materials to library users in appropriate ways.

In achieving this goal, a Librarian should train himself/herself both individually and in

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association with others. The results of these efforts will cumulate in professional knowledge, which will develop library services as a whole.

In this sense, training

himself/herself is a Librarian's professional duty and right. The Librarians' endeavors in training himself/herself should preferably be established within the government's administrative system for personnel.

7.

A Librarian should actively participate in the formulation of policy in the

operation and service program of his library. Without the Librarian's active participation in planning library service, the library cannot operate smoothly and appropriately. A Librarian needs adequate knowledge of, and sympathy with, the operation policy and the service program. So far as is possible the Librarian should identify with, and take an active role in, all planning procedures.

8. A Librarian should cooperate with other Librarians in efforts to develop group professional competences. In fulfilling the function of a library, the contribution of the individual Librarian, however great, is insufficient, and therefore group professional competences need to be developed. To this end, a Librarian should cooperate with Librarians in other libraries whether of similar type or not, and should endeavor to understand the roles of Librarians in other types of library. A Librarian should participate in local and national associations of Librarians and should aim to acquire a comprehensive body of professional knowledge and experience. In present circumstances, the professionalism of Librarians has not been officially established as yet, and Librarians are frequently required to change from library work to clerical posts. This frequent change of position

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can have a serious effect on the gathering of professional knowledge and experience. Librarians should endeavor to rectify such a policy and should promote the professionalism of librarians in the government system.

9. Librarians should make efforts to secure labor conditions that are appropriate for the development and pursuit of professional library services. Librarians cannot sufficiently satisfy library user demands under poor working conditions. In order to facilitate working conditions suitable for adequate library services, Librarians should endeavor to secure minimum staff numbers for the realization of professional objectives, so as to prevent labor distress, liability to illness, and to ensure the protection of motherhood, etc. Librarians should do their utmost to promote recognition of the distinctive nature of library work.

10. Librarians should make it their aim to develop and maintain understanding and cooperation among libraries of all kinds. In order to achieve the objective of the library as a social institution, libraries should endeavor to work systematically together, irrespective of type, locality and governing body. Such understanding and cooperation should be regarded not as an institutional objective but as a characteristic of professional librarianship. It should be noted that all library cooperation should focus, in the first instance, on the development of services within the individual libraries.

11. Librarians should make due efforts, in association with others, to stimulate the development of the cultural environment in the society and community they serve,

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by cooperating with local residents and with members of appropriate groups and organizations. The library, as it is itself a social institution, must not be isolated from society. Cooperation with the members of the local community is indispensable for the development of a healthy and democratic cultural environment. On the other hand, the development of the fundamental function of the library is itself greatly promoted by this cultural environment, Librarians need to have a deep understanding for any voluntary movements among local residents for developing reading habits and promoting private library services for children, and should respond sympathetically and actively to any criticism relating to existing library services and demands for the provision of new libraries. Moreover, Librarians should contribute to the development of local culture through close cooperation with educational, social and cultural groups and organizations in the locality.

12. Librarians should make every effort to contribute to the development of the whole culture relating to publications and publishing what is responsive to the needs and viewpoints of the public. The freedom of publication does not only mean the freedom of a publisher to publish materials or information; more fundamentally, it refers to the reader's freedom to know. In this sense, Librarians need to identify with the reader's viewpoint, and to ensure that the library has a social role and a responsibility to meet actively the problems of the production and circulation of publications. Moreover, Librarians need to be aware of the importance of the Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries. Adherence to this by Librarians will ensure a close relationship with activities necessary for the defense of

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freedom of expression in the fields of publishing, press reporting and broadcasting. Constant identification with the interests of readers should mean that Librarians would always maintain cooperation with these fields that have such a close connection with the library and its work

Legal background and professional organization Fundamental human rights are guaranteed under the Constitution of Japan, and the right to know and the Freedom of Expression are secured under the Fundamentals of Education Act. The founding and operating of social educational institutions including public libraries are required from each local authorities under the Local Government Law. The Library Law of 1950 covers the management of libraries, and it explains education of librarians for getting certificate. But these laws say nothing on the compulsory employment of professional librarians. The Japan Library Association which is one of the biggest groups of librarians and library staffs in Japan, has therefore tried to encourage local authorities or institutions only to hire certified professional librarians in librarian vacancies.

The School Library Law of 1953 obliges all schools catering for the age groups 6-18 to establish libraries, from elementary schools to senior high schools.

The Law also

obliged each school library to hire a school library teacher but added that this could be deferred. The School Library Law does not mention school librarians. As a result for more than 50 years there is hardly any school library staff in Japanese schools. Since April 2002 the law was amended and schools must now appoint school library teachers. But this does not mean that qualified school librarians or media specialists are being

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appointed. Also in educating and training qualified library staffs both school library teachers or media specialists presently face difficulties. The Statement of Intellectual Freedom in Libraries revised 1979 and the Code of Ethics embrace also school library staffs, but it is hard to relate these principles with the current situation in school libraries. Internet has been set up in almost all Japanese schools now although there is much concern about the consequences of not having qualified librarians, despite the presence of school library teachers and media specialists.

Present situation and changing society around libraries Today there are many points of debate relating to librarians both inside libraries and outside libraries. The Code of Ethics will enhance the capability of librarians and familiarize users of libraries with education and continuing OJT supported by local authorities and communities.

1) Working situation of library staffs Though the Local Government Law obliges each local government to set up local public libraries, the Library Law does not force public libraries to hire professional librarians. The decreasing amount of local tax as income during the 1990's has in particular led local authorities to hesitate in hiring more employees. Now more than 150 universities and colleges offer library and information courses as minor certificates, but most graduates are facing difficulties in finding jobs in libraries. The percentage of qualified librarians in any given library varies from 0% to over 50%. Even though qualified librarians or staff who are eager to learn and work as library workers can get a position in libraries, employers still tend to downgrade the positions into clerical posts. That

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means the number of layman among library staffs has increased. The quality of library services is diminished in the absence of a long-term accumulation of professional knowledge, understanding and realization of techniques among staff members. Less and less library staff, both laymen and professional librarians, tend to recognize and understand the Statement of Intellectual Freedom in Libraries and the Code of Ethics for librarians. In consequence, library staffs fail to adhere to optimum collection policies.

2) Management by non-qualified head librarians In 1998, the Library Law was changed, and local governments are not required to hire qualified librarians with several years working experience when they try to build library with financial assistance. Also professors, not professional librarians, have been appointed as university librarians. The result is that many libraries are suffering from a lack of professional management. In extreme cases, the issues related to Intellectual Freedom based on professional knowledge may simply be ignored, even if librarians involved strongly favor hiring and appointing only qualified professional librarians.

3) Legal matters and librarians Recently Japanese government enacted - and may later also enforce - laws relating to privacy and human rights, freedom of expression and the right to knowledge.

In 2001, several laws, for example, the law to give permission to public authorities to monitor private telephones or internet e-mails and the law to put every residents' personal information in Japan into a governmental database controlled by local authorities, took effect. Some public libraries and local authorities also plan to use such

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recorded personal information in library records with electronic ID card. In 2002, three bill-package-laws are being debated at the Diet, involving how to ensure media restraint, how to screen young people from exposure to harmful sexual and violent images including books, how to protect human rights and personal information. These packages may obviously limit the freedom of expression and the right to knowledge. Most media creator groups like newspaper publishers, broadcasting, magazines, writers and so on are publicly resisting these government motions. The government does not believe mass-media on it own can practice strict self-discipline. Librarians are observing this situation with anxiety.

Also several recent court judgments relating to library activities have surprised librarians since they in a sense are against people's right to knowledge. The cases decided that limitation to access to the publications (one case is a Museum Illustrated book published by Toyama Prefecture Art Museum and two other cases involve a magazine and a photo journal which show the picture and private information of a murder-suspected minor). Librarians are caught in a dilemma between obeying the legal judgments and pursuing the Code of Ethics to protect people's right to knowledge.

4) Internet and librarians Most schools are connected to Internet and children are learning how to use Internet supported by knowledge of information literacy and information ethics. Most university libraries offer Internet facilities.

Public libraries, on the other hand generally do not offer open Internet services to users,

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although they are connecting bibliographic databases among library systems. In 2001, less than 10% of public libraries were connected to Internet and open to public use. Many public libraries expect to connect to Internet and offer services in the near future. Although the government encourages local authorities to have workshops on how to use Internet, especially e-mails, most of these workshops are held outside of libraries. Participants in these workshops simply do not associate libraries with the Internet. The issue concerning Internet and Intellectual Freedom in public libraries will therefore be a topic that will grow in importance. In the near future, therefore, the Statement of Intellectual Freedom and the Code of Ethics will be increasingly relevant and professional librarians are more and more looking forward to such developments.

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NOTES 1. The Statement of Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, revised in ¡979. URL http://www.ila.or. jp/eth&free-e.html

»m

i l

: s*®#tttaè.

mi

Toshokan no Jiyuu ni kannsuru Sengen. 1979 nenn kaitei Kaisern. (= The Statement of Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, revised in 1979. Interpretation.) ed. by Research Committee on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, JLA. Tokyo : Japan Library Association, 1987.

2. The Code of Ethics. Η ir rgKigiicDttamfój mm «ffinsii mm ·.

t f f ô # E I # l t Α0>Ρβ·]ΙΗΒ!ΪΕ9^3Ι A # H a * i a « t 6 t & £ , 2002 isbn4-8204-0124-

6 ( = Toshokan 'in no Rinri Kohryou Kaisetu. ( = Interpretationof the Code of Ethics for Librarians.) ed. by Research Committee on the Problems of Librarians of Japan Library Association. Revised and enlarge edition. Tokyo : Japan Library Association, 2002. Includes the list of bibliographies on the Code of Ethics for Librarians between 1952 and 2000 and historical background. Japanese only. English version available on JLA's homepage, http://www.ila.or.jp/eth&free-e.html#ethics 3. The Code of Ethics, op .cit. 4. H A ; *

ra&CD&frCDGaeitJ

lÈ.'X.^t 1975,

p.184. Kiyoshi, Tajima. Kaisou no naka no

Toshokan. (=Library in my memory) : Osaka, Koubunndou Pub., 1975. The author has been a librarian at Sakai City Library for more than 30 years. Japanese only. 5.

Library

Regulations.

Law

of

1950.

%2fä

[ Γ Ε Ι β Ι Ι J a p a n

ill*)®—H

Library

Χ β

Laws

2002. Japan

and Library

Laws and Regulations. 2nd. ed. by Hideharu Takeda & Jyun'ichi Yamamoto. Tokyo : Japan Library Association, 2002. English version of Library Law available at: http://www.ila.or.ip/law-e.html

School

Library Law of 1953, and the National Diet Library Law are also described in this book. English version of

these

laws

is

also School

gakul .html

Japanese

only.

reprinted

here. Γ ^ ΐ ί Β β Ι ί ϊ ί ί J School

Library National

Association) Diet

Library

Library

Law

(by

http://www.i-sla.or.jp/shirvo/ Law

available

at

NDL:

http://www.ndl.go.jp/e/index.html English version. 6. ALA. Descriptive list of professional and non-professional Chicago : American Library Association, 1948.

LA. Professional and non-professional

libraries; a descriptive list. London : Library Association, 1962.

160

duties in libraries, (preliminary draft) duties in

7.mJÛ&3ÏBühnen

[ΓΒ]*«ΜΗυ£Ι::οΙΛ-α Ä «

: mmiÛJÏBtt«®*!!

1967.

Shisho

shoku seido ni tuite. ed. by Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Library. Tokyo : Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Library, 1967. Analysis of working situation in libraries, and professionalism of librarianship.

8.m««gjicDraais2BF££Aé:*i Β^SKffitÜs;.

ra#tMi [Accessed 02 February, 2002]

Koehler, W. 2000. Towards a code of ethics for the Uganda Library Association: some guidelines and suggestions. IN: Proceedings of the l " Annual library and Information Science Conference for Uganda. 8-10 November. Kampala. Kampala: Uganda Library Association. Available from: < http://www.ou. edu/cas/slis/ULA/Assets/lst_annual_conference.rtf> [Accessed 15 February, 2002]

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Koehler, W. 2001. Ethics links to librarian and information manager associations WWW Pages. [Personal webpage] Available from: http://books.valdosta.peachnet.edu/mlis/ethics/EthicsBibOrg.htm>. [Accessed 25 February 2002].

Lor, P. J. and Sonnekus, E. A. S. 2000. Guidelines for legislation for national library services. The Hague: IFLA. Available from: [Accessed 11 January 2002].

Magara, E. 2000. LIS professional organisation in Uganda: the future perspective. IN: Proceedings of the I s ' Annual library and Information Science Conference for Uganda. 8-10 November. Kampala. Kampala: Uganda Library Association. Available from: < http://www.ou.edu/cas/slis/ULA/Assets/ lstannualconference.rtfr* [Accessed 02 February, 2002]

Mugasha, J. 2000. Harmonising policies and laws on information in Uganda. IN: Proceedings of the 1" Annual library and Information Science Conference for Uganda. 8-10 November. Kampala. Kampala: Uganda Library Association. Available from: < http://www.ou.edu/cas/slis/ULA/ Assets/ lst_annual_conference.rtf> [Accessed 15 February, 2002].

Rubin, R. 1998. Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Sturges, P. and Neill, R. 1998. The quite struggle: information and libraries for the people of Africa. London: Mansell.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics. 1991. The 1991 population and housing Census. Entebbe: UBOS. Available at: