Library Science Statement of Competence

Librarianship and the competency requirements
Ethics, Values and foundational principles in librarianship
Library science and librarianship as a profession is guided by ethics that help shape its professional implementation and guide it to effective service to the users on a daily basis. Just like any other profession, there are codes of conduct and modus operandi that define librarianship, making it relevant to the service it provides and the consumers of that service.
Across the world, the librarians are aware of the enormous task that faces them in ensuring the readers have access to information and books as well as other relevant materials that they may be in need of within and outside the library setting. In order to regulate the access and dissemination of this information, there are guiding ethics, values and principles that help the librarians world over in carrying out their duties professionally. Ethics and librarianship are intricately meshed such that it is ethics that give meaning to librarianship. This is recognized by the more than 60 library associations within the concerned countries, the US being one of them through the American Library Association which herein forms the basis of discourse of the paper (IFLA, 2017). The international code of ethics for librarians was a draft that resulted from wide consultations among the key players at the global platform. This draft acts as a guide to the librarians and the practitioners of library science as a discipline in general. It is also in cognizance of the need to have a smooth and level operating ground among the librarians that such a draft holds traction worldwide.
The daily endeavor of the professional librarians is to provide the intellectual freedom, way above the books, and this can only happen when the essential conditions are met through fidelity to the ethics in the profession. The American Library Association (ALA) provides one of the best access to library and the materials therein, but also upholds some of the best guiding ethics in the world. Ethical codes across the various disciplines are often established for the professions that nee high level of ethical practice. The ALA stays faithful to the doctrine of intellectual freedom as well as freedom of access to information in an environment that is political and an informed citizenry.
As a librarian, intellectual freedom and the guiding ethics must go in tandem. A librarian needs to provide equitable access, courteous response to requests, useful and organized resources to users as well as accurate and unbiased access to resources. Ethics also demand that a librarian upholds intellectual freedom as avoids any attempt to censor library resources. There is also need to have the library users in mind and ensure the right to privacy of each user, as well as the confidentiality as far as information sought and/or received by the users as well as the resources they use, borrow, acquire or transmit. It is the canal duty or the librarian to ensure these remain confidential.
Ethics in librarianship also concerns itself with the intellectual property rights ensuring the respect of this fundamental legal and foundational principle and ensures the balance between the interest of the users of the information and rights of the holder of the information.
As a librarian, it is fundamental to always remember that we do not operate in a vacuum but in close association with colleagues and set up systems. There is need hence to have, as a value, respect to others and treat co-workers with utmost fairness, respect, good faith and always advocate for and ensure conditions that safeguard the rights as well as the welfare of all the employees of the institutions we work for.
In line with the interest of the users, the librarians need not advance private interests at the expense of the users of the libraries they are in charge of, the colleagues and even the institutions that have employed them. There is need for the librarian to distinguish between personal convictions and the professional tasks. This means the personal beliefs should not screen or interfere with the balanced pursuit or representation of the vision of the institutions or the provisions of access to their information resources.
The librarian, guided by the ethics, values and the core principles of librarianship and information science in general will always strive to achieve excellence in the profession by maintaining their own knowledge base and skills, striving for professional development of the colleagues as well as strengthening the aspirations of the potential members of library science as a profession.
There are, however circumstances that can by far affect the absolute implementation of the ethics that guide the librarianship as seen above. At the logistical level, the librarian may find it a challenge to offer equal access to information due to factors like the patrons’ autonomy, the stakeholders in the community, limits of the expertise as well as the practical consequences of the decisions that we might make. At the personal level, there are individual standards that we might have beyond which we might to go even in our professions as librarians. For instance the provision of access to literature on drugs, guns, pornographic materials and gang training literature to an age group that may be influenced by the same.
Organizational setting and the library services
The libraries, just like the other institutions found within the community are meant to provide the requisite information to the users in line with the needs of the user and limited to the extent to which these libraries can provide. They provide services since they are service organizations. The way the libraries operate are shaped or controlled by the environment within which they operate and the needs of the users of the particular library. This means that a library, as a service provider, will only be relevant and thrive if it embraces the environment within which they operate (Walter, 2008).
The librarians or the library science as a discipline has three outstanding environments within which they operate on a daily basis with different players and factors that influence the same. The first setting or environment is the internal library environment. This is the environment within which the managers have significant influence over and should have good control over for the library to function to the optimum. A good example here is the academic libraries which are seen not to have independent purposes. Their functions are dependent on the larger academic institution within which the particular library is situated. The sole and primary intention is to serve the students and the members of the faculties therein and in some instances limited services to the community surrounding it. In this case, the mission of the library is significantly influenced by the mother institution and the management makes the decisions that shape the mode of operation and the general environment of the academic libraries. The librarian, in this case, plays a significant role as well in formulation of policies and their subsequent implementation as the person in charge of the academic libraries. It is noteworthy that the organizational environment of academic libraries is not necessarily confined to the internal parent university but may be influenced by factors beyond the parent university like the professional associations, academic networks, library consortia and for public universities, the community at large.
The second environment is the parent organizational environment within which the library operates and on such, the librarian may have none or very little influence if any. A good instance of the library type is the public library which is not specific to a given institution as the academic libraries are commonly known for. These are libraries that are meant to serve the needs and wants of the communities within which they are situated. This means the collections, books and services therein, as well as policies guiding its operation often reflect the needs of the local boards of directors and the local communities. Being that their funding depends on the voters and they report to the city, the mission of the public libraries shift from internal library environment to an environment beyond the parent institution. No single librarian or academic management team can influence the environment within which such libraries operate.
The third environment is that which goes beyond the parent institution and over such environments, almost no one has control over. This category covers the special libraries which are set up to meet the needs of specific organizations. Under this are the law libraries, medical libraries, corporate libraries among many others. The policies under which they conduct their daily operations are shaped by parent organization the librarian and the management team, as well as the community within which the library is established cannot influence its operations and policies. The donor or the financers of such libraries often dictate the environment under which the libraries operate and the accompanying policies and framework within which the library must strive to operate in order to continue getting funding. Such libraries enjoy their continued funding from the fact that more people on the relevant profession continue using them as resources, otherwise the financiers can easily withdraw their funding and the libraries close (Watkins W., 2010).
These three tiers of environments within which libraries or librarians operate all need close monitoring in order for a library to be successful. Despite the environment under which a given library may be operating, the regulation of the factors involved and the policies set out for its operation is important in ensuring libraries meet the intend functions.
References
IFLA, (2017). Professional Codes of Ethics for Librarians. Retrieved 22, September 2017 from https://www.ifla.org/faife/professional-codes-of-ethics-for-librarians
Walter, S. (2008, October 1). The Library as ecosystem. Library Journal, 133(16), 28-31. Retrieved 22, September 2017 from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2008/10/academic-libraries/the-library-as-ecosystem/
Watkins W., (2010). Describe and compare the organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice. Retrieved 22, September 2017 from https://nimblelibrarian.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/comp-b/