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...

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…