Core Competency A: Ethics, Values, and Foundational Principles

“Core Competency A — articulate the ethics, values, and foundational principles of library and information professionals and their role in the promotion of intellectual freedom.”

One of the most important things I have learned is that advocacy is at the heart of librarianship. This advocacy is for freedom of access to information, for protecting the right to privacy, and for confidentiality in patrons’ information needs. The First Amendment of the Constitution not only protects freedom of expression, but also people’s freedom to access to that which is expressed. Protecting access to information means that librarians are against censorship. Celebrating “Banned Books Week” is one of the ways that librarians can promote not only freedom of access to materials, but also democracy, diversity, intellectual freedom, service, and social responsibility.

An argument could also be made that making available materials that have been challenged and/or banned supports the public good. Democracy is one of the values based on this belief because intellectual freedom encompasses equal access to information and knowledge. Furthermore, protecting privacy and confidentiality is crucial to some information seekers who might be embarrassed or otherwise feel inhibited about the type of information they need.

For example, LGBT youth (and adults) may feel and fear that that they are going to be “outed” if they seek information related to their orientation. With more and more states recognizing marriage equality, sexual orientations and gender identities other than the predominate culture’s “norm” are becoming less and less taboo, however, our profession still requires discretion as best practice in order to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patrons. It really is no one else’s business what people want to know about or why and if patrons know that they are being neither judged nor exposed for the information they seek, they will feel more comfortable asking us for help.  Part of promoting intellectual freedom means building and maintaining a collection that meets the information needs of the community.

This was why Andrew Carnegie built buildings for community libraries, but the community was responsible for building the collection to fill those libraries. The collection would then reflect the literary tastes and the information needs of the community. Diversity in a community library means that the collection and services, including programs, must be eclectic enough, yet still relevant to meet all community members’ information and other library needs. Libraries exist to provide information and knowledge. I have written a paper on this very issue (see A_Evidence_2). If we block, or allow to blocked, access to that information then our entire raison d’être is moot. My own effort to help promote intellectual freedom includes creating a bulletin board in the library where I work that I hope will pique interest in reading some of the most frequently banned and/or challenged books (see A_Evidence 1). I also created book displays (adult, YA, and Juvenile) featuring the books from the board as well as other frequently challenged and banned books. I created and printed a comprehensive list of frequently banned and challenged books which described the challenge so that people who were interested in participating in Banned Book Week activities could make informed choices.

As a library aide working in a large branch of our County Library System, I did not understand why some troublesome patrons could not be ejected from the library. I now understand that the purpose of public libraries is to provide both intellectual and physical access to information. The purpose of other types of libraries is to support the communities they serve, but I shall limit my discussion of public good and service to public libraries and save the notion that librarians serve in different capacities in various types of libraries for a later date (competency B). Librarians are grouped with teachers, social workers, and nurses in that we are a service profession and that means that we provide the highest level of service to all library users.  In our library, the library manager may eject people for poor hygiene – i.e. smelling so bad she receives complaints from multiple patrons -- but she has to tell them they can come back after they clean up and provide the person with a list of places where they can shower if they are homeless. In an effort to better understand this issue, I reviewed an article in which a landmark case discussing this issue was explored (see A_Evidence_3). My conclusion is that individuals may be temporarily ejected if their presence or behavior interferes with others’ right to access, but allowed back when problems are resolved.

One of the issues with which I have struggled was maintaining a balance between preservation and access. Certainly, there is a problem with protecting and preserving rare materials when the public is given free access to these things. However, there is also the question, if no one can ever see or handle these things, for what purpose are they being preserved? So the problem has two components:  preservation/protection and access.  The conclusion I reached is that the issue needs further study and this will be a research project for the future. I offer two projects I completed in evidence of my competence in the area of preservation (please see A_Evidence_4 and 5).

I am looking forward to promoting intellectual freedom through participating in Banned Books week activities in the future. I already have plans in place for more interactive and proactive activities for the constituents of our branch to participate next year.