Identify the core values and ethics of the library and information science professions.
Artifact--module discussion post for LIS701-Introduction to Library and Information Science:
Prompt: Review the American Library Association's Core Values of Librarianship. Select and reflect on two (2) of these values. What do they mean to you? What kinds of situations/scenarios do you think can occur for information professionals where these values are tested, or challenged? You may use real or hypothetical examples.
ACCESS
Libraries being places of knowledge, learning, and their related resources, it is important that all people be unhindered in using the resources. Learning is an important part of our human experience, and when people are prevented from learning, their ability to achieve their full human potential is limited, as they cannot fully use their intellectual capabilities to attain all that they desire.
Thinking back through United States history, there were definitely times when libraries restricted access to library resources to certain people, like barring entry to African-Americans to certain libraries in times of segregation.
One of my favorite authors, Oak Park resident Harriette Gillem Robinet, experienced such discrimination in libraries when she was growing up in the southern United States during the Jim Crow decades, as she writes about in her author’s note section in one of her books. When she entered a library, intimidating security guards told her to keep on the move and not linger long in one spot. These unfortunate experiences still haunt her years later, because she has visited libraries frequently to do research for her children’s historical fiction books about African-Americans in various periods of US history.
Given these unfortunate past incidents that were part of a systematic denial of library resources to African-Americans, librarians are faced with the challenge to put aside whatever inherent prejudices they might hold to help keep open access to all users, regardless of their background, especially as the effects of systemized segregation linger in our society.
Libraries are also challenged to keep open access to all users in the way spaces are designed. Considerations must be made to users who have various physical disabilities, especially those who are wheelchair-bound. Having wide door spaces, elevators, and other feature helps in removing barriers to those with such disabilities, and those involved in designing library spaces must be mindful to consider these features, especially given costs and other logistical issues to accommodate those who need extra assistance overcoming barriers. And then there is the need to accommodate users with impairment of their senses, by providing, for example, large-print books. Libraries have to manage well their budgets to be mindful of providing these resources to users, so that no one is marginalized by inability to use them. Thus, it is important for libraries to consider the vast demographic groups they serve as part of their efforts to ensure full access to what they offer.
DEMOCRACY
Not only is democracy a core value of librarianship, but it is also a hallmark of our experience as people of the United States, and one that has been embraced widely in governments throughout the world. As humans, we desire to express ourselves, which should in no way be restricted by the government, even the one we empower to rule our society. Furthermore, we should be allowed to access and engage with others’ expressions that they share.
Library professionals, regardless of their own personal views, have the important role of facilitating access to information on all manner of subjects that users desire to access. Library professionals must demonstrate openness to engaging with various views and subjects, which is part of having free expression in a democratic society, letting such opinions be expressed freely to others. But willingness to engage with different viewpoints gets strained when those viewpoints push the limits of decency and civility.
One recent incident that vividly connects with this core value is the controversy at the Orland Park Public Library over users’ accessing pornography on library computers. Complaints arose mainly from parents concerned about their children being exposed to inappropriate material from those accessing it online from library computers. Pornography has been protected as an expression under the 1st Amendment, and as part of fostering democracy, libraries encounter these issues when certain expressions pose morally unsound and otherwise objectionable material that could do harm to the mentality of people exposed to it. Furthermore, the library has the challenge of not only allowing the free expression of the material in its collections, or in this case, technological resources, but addressing the concerns of those who don’t want it present.
Explanation Paragraph:
Befitting for the introductory course in this program, I had the opportunity to reflect on the core values of the library profession in writing this discussion post. I chose access, because I see librarianship as all about helping facilitate access to information for users. And I chose to reflect on democracy, because in large part, libraries are all about allowing every one’s necessarily having the ability to access information, because the breadth of available information means that it has the ability to benefit everyone. Not only did I write about what these values mean in my own words, but I also reflected on how they connect with real-life situations, which was an opportunity for me to see how these values can be applied beyond themselves.