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Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries

Cokie Anderson, Oklahoma State University, USA

Chandos Information Professional Series

 - looks at ethics relating to digitization, digital libraries and preservation
 - includes decision making guides for various situations that arise in digital libraries, with questions for readers to ask themselves when faced with an ethical dilemma
 - takes the professional guidelines and codes of conduct for librarians, archivists and information workers as stated in the codes of ethics for various professional societies and applies these to the world of digital libraries

This book examines the ethical issues and dilemmas that arise in digital libraries, and the codes of conduct, professional guidelines and ethics resources used in resolving them. The book begins with an overview of classical and applied ethics, then reviews the codes of conduct of professional information societies (libraries, archivists, information technology). The book then examines issues and situations that arise in digitization and digital library management, and explores the ways established information ethics can be applied and adapted to these cases.

Readership: Institutions involved in digitizing materials, planning digital archives or institutional repositories, or managing electronic subscriptions and delivery of digital library services.

£42.50 / US$70.00 / €50.00

£62.50 / US$105.00 / €75.00

An e-book version of this title is available to purchase as part of a Collection or Pick n Mix. Visit Chandos Publishing Online

About the author

Cokie G. Anderson is an Assistant Professor and Electronic Publishing Librarian at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. She serves on the editorial board of The Electronic Library and is the co-author with David Maxwell of Starting a Digitization Center (Chandos Publishing, 2004).

Contents

An introduction to ethical theory and applied ethics
 - Virtue ethics
 - Kant and deontological theory
 - Utilitarianism
 - Summary

Professional codes of ethics in the information professions

Ethics and digitisation policies
 - Priorities and selection criteria
 - Copyright: The 800 pound (or kilo) gorilla
 - Handling privacy issues

Ethics and funding
 - Grants
 - Corporate sponsorship
 - Individual donors
 - Sustaining digital collections

Ethics and digital collaborations
 - Evaluating prospective partners
 - Proceeding with a collaboration
 - Ending a collaboration
 - Conclusion

Ethics and digitisation standards
 - Resources

Ethics in the digitisation process
 - Who will do the work?
 - What tools will you use?
 - Documenting workflow and practices
 - Presenting the collection online

Ethics and digital preservation

Ethics and access
 - Open access
 - Institutional repositories
 - Open access journals
 - Resisting censorship and protecting patron privacy

Ethics and digital library management
 - Personnel management
 - Dealing with vendors
 - Conflicts of interest
 - Bias

Ethics for twenty-first century librarians