Information professionals play an extremely important role in society. And it is critical that they carry out their mission in an ethical manner. Toward this end, many organizations of information professionals have adopted codes of professional ethics. See, for example, ALA’s Code of Ethics and ASIST’s Professional Guidelines.
Such codes of professional ethics provide information professionals with guiding principles. However, there are a number of reasons why information professionals need to understand the ethical reasoning that justifies acting in accordance with these principles. First, it is no simple matter to apply these principles to particular concrete situations. An understanding of the underlying ethical reasoning can help us to apply these principles to such situations. Second, these principles often come into conflict with other obligations that we have. (They can even come into conflict with each other.) An understanding of the underlying ethical reasoning can help us to resolve such conflicts.
In this course, we will study the various ethical theories that have been proposed by philosophers. We will then apply these theories to the ethical dilemmas that most commonly confront information professionals. In particular, we will focus on issues such as intellectual freedom, equitable access to information, privacy, and intellectual property. In addition, we will look at how advances in information technology have created new ethical dilemmas.
Note: Libraries and librarians face certain unique ethical challenges. However, they also share many ethical challenges with the growing number of businesses and government agencies that handle and disseminate information. As a result, many of the readings for this course will look at information ethics in this broader context.
| Group Presentation | 25% |
| Individual Project | 20% |
| Midterm | 20% |
| Short Assignments | 20% |
| Participation | 15% |
| Topic | Readings | |
| Week 1 (8/25) | Introduction | |
| Week 2 (9/1) | The Mission of the Information Professional | Ortega y Gasset, Wengert, Codes of Ethics |
| Week 3 (9/8) | Ethical Theories | Spinello, Woodward (both articles) |
| Week 4 (9/15) | Rights | |
| Week 5 (9/22) | Intellectual Freedom | Doyle, Mill |
| Week 6 (9/29) | Intellectual Freedom (cont.) | Wolkoff, Nesta/Blanke, Baldwin |
| Week 7 (10/6) | Midterm | |
| Week 8 (10/13) | Access to Information | Sheerin |
| Week 9 (10/20) | Privacy | Thompson, Garoogian |
| Week 10 (10/27) | Intellectual Property and Copyright | Harper |
| Week 11 (11/3) | Justifying Intellectual Property Rights | McCain, Hettinger |
| Week 12 (11/10) | Information Ethics and Epistemology | Fallis, Vaidhyanathan |
| Week 13 (11/17) | Presentations | |
| Week 14 (11/24) | Presentations | |
| Week 15 (12/1) | Presentations | |
| Week 16 (12/8) | Presentations |
IMPORTANT! This syllabus is still under development and is subject to modifications and additions. There are two sections for this course: 791 and 792. There is a WebCT homepage for each section. The listserv for section 791 is IRLS520-791@listserv.arizona.edu. The listserv for section 792 is IRLS520-792@listserv.arizona.edu. Please subscribe to the listserv for your section. See Subscription Information for instructions.
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