Ethical Decision Making For Digital Libraries

Description:
Summary: Examines the ethical issues and dilemmas that arise in digital libraries, and the codes of conduct, professional guidelines and ethics resources used in resolving them. Begins with an overview of classical and applied ethics, then reviews the codes of conduct of professional information societies (libraries, archivists, information technology). Examines issues and situations that arise in digitization and digital library management, and explores the ways established information ethics can be applied and adapted to these cases. Areas covered include ethical questions in selection of materials, intellectual property, funding, standards, site design, open access initiatives, journal licensing, collaborative projects, digital preservation, outsourcing, and one's responsibilities to one's employer/institution, one's patrons/users, funding agencies, professional associations and the worldwide information community. Includes: interviews with experts involved in various aspects of digital libraries; and a survey of major digital library programs about the role ethics plays in the formulation of their policies and procedures. Key Features: 1. Looks at ethics relating to digitization, digital libraries and preservation. 2. Includes decision making guides for various situations that arise in digital libraries, with questions for readers to ask themselves when faced with an ethical dilemma. 3. Takes the professional guidelines and codes of conduct for librarians, archivists and information workers as stated in the codes of ethics for various professional societies and applies these to the world of digital libraries. Many of these codes have not been updated to deal with issues that arise in digital libraries, although the principles they espouse are applicable. The Author: Cokie Anderson is an Assistant Professor and Electronic Publishing Librarian at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. She serves on the editorial board of The Electronic Library and is the co-author with David Maxwell of Starting a Digitization Center (Chandos 2004). Readership: Institutions involved in digitizing materials, planning digital archives or institutional repositories, or managing electronic subscriptions and delivery of digital library services. Contents: 1. Overview of classical and applied ethics 2. Ethics and the information professions 3. Ethics in digitization and electronic publishing - ethics and digitization policies; ethical questions in selection of materials to digitise (priorities, IP issues, privacy); ethics and funding (considerations for grant makers and grant seekers); ethics and digital collaborations; ethics and digitization standards; ethics in the digitization process (shareware and freeware; respecting software licensing agreements; labor practices, including outsourcing; ethical considerations in: metadata and documentation, and in design); ethics and digital preservation (planning for the future); ethics and access (open access initiatives; cost recovery; pricing issues) 4. Ethics in digital library services and management - electronic journal subscriptions; ensuring long-term access; dealing with vendors and publishers; institutional repositories (obligations to authors, institutions, publishers, the academy as a whole, users); digital archives and preservation; disaster planning

Table of Contents:
Overview of classical and applied ethics; Ethics and the information professions; Ethics in digitization and electronic publishing - ethics and digitization policies; ethical questions in selection of materials to digitise (priorities, IP issues, privacy); ethics and funding (considerations for grant makers and grant seekers); ethics and digital collaborations; ethics and digitization standards; ethics in the digitization process (shareware and freeware; respecting software licensing agreements; labor practices, including outsourcing; ethical considerations in: metadata and documentation, and in design); ethics and digital preservation (planning for the future); ethics and access (open access initiatives; cost recovery; pricing issues); Ethics in digital library services and management - electronic journal subscriptions; ensuring long-term access; dealing with vendors and publishers; institutional repositories (obligations to authors, institutions, publishers, the academy as a whole, users); digital archives and preservation; disaster planning.

Author Biography:
Cokie Anderson is an Assistant Professor and Electronic Publishing Librarian at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. She serves on the editorial board of The Electronic Library and is the co-author with David Maxwell of Starting a Digitization Center (Chandos 2004).