Spring 1997 OLA/WLA Conference Presentation:

    The Ethical Library: Responsibility for our Users and Staff in the Information Age

    Presenters: Linda Pierce, Foley Center, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA and Mark Alfino, Department of Philosophy, Gonzaga University

    In this presentation, our goals are to identify some of the ways in which information technology poses a threat to librarians' professional identity and to develop a theory about the role that it should play. In the process of doing that we will identify organizational processes which may help librarians negotiate technological change, both within their profession and with their patrons. (For simplicity, we will use the phrase "information technology" to refer to contemporary trends in electronic or cybernetic information technology. Obviously, print books are also a form of information technology.)

    A. Two ways in which Information Technology threatens librarians' Professional Identity

      1. New Missions. The public is adding new "technological missions" to the librarian's professional agenda, often without accepting the new costs for these services.
      2. Technological "Future Shock".  Many mid-career professional librarians are experiencing difficulty assimilating new technologies or even voicing concerns about new technologies.

    B. What's lost in the Pure Technolgical Vision of the Library?

      Potentially:

      1. Qualitatively rich librarian/patron interaction
      2. Some values of "collection" - esp. local collections
      3. The archival function of the library
      4. Control over future access to information
      5. Control over the way in which information is organized and presented to patrons.

    C. A Theory about the role of Information Technology in Libraries

      Information Technology has a different role to play in different kinds of institutions, depending upon the type of institution. We can distinguish three cases:

        1. Institutions which are essentially defined by electronic information technology, such as software companies, telephone companies, etc.
        2. Institutions whoose services remain essentially unchanged when converted to electronic information technology. For example, one could argue that banking services are essentially unchanged, though perhaps more efficient, when monetary transfers occur electronically rather than in species. For these institutions, information technology primarily raises questions of cost effectiveness and poses problems of transition.
        3. Institutions whoose services and character do change significantly, and which therefore must consider the introduction of electronic information technology as an identity-altering development. For example, most educators believe that face to face educational instruction is an essential component of most educational processes and that a replacement of classroom in instruction with electronically mediated instructional technology would by an essential, and negative change in the nature of the educational service.

      Critical Question: What is the basis for deciding whether libraries are in group 2 vs. group 3?

        Two claims we'll argue for:

        1. Because of the diverse ways in which libraries use information, they do not fit neatly into either of the 2 categories.
        2. Libraries support complex forms of culture, many of which are essentially tied to specific technological forms (e.g. children's reading services, literacy education, historical and archival research, most patterns of book use). In these cases, there is no way to think about technological change without making an essential, a possibly unwelcome and negative, change in the nature of the service.

        In general, we think that librarians need to make more careful distinctions between information technologies which can enhance or add new missions to librarianship and those which may negatively alter a service. What's needed is an organizational process which allows librarians and patrons to effectively weigh the impact of technolgical change.

    D. An Organizational Process for Thinking about Technological Change

      A good organizational process for thinking about the impact of electronic information technology on libraries will have to consider not only the "objective" costs and benefits of shifts in service and collection, but also the impact of those shifts on the nature of the service. In addition, the subjective perceptions of patrons must sometime be given overriding consideration (e.g. a case of a patron's brute preference for a print index over an electronic one, or for browsing a range of a bookshelf over using the catalog).

      Librarians have to avoid both the tendency to get caught up enthusiastically in technological change without realizing when that change causes essentially and negative impact on a service and a tendency to hang on to older technologies an attitudes (such as some aspects of the "collection mentality") which are really vestiges of the librarian's professional culture.

      Consider, for example how you would distinguish, by example, the following three scenarios:

      1. Cases in which librarians and patrons both judge a new technology to be superior and worth making a transition to, even if it changes or eliminates an essential library service.
      2. Cases in which librarians have (or should have) a professional consensus on a new technology.
      3. Cases in which patrons have legitimate grounds to override the professional judgement of librarians about the desirability or importance of an electronic information technology.

    Bibliography

    Benton Foundation (1996) Buildings, books, and bytes: Libraries and communities in the digital age. Washington, D.C. Benton Foundation.

    Eisenstadter, Ingrid. (1997, February 17) A tangled info web: Don't be deceived; even a high-tech library still need shelves of books and journals. Newsweek, 16

    Krautz, Joachim. (1996) The information superhighway: A road to misery? Contemporary Review, 268 (1560), 22-27

    Marcum, Deanna.B. (1996) Redefining community through the public library. Daedlus, 125 (4) 191-206

    McCook, Kathleen de la Pena (1997) The Search for New Metaphors. Library Trends (forthcoming, Summer 1997)

    Tisdale, Sallie (1997) Silence please: The public library as entertainment center. Harper's Magazine, 294 (1762), 65-74



    ©1997 by Mark Alfino, Department of Philosophy, Gonzaga University.