Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries

Citation

Fourie, I. (2007), "Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries", Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 93-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520710731074

In a clear and easy‐to‐follow style Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries explores the unique ethical dilemmas that face digital librarians in selecting, preparing, preserving and publishing digital materials. It starts with a brief but valuable introduction to ethical theory and applied ethics, including an explanation of virtue ethics, Kant and deontological theory, and utilitarianism. Next follows chapters on the codes of ethics in the information professions (a number of such codes are brought to the reader's attention), ethics and digitisation policies as well as ethics in the selection of materials to digitise (e.g. priorities of criteria, copyright and privacy issues).

Ethics and funding (including grants, corporate sponsorships, individual donors and sustaining digital collections), digital collaborations (e.g. choosing partners and ending a collaboration), digitisation standards (a number of useful sources are offered), the digitisation process, digital preservation, access (including open access and institutional repositories) and digital library management (including personnel management and vendor relationship) are discussed in subsequent chapters. The final chapter deals with ethics for 21st century librarians.

Ethical Decision Making for Digital Libraries intends to stimulate discussion of ethical issues in professional organisations, graduate schools of information science and among librarians who work in this field. As such, it can be recommended as a very stimulating, although rather brief, point of departure. Although I would have expected a slightly more substantial publication for the price, I still consider it a good buy.