Ethics and Librarians

 Martin, Jeanette
CO-Overcoming Barriers

Butler, R. P. (2005). The School Librarian and On-the-Job Ethics. Knowledge Quest, 33(5), 33-

     34. 

Ethics can come into play regarding copyright infringement. An informational professional needs to know the law regarding fair use and/or copyright laws of for an original work. For instance, “A teacher asks you to copy a professional magazine article and place the copies in all other teachers’ mailboxes. When you protest that the magazine clearly states on the inside of the title page that article copying is considered a copyright infringement, he tells you not to worry “…no one from the magazine will ever know, and it’s a good article” (33). His job is not on the line if you break the law. The ethical thing to do would be to contact the magazine to get permission. If permission is denied, let the teacher know that it is an infringement of copyright law and you are not about to break the law.

This was a good article regarding the ethics one faces in the job as a professional librarian. There are many factors one faces in regards to ethics and copyright is just one of them. We are information service specialists and are job is to maintain freedom of speech in the written form without any threat of censorship,  or liability. However, we must follow the law regarding rights of others in this shared information world.