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This article was downloaded by: [Drexel University Libraries] On: 07 October 2014, At: 04:45 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Library Administration Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjla20 Ethics Education for Information Professionals Toni Carbo a a School of Information Sciences (SIS) and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh , 602 IS Building, 135 North Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260 E-mail: Published online: 12 Oct 2008. To cite this article: Toni Carbo (2008) Ethics Education for Information Professionals, Journal of Library Administration, 47:3-4, 5-25, DOI: 10.1080/01930820802186324 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01930820802186324 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: Ethics Education for Information Professionals

This article was downloaded by: [Drexel University Libraries]On: 07 October 2014, At: 04:45Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Library AdministrationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjla20

Ethics Education for Information ProfessionalsToni Carbo aa School of Information Sciences (SIS) and Graduate School of Public and InternationalAffairs, University of Pittsburgh , 602 IS Building, 135 North Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh,PA, 15260 E-mail:Published online: 12 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Toni Carbo (2008) Ethics Education for Information Professionals, Journal of Library Administration,47:3-4, 5-25, DOI: 10.1080/01930820802186324

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01930820802186324

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) containedin the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of theContent. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon andshould be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable forany losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use ofthe Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Ethics Education for Information Professionals

Ethics Educationfor Information Professionals

Toni Carbo

ABSTRACT. Originally called the ethics of information in society, In-formation Ethics (IE) has received increased attention in the LIS profes-sion and education. Several LIS programs have incorporated IE intotheir curricula, both as stand-alone courses and as part of other courses.Because most LIS students entering programs have little experience inlibraries or in management, LIS programs must focus on introducingstudents to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for the profes-sion. Building on the author’s earlier writings and experience in LIS, thispaper provides an overview of IE education, using the University ofPittsburgh as a case study, and addresses the questions of what IE con-tent should be included in LIS programs, how the content should betaught, and by whom.

KEYWORDS. Information, Ethics, education, administration, manage-ment, libraries

INFORMATION ETHICS EDUCATION1

Background and Context

Ethics as reflection on morality is widely accepted among philoso-phers beginning with Aristotle, the founder of ethics as an academic dis-cipline. As Rafael Capurro, who heads the International Center forInformation Ethics (ICIE), reminds us:

Toni Carbo is Professor, School of Information Sciences (SIS) and Graduate Schoolof Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, 602 IS Building, 135North Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (E-mail: [email protected]).

Available online at http://jla.haworthpress.com© 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.

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As a self-referential process ethics is an unending quest on explicitand implicit use of the moral code, that is to say of respect or disre-spect, with regard to individual and social communication. Inother words, ethics observes the ways we communicate with eachother as moral persons and the ways this moral identity is under-stood. There is, indeed, no unbiased ethical observer. (Capurro etal., 2007, 21)

Certainly, administrators in libraries and other cultural institutionsrely heavily on individual and social communication to lead their orga-nizations and to thrive in their day-to-day lives. Administrators havelong had an interest in ethical reflection to help them develop missionstatements and policies for their organizations and determine moral ac-tions in their work and lives. Educating individuals for careers inmanagement and leadership requires close partnerships between prac-titioners and those whose primary focus is formal education2 to shapeeducational programs for Information Ethics (IE).

In the rapidly changing environments in which administrators in theinformation professions work and in which Library and InformationScience (LIS) educators teach, ethical issues are increasingly beingraised, demanding attention and efforts toward resolution. While thereare numerous ethical issues of general societal interests (e.g., protectingthe environment, eradicating poverty, etc.), of particular interest for LISadministrators and educators are those related to information through-out its life-cycle. Originally called the ethics of information in society,this topic has more commonly been referred to as Information Ethics(IE) (Froehlich 1992, 2004).” Beginning in 1997, conferences on theEthics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century were held at theUniversity of Memphis (see e.g., Mendina 2000, Rockenbach andMendina 2003.) The subject of IE has also gained international interestas demonstrated by recent activities, starting with the first UNESCOConference of InfoEthics in 1997: “First International Congress on Eth-ical, Legal and Societal Aspects of Digital Information in 1997. In2003, an invitational conference was held in Karlsruhe, Germany underthe leadership of the ICIE with support from the Volkswagen-Stiftung.The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS 2003) developedthe ”Declaration of Principles: Building the Information Society: AGlobal Challenge in the New Millennium,” and in February 2007, theFirst African Conference on Information Ethics was held in South Af-rica (First African Conference on Information Ethics). Building on the2007 conference, a proposal is currently before UNESCO and the South

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African government to support a training workshop on IE andE-Government in Sub-Saharan Africa to be held in 2008.

Of course, many LIS professional associations have had codes of eth-ics for years, and the Association for Library and Information ScienceEducation (ALISE) recently established a taskforce to develop a code ofethics for ALISE, with a report due at its annual conference in January2009. The topic of Information Ethics has been addressed in the litera-ture, with an annual review of the literature on the topic first appearingin the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology in 1992(Froehlich 1992). Over the past nearly 20 years, several LIS programshave incorporated information ethics into their curricula, both asstand-alone courses and as part of other courses, many of which are re-quired core courses. Library administrators, LIS educators, and othershave worked together to develop and implement Information Ethics ed-ucation throughout the life-long educational process. Because most LISstudents have little experience in libraries or in management, LIS pro-grams must focus on introducing students to the knowledge, skills, andattitudes needed for the profession. Of course, more advanced coursesare also offered, but experience in managerial, beyond initialsupervisory positions, nearly always takes place years after thecompletion of the master’s degree.

Of course, only a portion of LIS students are interested in adminis-tration. A large portion across all LIS programs expect to work in ref-erence, preservation, archives, etc. Many, including this author,enter administrative positions much sooner than expected, either asmanagers of school or special libraries or of a branch in a public oracademic library. Building on the author’s earlier writings (e.g.,Carbo and Almagno 2001, Carbo 2004, Carbo 2007) and experiencein LIS, this paper provides an overview of IE education, using theUniversity of Pittsburgh as a case study and discusses approachestaken to incorporating various models for ethical reflection andmoral decision-making used in courses. The perspective is a per-sonal one from an individual who has lived and worked in the UnitedStates and in the United Kingdom and has traveled extensively to allcontinents except Antarctica. It is a Western and Northern based per-spective, although through extensive international experience andthe participation by many students from outside the U.S., some in-sights have been gained into different cultural views and experi-ences.

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WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT?

Case Study from the University of Pittsburgh

Background for the Course

Building on an interest in this topic dating back to 1980 (Bearman1981), in 1986 as the new Dean of the School of Information Sciences(SIS) (then the School of Library and Information Science), the authorworked with Professor Stephen Almagno, O.F.M., to develop a courseon Information Ethics. To determine the appropriate content for thecourse, the SIS Dean’s Forum on Information Ethics was initiated, andon January 26, 1989 the School hosted its first lecture. Presented by theReverend Robert Drinan, S.J. Professor of Law and faculty advisor tothe Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics and former U.S. Representa-tive from Massachusetts, the lecture, “The Ethics of Information in So-ciety,” helped provide the basis for thinking about the course. Theforum continued with a series of experts from John Leo (of the Univer-sity of Rhode Island, who spoke on Robert Mapplethorpe), to PamelaSamuelson, (then professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, whoquestioned: “Who Owns Information?”), to Martin Walker (then U.S.Bureau Chief of The Guardian, who spoke on “Ethics and the Media”),the forum has attracted a diverse audience from the larger academic andcommunity and has helped to shape the course. Then Vice-ProvostElizabeth Baranger described the forum as “what a university is allabout.”

In the fall of 1990, a master’s level course for students across theSchool was introduced, team-taught by Almagno and Carbo, initiallycalled, “The Ethics of Information in Society,” to educate studentsabout ethical issues in the Information Professions. Over the years asthe course has evolved, it has attracted students from all three SIS pro-grams at both the master’s and PhD levels (with some undergraduate se-niors), as well as students from business, law, psychology, engineering,public and international affairs, and other programs, and a few studentsfrom Carnegie Mellon University. Teaching Information Ethics to avery diverse group of graduate students raises a number of challenges.A good number of these students are working toward careers as infor-mation professionals and many will become researchers, educators, oradministrators in libraries and other cultural institutions.

Prof. Almagno taught the course, with the author’s participation, and,after Prof. Almagno’s retirement in 2001, the author has taught the

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course. In addition to the IE course, there is also a course, taught byRichard Cox, Records, Accountability and Ethics. Dr. Cox, with thisauthor, oversees the School’s continuing IE Lecture Series.

In 1996, to recognize and honor Prof. Almagno, SIS established theInformation Ethics Fund with contributions received from foundationsand individuals, including many alumni, to support: an InformationEthics Fellowship, acquisition of print and non-print information re-sources; travel expenses and honoraria for Dean’s Forum Speakers; andparticipation in information ethics conferences. More information isavailable on the School’s website (http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~ethics).

Composition of the SIS Student Body

The School of Information Sciences (SIS) at the University of Pitts-burgh includes undergraduate students, who enter the program in theirthird (junior) year; master’s students in one of three programs: Libraryand Information Science, Information Science and Technology, andTelecommunications and Networking; and doctoral students, in any ofthe three programs. Several specialized tracks, such as Archives,School Library Certification, Information Security, and Database andWeb Systems, are offered. In addition, students from any program oncampus may take SIS courses as long as they meet all prerequisite re-quirements or, for undergraduates, have permission of the instructor totake a graduate level course. Within SIS, itself, there are approximately750 students from more than 28 different countries, and their back-grounds vary widely. In the LIS programs, most students enter with un-dergraduate (and sometimes also graduate) degrees in the humanitiesand social sciences (with a very small number having science under-graduate degrees) and plan to work in libraries, archives, or other cul-tural institutions. Many do go on to work in government, industry andother settings in jobs ranging from school librarians, to archivists, tomedical information specialists, to webmaster and others. In the Infor-mation Science and Technology and Telecommunications and Net-working programs, entering students must have college mathematics,statistics, and at least one programming language; many come from sci-ence and technology backgrounds, although some also have liberal artsbackgrounds. Many of the graduate students hold jobs and/or have sig-nificant family responsibilities; a large portion of the students havesome work experience, and many have another graduate level degree(such as law, education, philosophy, literature, etc.). The number of stu-dents entering the LIS program directly from college has grown consid-

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erably over recent years, and the average age of students has droppedsignificantly from the former average of 34 to mid-twenties, similar tothat in many other LIS programs. A new Partners Program provides op-portunity for students to work in libraries, archives, or other cultural in-stitutions ten hours per week, with paid hourly wages, while alsoreceiving tuition scholarships for six credits per term. This gives stu-dents an opportunity to gain practical experience in different settingswhile offsetting some of the costs of their education. There are alsoopportunities for internships and field placements; the latter is requiredin some specializations, including the archives and academic librariestracks.

Students in the IE course are more diverse than those in any othercourse at SIS. For example, in the 2006 offering of the course on IE atthe University of Pittsburgh the 31 students were from LIS, IST andTelecommunications and Networking programs at the School of Infor-mation Sciences and from Materials Science and Engineering; two werePhD students, 29 were master’s students, and the students were from theU.S., Puerto Rico, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Mexico, and Rwanda.

In addition, as is true in most LIS programs, the faculty is diverse inthe disciplines in which they studied and did research, their work expe-rience, and the countries and cultures from which they come and inwhich they have worked. This diversity enriches the education of allstudents and the faculty.

The Information Ethics Course at the University of Pittsburgh

The course, now called “Information Ethics,” seeks to provide abackground to applied ethics as a prelude to learning the skills of ethicalreflection and critical thinking, and then, to applying these skills to thereal and current challenges of the Information Professions. The scope ofthe coursework and discussions includes decision-making and chal-lenges related to meeting users’ needs; to information sources and ser-vices in all formats and media; to the Internet and other digital sources(cyber ethics); and to information-related topics in management. Theobjectives of the course, described as what students will be expected tohave at the completion of the course, are:

Developed a better understanding of themselves (in the ongoingendeavor to “Know thyself”); Learned how to identify an issue, re-flect on it (which is ethics) and make a decision that is moral; En-gaged in reflective thinking and careful choice of words, which

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result in civil discourse; Developed an understanding of the art andscience of applied ethics as related to the main challenges cur-rently confronting the Information Professions.

The course is not a philosophy or religion course, but instead concen-trates on the application of ethical reasoning to the Information Profes-sions, with their many, diverse specializations. It is divided into threemain sections: an introduction to applied ethics, the necessary steps andtools for facing up to and resolving a moral dilemma and making a deci-sion, and understanding ethical issues in our field. The approach com-bines “knowing how” with “knowing why” and concentrates on themany questions to be asked in resolving complex issues, beginning withthe individual. It is about each of us as an individual even though it is of-ten easier to think of someone else’s ethics, and also relates to interac-tions with other components of life (e.g., the environment, animals,etc.). The importance of the relationship between one individual and an-other and the need to learn to understand that each of us is a human wor-thy of respect–that we are fundamentally the same–are stressed. Theinitial assignment is for students to read and reflect on the U.N. Univer-sal Declaration of Human Rights and Martin Luther King’s “I Have aDream” speech and to write a short paper on the Fundamental MoralExperience. They then identify a personal problem or issue (whether re-lated to personal or professional life) and work throughout the coursetowards resolution of the problem. Other assignments have included ananalysis of synthesis of existing codes of ethics with definition of thecomponents of the student’s proposed personal code, and a researchpaper on a specific topic within an ethical issue area, such as balancingprivacy and security.

For the course, the definition of ethics used is:

Ethics is the art and science that seeks to bring sensitivity andmethod to the discernment of moral values and action. (definitionwritten for the course by Stephen Almagno and Toni Carbo)

Students read a series of books and articles, which change over timeand are drawn from a number of disciplines, including philosophy, li-brary and information science, business, computer science, law, politi-cal science, and many others. The readings usually include at least twobooks, such as Stephen Carter’s Integrity (Carter 1996) and the DalaiLama’s Ethics for the New Millennium (Dalai Lama 1999), as well asarticles from the Journal of Information Ethics, selected articles and

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case studies from the Harvard Business Review and numerous otherjournals in LIS and from other disciplines.

Over the years, students who have taken the course often have sentletters or emails or verbally commented on the impact the course hashad on their lives and how it has changed them. For example,Rockenbach quotes one student, Leslie Lee, who wrote:

Of all my experiences in graduate school, the most enduring is theway Professor Almagno constantly challenged, encouraged andguided his Information Ethics students to love the questions. Tome, that is precisely what the course is all about–being open andwilling to examine life critically and to appreciate the process ofethical decision-making as much as, if not more than, the decision,itself. (Rockenbach 1998)

Another student wrote in 2006: “Thank you for helping me discover myinner self.”

How Should Information Ethics be Taught

The most frequently asked questions are: (1) Should there be a separateIE course or should the topic be incorporated into many other courses, es-pecially foundations courses; and (2) If there is a separate IE course, shouldit be required. At the University of Pittsburgh, we have determined that theanswer to the first question is yes; in fact both are needed. We have also de-cided that the separate course should not be required, because studentsmust be open and receptive to taking it, and that foundations of IE shouldbe included in required introductory courses. Currently this author teachesthe IE course and a section of the required Understanding Information (LIS2000) course, teaches the class covering the topic in some other sections ofLIS 2000, and in the required introduction to IST (IS 2000). In addition,last year the School established a committee (on which she serves) to de-velop a School-wide introductory course and the faculty unanimouslyagreed that two essential components of the course are information ethicsand information policy. The draft syllabus includes a unit on IE and one onInformation Policy, and ethical issues are addressed in other units as well.

Models for Ethical Decision-Making

Using extensive readings from several disciplines, employing “tools”–such as codes of ethics, models for problem resolution, outside lectur-

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ers, and extensive discussion–the course is rigorous and challenging. Toassist students in learning ethical reflection to work towards moral deci-sion-making, different models and frameworks have been used over theyears, with varying degrees of success. Several readings and referencesto websites (including ICIE’s website) have been included throughoutthe course to provide the context for ethical reflection and decision-making, in particular to emphasize the importance of different perspec-tives from diverse cultural, social, and individual viewpoints. Thisbroader understanding is essential to any course, especially a course onIE. The course is taught in English to English-speaking students and isthus limited in the readings that are used, although students are encour-aged to bring in examples from their own readings in different lan-guages and from experience in their own countries and cultures. As theinstructor for the past several years, this author has consistently empha-sized individual limitations and has encouraged others to provide per-spectives to broaden the views of everyone in the course.

One very helpful source for understanding context is Clare Beghtol’swork on ethical warrant (Beghtol 2002). Beghtol, who is an associateprofessor at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of InformationStudies, draws upon her extensive research to address problems of cre-ating ethically based, globally accessible, and culturally acceptableknowledge representation and organization systems, and foundationprinciples for the ethical treatment of different cultures. Basing herwork on the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she presentsthe concept of “cultural hospitality,” to act as a theoretical frameworkfor the ethical warrant of knowledge representation and organizationsystems. She concludes that the concept of cultural hospitality is prom-ising for assessing the ethical foundations of systems for representingnew knowledge and organizations systems and for revising existingsystems. Reminding us that each individual belongs to a number of dif-ferent cultures at different levels (e.g., living in one country, speakingdifferent languages, adhering to policies and practices of different reli-gions and/or political parties, belonging to different social organiza-tions, etc.), she notes that individuals may and do legitimately disagree.She also argues that the boundaries among cultures can themselves befuzzy and create tensions within an individual. In her discussions of therelationships of any particular culture to its information needs and sys-tems and noting differences among oral and written cultures, she raisesquestions concerning what kinds of information people need; what theydo with it; the extent to which they value it; and whether they choose toperpetuate the information. Her thoughtful, if somewhat densely

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packed, paper raises several questions, such as whether principles ofcultural hospitality can be used to develop culture-neutral systems andtheories. These important questions deserve much more discussion thanthe limits of this paper permit and would benefit from the extensivediscussion by library administrators.

SELECTED FRAMEWORKS

The Wheel

Over the nearly twenty years of teaching the course, a series of modelshave been employed to assist students with ethical reflection and deci-sion-making. Initially, Prof. Almagno used the model of a wheel withfour groups of questions in the center hub: (1) What? (2) Why? How?Who? When? Where? (3) Foreseeable effects? and (4) Viable alterna-tives? The spokes of the wheel are: Creative/imagination, reason/analy-sis, principles, affectivity, individual experience, group experience,authority, comedy, and tragedy. The questions in the hub provided ques-tions for gathering information and to help in revealing other questions tobe asked to determine reality. While some students found the wheel help-ful in assisting their decision-making process, many considered the stepssuggested by the spokes to be somewhat confusing and to overlap.

Several conceptual frameworks from the literature have been incor-porated into the readings, again with varying levels of success. One ex-ample used is that proposed by Mason et al. in Ethics of InformationManagement (Mason et al. 1995). They remind the readers that ethicaldialogues are dynamic and nonlinear and suggest a “checklist” of sixconsiderations to be taken into account when resolving an ethical issue(Mason et al. 1995, 103-104). These steps are:

1. What are the facts?2. What ethical principles, standards, or norms should be applied?3. Who should decide?4. Who should benefit from the decision?5. How should the decision be made?6. What steps should be taken to prevent this issue from occurring

again?

Step one relates to morally relevant considerations and requires bothdetermining pertinent information (understanding the life-cycles in-

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volved and identification of key decision-making processes) and identi-fying all the key stakeholders, their values, motivation, and physicalhistory. This step establishes ‘what is.’ The second step concentrates on‘what ought to be,’ and identifies ethical considerations to be applied.The third step seeks to identify who should take necessary actions, howto ensure that all stakeholders are included, the legitimacy and right tomake decisions, as well as the ability to affect a resolution. Step four ad-dresses the various benefits of all the stakeholders and how to balancethese, including both short-term and long-run considerations. Step fiveaddresses the method of decision-making, which must be perceived tobe fair and ethical. The final step recognizes that each decision becomesa precedent and seeks to decide what procedures should be used in thefuture and what decision will be best for the future. Of course, this pro-cess must be used within the specific context of the stakeholders makingthe decision and within the wider societal context.

While this framework has been somewhat useful in the course, manystudents have found that it does not provide sufficient guidance forthem. It addresses points in the wrong order. For example, it begins withgathering facts before clearly defining and reflecting on what questionsshould be asked. Also, little guidance is provided to address other ques-tions, especially the second one related to the ethical principles, normsand standards that should be applied.

Woodward’s Framework

The late Diana Woodward, who was on the faculty of Drexel Univer-sity until her premature death from cancer, presents a framework for de-ciding issues in ethics (Woodward 1990). She discusses advantages anddisadvantages of consequentiality and deontology as bases for ethicalreasoning in general, and intellectual freedom in general, concludingthat a deontological defense of intellectual freedom is “safer” than oneon consequential grounds. The article, while helpful for introducingsome of the philosophical foundations and theoretical bases for ethicalreasoning, does not provide a useful framework for addressing manypractical, “real-world” issues.

O’Boyle’s Process

O’Boyle (O’Boyle 2002) concentrates on the use of the Code of Eth-ics from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), describedas deontological because of its enumeration of rights (what is owed by

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others) and duties (what is owed to others), within a general ethical de-cision-making process to determine an action. Providing a sound dis-cussion of earlier writings on the ACM Code, he places the Code withina general ethical decision-making process; he differentiates betweentwo human faculties: intellect and will. O’Boyle builds on work of Restand Kohlberg and identifies a six-stage process: (1) Moral perceptionand personal knowledge of the moral good (recognition that the prob-lem exists); (2) Moral discernment and personal ability to think logi-cally (stating the problem clearly); (3) Moral resolution and personalability to think analytically (tackling the complexities of the problem toarrive at an individual position); (4) Moral assessment and personalability to assess one’s freedom (assessment, including being aware ofthe double-edged sword of new technologies); (5) Moral decision andpersonal knowledge of one’s duties (decision, including personal dutyand obligations); and (6) Moral action and personal willingness to fol-low one’s intellect (free will used to take action). O’Boyle finds that theACM Code is helpful with the first three stages, but not with the otherthree, and that training is needed to apply the Code effectively. He raisestwo provocative suggestions: that implementing the Code could be ad-vanced by (1) making an individual ethical audit part of an employee’sperformance review, and (2) hiring people who have some understand-ing and training in ethical behavior. The students have found it helpfulin applying codes of ethics to actual situations and problems, and theyfind the questions to be provocative. Because the article concentratesspecifically on the ACM Code (ACM 1992), the six-stage frameworkalso has limitations. It does not include extensive discussion of thediverse needs and perspectives of the various stakeholders, nor does itaddress many of the complex cultural issues.

Ottoson’s Model for Businesses

Because many SIS students work in, or will work in, corporate envi-ronments, articles from business journals and speakers from the corpo-rate world are included in the course. One example is a model for ethicaldecision-making proposed by Gerald Ottoson (Ottoson 1988), a retiredindustry executive, who is now a consultant. Ottoson has conducted nu-merous ethics seminars over the years for workers in corporations. Hisapproach is to spend a small amount of time on fundamental ethical val-ues (e.g., honesty, mercy, justice, etc.) and to concentrate on models toexamine real cases. One model, “A Suggested Pattern of Inquiry,” is

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presented as a checklist in reviewing and evaluating past actions. Themodel uses a series of questions:

1. Who should make the decision (includes where the legitimatepower to make the decision lies, limits on authority, obligation/re-sponsibility, need for knowledge–the essential facts, and neutral-ity/objectivity)?

2. Who are the stakeholders (principle of regard for others)?3. What are the alternatives (including competing claims, costs/ben-

efits, etc.)?4. How should the decision be reached (inclusion in the process, per-

ception of involvement, avoidance of paternalism)?

He notes that decision-making is always a compromise; there is no“perfect” solution; and there will always be some regrettable aspects ofthe ultimate decision. He also realistically argues that the “final courseof action you decide to follow should leave you a little uncomfortable. . . .No matter how noble your purpose may be, there is no ethical reward forimpaling yourself on someone else’s sword” (Ottoson 1988, 14). Whilehis framework is incomplete and open to many different interpretations,the students find this example, used in conjunction with others, to behelpful because of its emphasis on the workplace and its realistic ques-tions. It is particularly helpful for discussing management issues.

Hidden Traps–Hammond, et al.

John Hammond et al. present a series of “hidden traps” in decisionmaking in their article in the Harvard Business Review (Hammond et al.1998). Although their work addresses decision making in the corporateworld, the traps they identify can be applied to other types of work envi-ronments, including library administration. Among the traps they iden-tify are: (1) anchoring (giving disproportionate weight to the firstinformation received; first impressions, facts, and estimates anchor sub-sequent thoughts and decisions); (2) status-quo (bias towards perpetuat-ing the status quo and avoiding change); (3) sunk-cost (justifying pastchoices even when they no longer seem valid because investments havealready been made); (4) confirming-evidence (seeking information thatsupports existing views while avoiding information that contradicts it);(5) framing (how the question is framed shapes the decision-makingprocess and there is a tendency to adopt the frame presented rather thanto restate the problem and reframe the questions); (6) estimating and

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forecasting (making and using estimates and forecasts without gaugingaccuracy and getting sufficient feedback); (7) overconfidence (ten-dency to be overconfident in making predictions); (8) prudence (beingoverly cautious); and (9) recallability (selectivity in examining pastevents and tending to exaggerate and assign higher probability to dra-matic events). While this is not a framework for decision-making, con-sideration and discussion of these potential traps lead to an improvedunderstanding of problems which are often encountered in ethicalreflection and decision-making. These traps exist in library decision-making and are useful to consider in work in administration andthroughout library management.

Altenburger’s Summary Principles

Dr. Christine Altenburger, a retired faculty member from the Univer-sity of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,taught applied ethics for many years. In her teaching, she developed aseries of principles and a framework (unpublished), which she hasgiven permission to use in our classes. The basic principles she iden-tifies, summarized from those frequently found in the literature, are:(1) Do no harm. Do good if possible. (2) Observe the cannons of justice.Be fair. (3) Respect the rights, dignity, and freedom of all individuals.She also presents a flow diagram, beginning with gathering facts, lead-ing to analysis and judgment, and incorporating decision loops to recon-sider answers to questions.

Paul and Elder’s Guide

These and numerous readings have been used throughout our course,but none provided the kind of framework or guide needed for our stu-dents as they worked towards resolutions of their problems. One veryhelpful resource used in the SIS course is The Miniature Guide to Un-derstanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning by Richard Paul andLinda Elder from the Foundation for Critical Thinking (Paul and Elder2004). This brief Guide provides a concise discussion of the importanceof critical thinking and the elements of thought, a checklist for reason-ing, and a series of questions using these elements. It also summarizesproblems of egocentric thinking (Paul and Elder 2004, 6): (1) the as-sumption that it’s true because I believe it; (2) true because we believeit; (3) true because I want to believe it; (4) true because I have alwaysbelieved it; and (5) true because it is in my selfish interest to believe it.

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The Guide builds on earlier guides and introduces a concise andstraightforward introduction to the function of ethics, expanding on thediscussion of egocentric thought, and addressing problems of “pseudo-ethics.” It discusses the differences between ethics and: religion, socialconventions, sexual taboos, political ideology, and the law. The authorsalso remind the readers of why it is important to distinguish amongquestions of ethics, social conventions, religion and law, and they pres-ent a series of elements of ethical reasoning. They propose an eight-stepprocess to determine the logic of an ethical question: (1) purpose (con-sidering an individual’s rights and needs as well as those of others); (2)key ethical question(s); (3) information needed to answer the ques-tion(s); (4) concepts and principles to guide thinking; (5) main assump-tions used; (6) points of view of all stakeholders; (7) maininferences/conclusions (what are the alternatives, are all being consid-ered, etc.); and (8) implications (for self and others, including conse-quences, questions of harm/good, etc.). Steps must be repeated,especially as assumptions are questioned and points of views are con-sidered.

This framework has worked successfully for students to address awide range of questions and problems. In the IE course, students select apersonal problem and use the process throughout the course, incorpo-rating what they learn from the readings and from the codes of ethicsand other tools, to write a paper describing the use of the eight-step pro-cess towards resolution of their problem. The paper and topic are keptcompletely confidential, and students often address very poignant per-sonal problems. On more than one occasion this author has required stu-dents to consult a university counselor and to select a different problem,because the proposed problem related to abuse of a sibling, a drug con-cern for a “friend,” or another problem requiring the assistance of atrained psychologist or psychiatrist. The process has also been used ef-fectively as part of a brief introduction to Information Ethics in the re-quired introductory courses, such as “Understanding Information,” andin a continuing education workshop for medical librarians. In the intro-ductory course, students work in groups of six or seven to discuss theprocess they would use (walking through the eight steps) to respond to ahypothetical example based on a real-world case, such as a challengemade in a school library requesting the removal of some books. In thisexample, the students are told they are school library directors asked bythe school’s principal to appear before the school’s board the followingweek to recommend a response to the challenge to a book in the schoollibrary.

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Every time this process is used, with a variety of case studies and ex-amples, the students have indicated that the framework encouragesthem to ask many questions and to examine different perspectives andissues. They have also noted the usefulness of the framework in work-ing through individual problems. This leads to a discussion of the im-portance of recognizing that no human is ever totally objective and oflearning one’s own biases, personal values, and cultural perspectives.This process is particularly helpful for managerial decisions, because ofthe rigorous process of questioning assumptions and considering allviewpoints and alternatives. Also, the exercise of working both ingroups and individually teaches students to work as part of a team to re-solve an organizational issue and to think independently to resolve anindividual decision.

The Guide seems to be the best tool in our courses to help studentswork through ethical reflection towards making moral decisions, be-cause it focuses on steps in critical thinking and encourages students towork through the steps, looping back to earlier steps, in the process. TheGuide also serves to help stimulate discussion among students about theprocess, and occasionally about their problems if the student chooses toshare them. One significant flaw in the Guide is that the steps rely onlogic and objectivity and do not take into account the fact that no humanis ever completely objective. This shortcoming can, of course, be ad-dressed by the teacher through readings and by raising questions in thediscussion. A revised guide, addressing the subjective issues would be avaluable contribution to the teaching of ethical reasoning. Even withthis limitation, the Guide could be used effectively by administrators intheir own decision making and by library staff, especially in developingand implementing policies.

CHALLENGES OF TEACHING DIVERSE STUDENTS

Course Content

The focus of this paper is on formal education within LIS programs.Of course, continuing education is essential in our rapidly changingfield. Collaboration among educators and library administratorsthrough jointly developed and sponsored lectures and workshops, suchas we have at the University of Pittsburgh, or programs at professionalconferences, is essential for life-long learning.

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Within courses in LIS programs, identifying what to include in a syl-labus–the topics, readings, assignments, and evaluation methods–is dif-ficult in many ways. At the University of Pittsburgh, courses arefourteen or fifteen weeks long (depending on holidays), which meansthat a complex and large body of knowledge must be reduced to fit thetime allowed. SIS graduate courses meet once each week for two hourand fifty minute sessions, usually with a brief break. Many classes meetin the evening to meet the needs of the students who work full time. AnIE course must provide an introduction to applied ethics, focus on a lim-ited subset of the topic, and include resources to supplement what is in-cluded in the course content. Selecting readings is difficult because oflanguage limitations (in our case, English), the need to choose a reason-able amount of material to be read each week, and the challenge of try-ing to provide international and multicultural perspectives. Theinclusion of guest speakers, such as administrators, from different typesof organizations, including libraries, and, when possible, from differentcultures and countries, can enhance the educational experience for thestudents. IE lecturers participate in classes, and other speakers have in-cluded the head of a foundation who also serves on a corporate boardand a doctoral student conducting research on the Tuskegee syphiliscase. One entire class session is devoted to IE issues in management.

There are, of course, several courses specifically on library manage-ment, including a required introductory one. While content related tomanagement and administration is included in many SIS courses, be-cause of the level of experience of most students, most of the contentmust be at a more introductory and foundational level. While incorpo-rating IE issues into management courses is difficult because most ofthe course must concentrate on fundamentals of management, IE issuescan be and are addressed. For example, writing a library’s mission state-ment usually does, or certainly should, begin with a discussion of valuesand the role of the library in serving its community. Collection and otherlibrary use policies address questions of values, including fundamentalrespect for human rights, codes of ethics, and intellectual property. Poli-cies on the use of the library for meetings of other organizations or forspeakers raise questions of freedom of expression and censorship.Quality of service, the need for staying current in the field, accuracy ofinformation on the library’s web site, and other topics addressed inmanagement all are fundamental ethical issues. Discussions of policiesfor weeding, preserving and removing print or electronic materials alsoshould include the related ethical questions. Of course, policies on re-sponding to requests under the USA PATRIOT Act or other requests for

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information about library users and challenges to materials in collec-tions are key IE issues.

Teaching/Learning Styles and Approaches

Recognizing that students learn in different ways and come frombackgrounds that include a wide range of teaching and learning styles,each instructor works to provide options and, if possible, customizedapproaches, for different students. For example, students from culturesthat do not permit or encourage questioning the instructor or challeng-ing ideas, often have difficulty participating in a U.S. seminar-styleclass in which students are expected to discuss readings and challengeideas openly. Case-based learning, often combining role playing, canalso be an effective technique. Patience, some one-on-one sessions, dis-cussions in very small groups, emphasis on civil discourse, and encour-agement of participation usually help with this. Having students taketurns in leading discussions of a reading and using online discussionboards, blogs and wikis have worked well in many courses. Instructorsalso have to work to be flexible and to adapt their teaching methods,perhaps combining and alternating different methods to meet students’needs. They also need to recognize their own strengths and weaknessesand the styles they are most comfortable using, seeking assistance fromother faculty, from teaching assistance groups on campus, and frompractitioners. This is a complex and challenging area that deservesmuch more attention, sharing of experience, and discussion.

Alternative Models

Different models may be needed to assist with ethical reflection anddecision-making, recognizing cultural and other biases in each model.A model that works well with graduates, may not work as well with un-dergraduate students. Cultural biases in some models may introducebarriers for some students. Continuing to explore alternatives and eval-uating the effectiveness of various models are needed to encourage stu-dent learning and exploration. Working with library administration todevelop cases and to test models on “real-world” situations helps. In-corporating models, diverse readings, active discussion, interactionamong students, and perspectives from outside speakers provides op-portunities for effective learning and enhances education. Distance edu-cation programs, such as our FastTrack program, are growing aroundthe U.S. There has been considerable interest in offering courses on IE

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via distance. Because of the highly interactive nature of the discussions,usually in real time, there are particular challenges in offering such acourse in an asynchronous mode, although there are some initial effortsto do so. Because of this author’s own cultural background (Ital-ian-American), until video technology and necessary band width avail-ability for all off-campus students (many of whom live in rural areas oroutside the U.S.) improve to make it possible to see all studentssimultaneously and clearly, this author expects to continue to teach thiscourse on campus only.

NEED FOR ONGOING EVALUATION

Excellence in education requires continual evaluation, from students,colleagues, and one’s self. Getting students to provide constructive crit-icism throughout a course is difficult, because of students’ concernsabout possible negative consequences, different cultural backgrounds,and other factors. Watching facial expressions and other body languagecan be helpful in observing students’ responses, as, of course, can re-sponses to questions, quality of work on assignments, and the nature ofclass discussions. Some instructors give quizzes or tests to determinehow well students are understanding and learning.

Extremely important throughout any course is the provision of com-ments on assignments and of other feedback to students on their work.Detailed comments on papers, discussions with students both in classand individually, and other means of communicating with studentsabout their work are all critical to ensure that students know how wellthey are doing and where there are areas in need of improvement. Rais-ing questions to provoke their thinking and to help guide their learningis also important.

CONCLUSION

This paper has attempted to provide a brief overview of the chal-lenges in educating LIS professionals, including future administrators,about Information Ethics using a single case study. The author has alsosuggested some techniques for expanding IE education as part oflife-long learning. These ideas are intended to provoke questions, helpencourage discussion of this complex topic, and encourage collabora-tion between library administrators and LIS educators.

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NOTES

1. The author extends her appreciation to Brian Cumer and Siobhan Fagan, PhD andmaster’s students, respectively, for their assistance with references, formatting, andcomments for this paper.

2. It is important to recognize that all practitioners are also educators because theyteach throughout their work lives, and that many whose focus is formal education areoften also practitioners, even if only part-time through service on boards and advisorycommittees.

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Association of Computing Machinery. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.Adopted by ACM Council 10/16/1992 http://www.acm.org/constitution/code.html.

Barnes, R.F. 1990. The Making of Ethics Code. American Society for Information Sci-ence Bulletin. 16 (6). 24-25.

Bearman, T.C. 1981. Do we need a code of ethics for information science? AmericanSociety for Information Science Bulletin, 8 (1): 36.

Beghtol, C. 2002. A Proposed Ethical Warrant for Global Knowledge Representationand Organization Systems. Journal of Documentation. 58 (5): 507-532.

Buchanan, Elizabeth A. 2002. Information Ethics in a World-Wide Context. In:Rudinow, Joel and Anthony Graybosch. Ethics and Values in the Information Age.Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. 2002. 35-44.

Capurro, R., and T. Frühbauer. 2007. Localizing the Internet: Ethical Aspects inIntercultural Perspectives. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.

Carbo, T., and S. Almagno. 2001. Information Ethics: The Duty, Privilege and Chal-lenge of Educating Information Professionals. Library Trends. 49(3): 510-518.

Carbo, T. 2004. Models for Ethical Decision-Making for Use in Teaching InformationEthics: Challenges for Educating Diverse Information Professionals. Paper pre-sented at the invitational International Center for Information Ethics Symposium,Karlsruhe, Germany, 4-6 October 2004. IJIE: International Journal of InformationEthics 2 (11). http://container.zkm.de/ijie/n0002/ijie_002_08_carbo.pdf.

Carter, S. 1996. Integrity. New York: HarperPerennial.Dalai Lama. 1999. Ethics for the New Millennium. New York: Riverhead Books.First African Information Ethics Conference: Ethical Challenges in the Information

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Froehlich, T. J. 1992. Ethical considerations of information professionals. Annual Re-view of Information Science and Technology, 27, 291-324.

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Hammond, J., R. Keeney, and H. Raiffa. 1998. The Hidden Traps in Decision Making.Harvard Business Review. (September-October): 47-58.

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Mason, R., F. Mason, and M. Culnan . 1995. Ethics of Information Management. Thou-sand Oaks: Sage.

Mendina, T. (Ed.) 2000. EEI21–Memphis. Fourth Ethics of Electronic Information inthe 21st Century Symposium. [Proceedings] The International Information and Li-brary Review 32 (3-4) September/December 2000.

O’Boyle, E. 2002. An Ethical Decision-Making Process for Computing Professionals.Ethics and Information Technology. 4: 267-277.

Ottoson, G. 1988. A Model for Ethical Decision-Making. Ethikos. (July/August): 8-11.Paul, R., and L. Elder. 2004. The Miniature Guide to Understanding the Foundations

of Ethical Reasoning. Dillon Beach: The Foundation for Critical Thinking.Rockenbach, B. 1998. Information Ethics at the University of Pittsburgh. Journal of

Information Ethics. 7 (Fall 1998): 13-18.Rockenbach, B. and T. Mendina (Eds.). 2003. Ethics and electronic information: A

Festschrift for Stephen Almagno (pp. 16-24). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.Woodward, D. 1990. A Framework for Deciding Issues in Ethics. Library Trends. 39

(Summer & Fall 1990): 8-17.World Summit on the Information Society. Geneva 2003-Tusin 2005. Declaration of

Principles. 12 December 2003. (WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/4-E)

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