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ABSTRACT
Catalogers often need to make ethical decisions about their daily work. What is the starting point for defining cataloging ethics and how do practitioners define the concept? In this paper, the authors explore definitions of ethics and cataloging ethics in the literature, and subsequently analyze responses to a question asking respondents to define cataloging ethics. Set against the existing backdrop of the American Library Association “Code of Ethics,” the authors propose that shared values create a framework for discussing cataloging ethics, rather than a single articulated definition.
Notes
1 “Professional Ethics,” American Library Association, last modified January 22, 2008, http://www.ala.org/tools/ethics.
2 “CILIP’s Ethical Framework,” CILIP: The Library and Information Association, accessed July 10, 2020, https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/ethics.
3 Wallace Koehler, “Professional Values and Ethics as Defined by ‘The LIS Discipline’,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 44, no. 2 (2003): 99, doi:10.2307/40323926
4 Ibid.
5 Michael Gorman, Our Enduring Values Revisited: Librarianship in an Ever-Changing World (Chicago: ALA Editions, 2015), 1.
6 Ibid.
7 “Professional Ethics,” paragraph 6.
8 Kohler, “Professional Values,” 99.
9 Martin L. Garnar, “Information Ethics,” in Information Services Today: An Introduction, ed. Sandra Hirsh, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), 367.
10 Melodie J. Fox and Austin Reece, “Which Ethics? Whose Morality?: An Analysis of Ethical Standards for Information Organization,” Knowledge Organization 39, no. 5 (2012): 377–83, doi:10.5771/0943-7444-2012-5-377, 378.
11 John T. F. Burgess, “Principles and Concepts in Information Ethics,” in Foundations of Information Ethics, ed. Emily Knox and John T. F. Burgess (Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman, 2019), 1.
12 John T. F. Burgess, “History of Ethics in the Information Professions,” in Foundations of Information Ethics, ed. Emily Knox and John T. F. Burgess (Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman, 2019), 26.
13 Clare Beghtol, “Professional Values and Ethics in Knowledge Organization and Cataloging,” Journal of Information Ethics 17, no. 1 (2008): 12–19, doi:10.3172/jie.17.1.12.
14 “Professional Ethics,” paragraph 6.
15 “Ethical Framework: Commitment to Professional Ethics by CILIP Members,” CILIP: The Library and Information Association, accessed July 11, 2020, https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cilip.org.uk/resource/resmgr/cilip/policy/new_ethical_framework/cilip_s_ethical_framework.pdf.
16 Fox and Reece, “Which Ethics”; Riccardo Ridi, “Ethical Values for Knowledge Organization,” Knowledge Organization 40, no. 3 (2013): 187–96, doi: 10.5771/0943-7444-2013-3-187.
17 Sheila Bair, “Toward a Code of Ethics for Cataloging,” Technical Services Quarterly 23, no. 1 (2005): 13–26, https://doi.org/10.1300/j124v23n01_02; Elizabeth Shoemaker, “No One Can Whistle a Symphony: Seeking a Catalogers’ Code of Ethics,” Knowledge Organization 42, no. 5 (2015): 353–64, doi: 10.5771/0943-7444-2015-5-353.
18 Melissa Adler, Cruising the Library: Perversities in the Organization of Knowledge (New York: Fordham University Press, 2017); Daniel CannCasciato, “Ethical Considerations in Classification Practice: A Case Study Using Creationism and Intelligent Design,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 49, no. 5 (2011): 408–27, https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2011.589221; Emily Drabinski, “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction,” Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 80, no. 2 (2013): 94–111; Jens‐Erik Mai, “Classification in a Social World: Bias and Trust,” Journal of Documentation 66, no. 5 (July 2010): 627–42, doi:10.1108/00220411011066763.
19 Amber Billey, Emily Drabinski, and K. R. Roberto, “What’s Gender Got to Do with It? A Critique of RDA 9.7,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 52, no. 4 (2014): 412–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2014.882465; Brian Dobreski and Barbara Kwaśnik, 2017. “Changing Depictions of Persons in Library Practice: Spirits, Pseudonyms, and Human Books,” Knowledge Organization 44, no. 8 (2017): 656–67; Maurine McCourry, “Domain Analytic, and Domain Analytic-Like, Studies of Catalog Needs: Addressing the Ethical Dilemma of Catalog Codes Developed with Inadequate Knowledge of User Needs,” Knowledge Organization 42, no. 5 (2015): 339–45, doi:10.5771/0943-7444-2015-5-339; Amelia Bowen Koford, “Engaging an Author in a Critical Reading of Subject Headings,” Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 1, no. 1 (2017), doi:10.24242/jclis.v1i1.20; Jane Sandberg, Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control (Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2019).
20 Jihee Beak, “Where is Childrens’ Voice in KO?” Knowledge Organization 42, no. 5 (2015): 284–9; Karen Snow, “An Examination of the Practical and Ethical Issues Surrounding False Memoirs in Cataloging Practice,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 53, no. 8 (2015): 927–47. doi:10.1080/01639374.2015.1056571.
21 Sheila S. Intner, “Ethics in Cataloging,” Technicalities 13, no. 11 (1993): 6.
22 Ibid., 7.
23 Roy T. Cook, A Dictionary of Philosophical Logic (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), s.v. “Intensional Definition.”
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Joseph T. Tennis, “Two Axes of Domains for Domain Analysis,” Knowledge Organization 39, no. 3/4 (2003): 191–5.
27 Ibid., 192.
28 Ibid., 194.
29 “Professional Ethics,” paragraphs 5 and 6.
30 Ibid, paragraph 5.
31 Gorman, Our Enduring Values, 1.