Core Competency A
The following statement and submitted evidence show my understanding of the ethics, values and foundational principles of library and information professionals and their role in the promotion of intellectual freedom.
Humans have the unique ability to accumulate information from their past experiences and then extrapolate the implications to use as tools to better control circumstances. The experiences of generations, formulated as knowledge, have the extraordinary quality that they are indestructible, as long as they are passed along. In his preface to the Book VI of the Ten Books on Architecture, Vitruvius (1914) relates the story of one Aristippus... MORE>>
Some of the evidence documents are presented as HTML pages, but most of them are in iPaper format, which requires ADOBE FLASH PLAYER. Clicking on [PDF] link will open the same documents in ADOBE ACROBAT READER.
Evidence 1: Public Libraries: Last Four Thousand Years
This timeline was written as an assignment in the Information and Society class, Spring of 2005, and shows my understanding of the foundational principles of libraries and information professionals.
The idea of a public library is quite old and not limited to Europe. From the invention of printing u 2000 BCE, this paper follows the relevant events in the development of books and libraries in general, as well as noting the cases of public libraries in various countries around the world. The chronology ends with the year 2000, when the development of the Internet and World Wide Web changed the way people create, access, and share information. As the digital divide replaced the literacy divide, public libraries are necessary as ever to provide affordable access to information for the general public thus empowering them to make responsible decisions for themselves and society as the whole.
Evidence 2 :: The conflict between confidentiality and civic duty: the case of the distraught mother [PDF]
This essay in library ethics was written as an assignment in the Information and Society class, Spring of 2005, and shows my understanding of importance of intellectual freedom and the role of library and information professionals in its promotion.
In an ethical scenario, a young librarian is presented with a tricky problem – a distraught mother comes to the library claiming to have evidence that her daughter has a relationship with an older man whom she encountered on the Internet. Stating that her daughter could be in grave danger, the mother is asking about her daughter's movements or any other information that may help. The dilemma of the librarian, as presented in the scenario, is that revealing of the information she has on her patron, a 16 year old girl, and helping the mother to extricate her daughter from a possibly dangerous relationship would violate the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association or Library Bill of Rights. The essay argues that as the mother did not ask for any personal information, reading or borrowing practices of her daughter in the library, and as the relationship and internet encounter did not happen on the library grounds or with the use of library computers, by helping the distraught mother Ms. Keenan will not violate library ethical codes. The scenario issues are all related to the civic responsibility of one human towards another, and probably the best help the librarian can do is to provide the mother with the information and assistance in contacting local or state agencies that deal with this kind of situation.
Evidence 3 :: The merits of the statement that all knowledge carries equal weight
The answer to this final exam question in the Information and Society class, Spring of 2005, shows my understanding of the values and fundamental principles that guide library and information professionals.
The statement that all knowledge carries equal weight would imply that we somehow have a way to judge knowledge against some uniform and objective scale. But, the worth of knowledge could be judged only by the individual user and therefore depends on varying interpretations and circumstances, and thus it is of unique value. However, exactly that uniqueness is what makes all knowledge of equal worth: in the same way all people are created equal and different, the knowledge they create is equally valuable and carries equal weight. Moreover, the value of particular information in wider fabric of human knowledge is not always immediately apparent. As James Burke shows in his books and TV series Connections, in human history there is a number of "worthless" or even factually wrong information that were important stepping stones in development of sciences and human history in general.
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