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Ethics and Values in Librarianship: A History examines the development of and changes to library and information science through practice and the writings of library and information theorists and practitioners from Varro during the reign of Julius Caesar to the present. It documents technological and social changes that have had foundational implications for the information professions. The author argues that ethical standards may be redefined over time and new standards may emerge, older precepts and newer ones coexist. He also demonstrates that while specific ethical standards never disappear, they are not static. They change both to specific application and in order of emphasis among other standards. For example, Sir Thomas Bodley prohibited the lending of books from the Oxford library to protect the collection from damage and theft. While this early notion of stewardship has given way to service, stewardship nonetheless remains a core principle of the profession.
Topics covered include the freedom of expression; intellectual freedom; libraries and democracy; intellectual property, copyright, and fair use; and professional qualifications and credentialing. The book is not only a history, but also suitable for use in foundational courses as well as courses in information and library ethics.
List of contents
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1 Libraries and Ethics
Chapter 2 Stewardship and Service
Chapter 3 Classification
Chapter 4 On Public Libraries
Chapter 5 On the Freedom of Expression, Intellectual Freedom, and their Control
Chapter 6 Libraries and Democracy
Chapter 7 Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Fair Use
Chapter 8 Qualifications of the Librarian
Chapter 9 Love of Libraries and Advice on Library Formation
Chapter 10 New Conditions and New Principles
Chapter 11 Concluding Chapter
Index
About the Author
About the author
Dr. Wallace Koehler recently retired as the (founding) director of the LIS Program at Valdosta State University (VSU) in Georgia. He was on the VSU faculty for thirteen years. Before VSU, he was on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma. He is now professor emeritus at VSU.
Dr. Koehler holds a MS from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. His research interests include information ethics and bibliometrics. His contributions to the bibliometric literature include analyses of the life cycle of web documents. He is among the first to publish in that area. His research into information ethics includes codes of ethics and professional organizations as well as surveys of practitioners in a number of countries.
He is the coauthor (with June Lester) of two editions of Fundamentals of Information Studies: Understanding Information and Its Environment.
