Last revised February 7, 2006.
 
Course Outline for IRLS 520, Section 02: Ethics for Library and Information Professionals
Semester:  Spring 2006
Instructor:  Kay Mathiesen
Topic Readings  Assignments
Weekend 1 (1/21 and 1/22) 
Introduction
The Mission of the Information Professional
Ethical Theories
Diversity Issues
What is Information Ethics?
  • Ortega y Gasset
  • Wengert
  • Codes of Ethics 
  • Spinello
  • Woodward (both articles) 
  1. Participate in The Morality Play. Print out and bring your results to class. 
  2. Write a PRE for the Gassett and Wengert articles. 
  3. Describe a concrete ethical decision that information professional might have to make. Then,
    • Explain how a utilitarian would go about deciding this case.  
    • Explain how Kant would go about deciding this case.
    • Explain how Ross would go about deciding this case. 
    • Explain how a rights theorist would go about deciding this case. 
    (Be sure to refer to the specifics of the case in your answers.)

I
Weekend 2 (3/4 and 3/5) 

Intellectual Freedom
Access to Information
Privacy
Intellectual Property and Copyright
  • Mill 
  • Doyle
  • Wolkoff
  • Nesta/Blanke
  • Baldwin
  • Sheerin 
  • Thompson
  • Garoogian
  • Harper
  • Hettinger
  • Vaidhyanathan
 Write a PRE for each of the readings.
Weekend 3 (4/22 and 4/23)
Student Presentations
  •   Individual Presentation Due
Finals Week 
  • Individual Project Paper Due