SLA has
begun a year long conversation on Information Ethics. Early in 2008, Ethics
Ambassadors were recruited to “get the ball rolling” in each
chapter and division. My task, as chapter Ethics Ambassador, is to get
the discussion started in our chapter – to get you thinking about
information ethics, and to gather information on how SLA members face
information ethics challenges in the form of examples and stories of situations
and outcomes.
As part
of this initiative, the Ethics Work Group recommended that SLA pursue the
establishment of ethics guidelines for its members.
After
analyzing the codes of ten professional associations, the SLA Ethics workgroup
recommend eight components as being relevant to SLA members:
- Professional
development
- Highest
levels of service
- Responsibility
for quality of systems, services, materials
- Integrity
and Accurate representation of expertise
- Legal
considerations and intellectual property concerns
- Treatment
of / relations hip employer, colleagues, and users
- Conflicts
of interest
- Confidentiality
and privacy
Our
chapter has two surveys up to gather feedback from our members.
The
first survey will introduce you to the proposed components of an Ethics code
for SLA members. Our collective feedback will help steer the direction of the
Association's Guidelines on Information Ethics.
The
purpose of the second survey is to gather examples of ethical dilemmas
encountered by our chapter members. This survey has only five questions
(you can choose to answer one or more questions; responses are not required for
each question). The survey is completely anonymous.
Both of
these surveys will be open through June 10th.
I will
be sharing the results of both surveys with the Ethics group and other Ethics
ambassadors on June 14th in Seattle.
Thank
you!
Kathleen
Rainwater
RMSLA
Ethics Ambassador
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