Library Codes of Ethics Worldwide: An Anthology

Gcbolys, Zdzislaw and Tomaszczyk, Jacek. Library Codes of Ethics Worldwide; An Anthology1 Berlin: Simon Verlag fur Bibliothekswesen, 2012. 267 pp. ISBN 978-3-940862-24-2. euro26.00The history of codes of ethics for librarians goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903, US library advocate Mary Plummer initiated a standardization of core values and professional conduct for librarians. She was convinced that a code of ethics for librarians would promote and improve professionalism in the library workplace (Plummer, 1903). She thereby started a debate which resulted in the first Code of Ethics for librarians a few decades later when the American Library Association adopted their Code of Ethics in latel938. It was not until the 1960s that further library associations (Brazil, Costa Rica, Canada) followed suit. Even by the 1980s, only few national library associations had adopted a code of ethics. Since 1990, the situation has changed completely: there are now national codes of ethics for librarians in more than seventy countries. In addition, IFLA's committee Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) began work on an international code of ethics in 2009 (Rosch, 201 1 ); this code was adopted and presented to the public at the World Library and Information Conference in Helsinki August 2012 (IFLA, 2012).For more than twenty years, information ethics in general and the professional ethics of librarians in particular have been of increasing public concern. Library and information scientists have also drawn attention to these issues. Byrne (2002), Froehlich (1997), Koehler (2006), Sturges (2009), Vaagan (2002) and Ridi (2011) have started to analyse national codes of ethics for librarians and to compare their statements on an international level. Unsurprisingly, there are political, social and cultural differences between countries. For example, the Library Association of Singapore (2012) states in its current code: 'The librarian must give complete loyalty and fidelity to the policies set by the governing authority.' It is barely possible to envision such a statement in a professional code of ethics of a fully democratic country.An aid to research on codes of ethics for librarians is a reliable and up-todate compilation of such codes, mostly prepared and approved by national library associations. Until 2008, the only compilation was IFLA/FAIFE's list 'Professional Codes of Ethics for Librarians', which provided access to almost forty documents (IFLA/FAIFE). Unfortunately the committee did not have the resources to maintain this list to a desirable level. In 2008 the by then most comprehensive compilation appeared in print: the anthology Kodeksy Etyki Bibliotekarskiej na Swiecie I Library Codes of Ethics in the World edited by Zdzislaw Gcbolys and Jacek Tomaszczyk (2008). It contained sixty-one codes, including several drafts that had not been adopted. This publication was without doubt extremely commendable, but it had a serious disadvantage for an international audience: the introduction and the codes were in Polish.An updated version of the anthology was published in English in autumn 2011. It is bewildering why Elisabeth Simon's preface is dated 2010, whereas the title page is dated 2012. Beyond that the phrasing of the title sounds strange: 'Library Codes of Ethics in the World'. In fact the anthology doesn't present library codes but codes of ethics for librarians. The typological difference between ethical codes for institutions and individuals/professionals gets blurred.Selection criteria and arrangement of the anthology are explained in the introduction according to which only approved codes for librarians and related information professionals are listed. Nevertheless, in the case of Tanzania, a draft is presented without explanation. Another inconsistency applies to the code of Catalonia which is included although one of the selection criteria was to collect documents at a national level only. …

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