Sunday, March 19, 2006
Transformational Leaders
Info 640
In order for a manager to be effective they must first be a good role model and fill the role as a workplace leader, and show leadership. Managers tend to mistake being a manager for being the leader. "Truly transformational leaders, who are seeking the greatest good for the greatest number without violating individual rights, and are concerned about doing what is right and honest are likely to avoid stretching the truth or going beyond the evidence for they want to set an example to followers about the value of valid and accurate communication in maintaining the mutual trust of the leaders and their followers" (Bass, 1998A, p.174).
Leadership is a process where one individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. A Manager must influence their employees in a positive way in order for the organization’s goals to be achieved Peter Northouse (2001).
James McGregor Burns first developed the idea of transformational leadership in 1978, his idea was extended by Bernard Bass and then several others. Both Burns and Bass based their ideas and work, with political leaders and business executives rather than a school. Nancy Hoover, (1991) Kenneth Leithwood and Doris Jantzi (1990) all believe that there were similarities in transformational leadership whether it is a school or business.
When Burns developed his theory for transformational leaders, he didn’t develop a clear concept for the theory. Others like Bernard Bass, James Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Marshall Sashkin created ways to explain transformational leadership and how to measure its outcomes. Sashkin created the first drafts of a Leader Behavior Questionnaire, while Bass, Kouzes and Posner worked on the transformational leadership model. Sashkin (LBQ) developed five behavior categories; which involved focusing the attention of others on key ideas, developing active listening and giving and receiving feedback effectively. Trust is the third category. Without trust a follower will not follow or learn. The fourth behavior is demonstrating respect and concern for people. This behavior is not just completing assigned tasks, but also things like remembering birthdays, learning and using co-workers and client’s names, creating opportunities, giving followers the opportunities to accept challenges and control new projects.
There are four components of authentic transformational leadership, the first being an idealized influence where managers are role models for their associates. The managers are trusted and respected to make the right decisions for the association. Inspirational motivation is a manager who can get their employees to commit to the vision of the organization. Intellectual stimulation describes a manager who encourages their employees to be creative and use innovation to complete the task. Individualized consideration is when a manager acts like a coach to get their employees to reach the goals of the organization. These are often referred to as the [four I’s]. Effective transformational leadership results in performances that exceed organizational expectations. " (Northouse, 2001).
The transformational theory has its critics. Some experts believe that it is not a true theory at all. The transformational theory has been sharply questioned especially by libertarians, who believe that for management to be transformational it must first be grounded in a moral foundation. According to Rost, the transformational theory is lacking the full role of the follower. Rost believes that the follower must be an active part of the organization and not just a follower.
Transformational leadership tends to "lend itself to amoral puffery since it makes use of impression management" Snyder (1987). According to McKendall (1993) "it is antithetical to organizational learning and development involving shared leadership, equality, consensus and participative decision-making." Transformational leadership "encourages followers to go beyond their own self-interests for the good of the organization and even emotionally engages followers irrationally in pursuits of evil ends contrary to the follower’s" (Stevens, D’Intino, & Victor (1995). White and Wooten (1986) Transformational leadership "manipulates followers along a primrose path on which they lose more than they gain." Keeley (1995) says that transformational leadership lacks the checks and balances of countervailing interests, influences and power to avoid dictatorship and oppression for minority by a majority.
When James McGregor Burns first developed the idea of transformational leadership there were several assumptions, the first being that people will follow a person who inspires them, a person with vision and passion can achieve great things, and the way to get things accomplished is by injecting enthusiasm and energy. Transformational leaders can be wonderful to work with. Passion and energy is put into everything they do. They want their followers to succeed and they care about their followers. The first step for the transformational leader is to develop a vision of how the organization will function and then never stop selling their vision to their followers. Taking every opportunity to convince others to climb on board and reach the goals of the organization is the primary goal of a transformational leader. "When the organization does not need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be frustrated. Like wartime leaders, however, given the right situation they come into their own and can be personally responsible for saving entire companies." (Bass, 1990).
In order for transformational leadership to work, contributions must come from both the leaders and the followers. Transformational leaders cannot transform an organization over night. They must first have a clear understanding of what the organization needs, wants, and what the outcomes should, and need to be. Then the transformational leader determines and designs outcomes that will benefit the organization. Even if the transformational leader has the perfect design for the organization, if the prospected followers do not have the cognitive skills to follow, then the transformational leader will fail.
Transformational leaders have the ability to get people to want to change, improve, and to be led. Northouse, states that "transformational leaders could make the company more successful by valuing its associates." Also, if the followers and the transformational leaders do not have the support and have the same cognitive thinking as the top-level mangers the long-range plan may not be met, and the organization will fail. (Northouse, 2001)
The transformational leader must always assure that the task given to the follower is set up in a way that the follower can be successful. In the right environment transformational leadership can work. However, transformational leadership need several things, first being the right leader, and the right situation. The transformational leaders must have a clear vision of what the organization needs and wants, and have the ability to show and explain the vision to the followers. A good leader must have the capability of giving their followers an opportunity to achieve their fullest potential in the organization. Transformational leaders who are charismatic and visionaries can inspire followers to gain self confidence to try tasks that they have a self interest in and that would benefit the organization.
Transformational leaders have the ability to get the follower to use their common sense to think about a problem and problem solve through it, before giving up and asking for help. Instilling confidence in their followers by using charisma builds a special bond with the follower, and thus the follower is willing to work at their best.
Transformational Leaders are visionaries. They inspire their follower to do their best and set them up with assignments to succeed. Transformational leaders have high ideals and set goals that are meant for the business to succeed. Their followers see transformational leaders as having high-integrity. A transformational leader would have the forethought to train an employee how to do a simple task such as ILL’s, so, that when the ILL person is out or on vacation, materials will still move on their way.
Some of the transformational leadership ideas to assist the director with their leadership abilities could be to:
*Involve not only the department heads on library goals, but also the non-supervising departmental staff.
*To give everyone responsibilities and involve staff in library policy function and development.
*To find out when staff members have done something special and recognize their work.
*Ask staff what they need, and want, to make their workday less stressful.
The rational for transformational leadership has several parts to consider:
Creating a Shared Vision. In which the leader creates a picture of the organization’s potential future, and shares it with the followers. The leader then encourages them to a vision of their own.
Communication of the Vision in order for the vision to be effective, the vision must be understood and continually articulated. The vision must be continually remembered and examined.
Building Relationships. By being approachable, friendly and informal. The transformational leader must be approachable, friendly, and informal. They must be active mentors, teachers, and coaches. Promote professional development and learning opportunities, and recognized employees by formal and informal reward and praises.
Developing a Supporting Organizational Culture. The transformational leader must treat all of the people in the organization with respect. People throughout the organization come from different types of diversity and backgrounds, and care should be taken to treat all with respect and dignity.
Guiding Implementation. Through strategic planning, team building, and setting high expectations.
Exhibiting Character. Transformational leaders show self-confidence, passion, and a commitment to the goals and vision of the organization.
Achieving Results. Transformational leaders are successful in achieving the shared vision; those followers who share the vision have a high level of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Transformational leaders can fall into a trap, in which their passion and confidence is mistaken for truth and reality. Also transformational leaders tend to be able to see the finishing goals of a project, but may fail to see the different levels of the project. For example, if the goal is to move all the videos to one floor and the space is available, they may instruct a staff member to move the videos, without thinking the project through. The catalog call number may have needed to be changed, or there could have been a more important part of the collection that should have occupied the new space.
A leader needs to work on the transformational style of leadership; it is a process that needs to be learned. The leader must understand the basics of transformational leadership and also bring the four I’s into their leadership approach. According to Northouse (2001) there are several qualities that a leader has to have, such as the ability to empower followers to do what is best for the organization. They have to be strong role models, who have the ability to listen to viewpoints of others, and create a vision for the employees of the organization.
One of the benefits of being a transformational leader is that the leader stimulates the follower intellectually, encouraging them to develop new ways to think through problems. This can be a great asset for the library field worker. When a patron asks a question is not easy to answer, the follower trained by the leader will have the skills needed to think it through. They will know which reference books to look in first, they look in a database, or can the answers be found with in the libraries general collection? The confidence that the follower gains from the transformational leader will prove valuable to the library.
One important aspect of a transformational leader is that the leader has the ability not only to think up a vision of what the organization should accomplish, but also be able to explain the vision and bring it to life for others. It is not predicting the future; it is creating the future that is predicted. An example of this would be building a collection of Bilingual materials in the children’s department for the purpose of increasing circulation numbers. Simply adding the materials will not increase the numbers of circulation in the department. Advertising, bookshelf displays, and staff suggestions to patrons will increase the circulation numbers. It is up to the transformational leader to convince their staff that these materials are needed, and are an important, a great resource for the patron.
From a children’s librarian perspective the transformational leadership theory would be very useful for someone who used teens as volunteers in their department. Teaching the teen volunteer simple tasks and then building on the skills to gain new skills, will give the teen volunteer confidence and a desire to do more and make the children’s librarian proud of them.
Sources:
Bass, B. M. (1998A). The ethics of transformational leadership. In Ciulia, J (Ed.)
Ethics, the heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, (Winter): 19-31.
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
Hoover, Nancy R., and others. (1991). "Transformational and Transactional
Leadership: An Empirical Test of a Theory." Paper presented at annual
meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, Illinois,
April 1991). 36 pages. ED 331 117.
Keeley, M. ( 1995). The trouble with transformational leadership: Toward a federalist ethic for organizations. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5, 67-95.
Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (1993). Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it and why people demand it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Leithwood, K. (1994). Leadership for school restructuring. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 30 (4), 498-518.
Leithwood, Kenneth, and Doris Jantzi. (1990). "Transformational Leadership: How Principals Can Help School Cultures." Paper presented at annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (Victoria, British Columbia, June 1990). 49 pages. ED 323 622.
McKendall, M. (1993) The tyranny of change: Organizational development revisited. Journal of Business Ethics, 12, 93-104.
Northouse, Peter G. (2001). Leadership Theory and Practice, second edition.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Rost, J.C. (1991). Leadership for the 21st century. New York: Praeger.
Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances, private realities: The psychology of self-
monitoring. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman & Co.
Stevens, C.U., D’Intino, R.S. & Victor, B.(1995). The moral quandary of
transformational leadership: Change for whom? Research in Organizational
Change and Development, 8, 123-143.
In order for a manager to be effective they must first be a good role model and fill the role as a workplace leader, and show leadership. Managers tend to mistake being a manager for being the leader. "Truly transformational leaders, who are seeking the greatest good for the greatest number without violating individual rights, and are concerned about doing what is right and honest are likely to avoid stretching the truth or going beyond the evidence for they want to set an example to followers about the value of valid and accurate communication in maintaining the mutual trust of the leaders and their followers" (Bass, 1998A, p.174).
Leadership is a process where one individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. A Manager must influence their employees in a positive way in order for the organization’s goals to be achieved Peter Northouse (2001).
James McGregor Burns first developed the idea of transformational leadership in 1978, his idea was extended by Bernard Bass and then several others. Both Burns and Bass based their ideas and work, with political leaders and business executives rather than a school. Nancy Hoover, (1991) Kenneth Leithwood and Doris Jantzi (1990) all believe that there were similarities in transformational leadership whether it is a school or business.
When Burns developed his theory for transformational leaders, he didn’t develop a clear concept for the theory. Others like Bernard Bass, James Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Marshall Sashkin created ways to explain transformational leadership and how to measure its outcomes. Sashkin created the first drafts of a Leader Behavior Questionnaire, while Bass, Kouzes and Posner worked on the transformational leadership model. Sashkin (LBQ) developed five behavior categories; which involved focusing the attention of others on key ideas, developing active listening and giving and receiving feedback effectively. Trust is the third category. Without trust a follower will not follow or learn. The fourth behavior is demonstrating respect and concern for people. This behavior is not just completing assigned tasks, but also things like remembering birthdays, learning and using co-workers and client’s names, creating opportunities, giving followers the opportunities to accept challenges and control new projects.
There are four components of authentic transformational leadership, the first being an idealized influence where managers are role models for their associates. The managers are trusted and respected to make the right decisions for the association. Inspirational motivation is a manager who can get their employees to commit to the vision of the organization. Intellectual stimulation describes a manager who encourages their employees to be creative and use innovation to complete the task. Individualized consideration is when a manager acts like a coach to get their employees to reach the goals of the organization. These are often referred to as the [four I’s]. Effective transformational leadership results in performances that exceed organizational expectations. " (Northouse, 2001).
The transformational theory has its critics. Some experts believe that it is not a true theory at all. The transformational theory has been sharply questioned especially by libertarians, who believe that for management to be transformational it must first be grounded in a moral foundation. According to Rost, the transformational theory is lacking the full role of the follower. Rost believes that the follower must be an active part of the organization and not just a follower.
Transformational leadership tends to "lend itself to amoral puffery since it makes use of impression management" Snyder (1987). According to McKendall (1993) "it is antithetical to organizational learning and development involving shared leadership, equality, consensus and participative decision-making." Transformational leadership "encourages followers to go beyond their own self-interests for the good of the organization and even emotionally engages followers irrationally in pursuits of evil ends contrary to the follower’s" (Stevens, D’Intino, & Victor (1995). White and Wooten (1986) Transformational leadership "manipulates followers along a primrose path on which they lose more than they gain." Keeley (1995) says that transformational leadership lacks the checks and balances of countervailing interests, influences and power to avoid dictatorship and oppression for minority by a majority.
When James McGregor Burns first developed the idea of transformational leadership there were several assumptions, the first being that people will follow a person who inspires them, a person with vision and passion can achieve great things, and the way to get things accomplished is by injecting enthusiasm and energy. Transformational leaders can be wonderful to work with. Passion and energy is put into everything they do. They want their followers to succeed and they care about their followers. The first step for the transformational leader is to develop a vision of how the organization will function and then never stop selling their vision to their followers. Taking every opportunity to convince others to climb on board and reach the goals of the organization is the primary goal of a transformational leader. "When the organization does not need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be frustrated. Like wartime leaders, however, given the right situation they come into their own and can be personally responsible for saving entire companies." (Bass, 1990).
In order for transformational leadership to work, contributions must come from both the leaders and the followers. Transformational leaders cannot transform an organization over night. They must first have a clear understanding of what the organization needs, wants, and what the outcomes should, and need to be. Then the transformational leader determines and designs outcomes that will benefit the organization. Even if the transformational leader has the perfect design for the organization, if the prospected followers do not have the cognitive skills to follow, then the transformational leader will fail.
Transformational leaders have the ability to get people to want to change, improve, and to be led. Northouse, states that "transformational leaders could make the company more successful by valuing its associates." Also, if the followers and the transformational leaders do not have the support and have the same cognitive thinking as the top-level mangers the long-range plan may not be met, and the organization will fail. (Northouse, 2001)
The transformational leader must always assure that the task given to the follower is set up in a way that the follower can be successful. In the right environment transformational leadership can work. However, transformational leadership need several things, first being the right leader, and the right situation. The transformational leaders must have a clear vision of what the organization needs and wants, and have the ability to show and explain the vision to the followers. A good leader must have the capability of giving their followers an opportunity to achieve their fullest potential in the organization. Transformational leaders who are charismatic and visionaries can inspire followers to gain self confidence to try tasks that they have a self interest in and that would benefit the organization.
Transformational leaders have the ability to get the follower to use their common sense to think about a problem and problem solve through it, before giving up and asking for help. Instilling confidence in their followers by using charisma builds a special bond with the follower, and thus the follower is willing to work at their best.
Transformational Leaders are visionaries. They inspire their follower to do their best and set them up with assignments to succeed. Transformational leaders have high ideals and set goals that are meant for the business to succeed. Their followers see transformational leaders as having high-integrity. A transformational leader would have the forethought to train an employee how to do a simple task such as ILL’s, so, that when the ILL person is out or on vacation, materials will still move on their way.
Some of the transformational leadership ideas to assist the director with their leadership abilities could be to:
*Involve not only the department heads on library goals, but also the non-supervising departmental staff.
*To give everyone responsibilities and involve staff in library policy function and development.
*To find out when staff members have done something special and recognize their work.
*Ask staff what they need, and want, to make their workday less stressful.
The rational for transformational leadership has several parts to consider:
Creating a Shared Vision. In which the leader creates a picture of the organization’s potential future, and shares it with the followers. The leader then encourages them to a vision of their own.
Communication of the Vision in order for the vision to be effective, the vision must be understood and continually articulated. The vision must be continually remembered and examined.
Building Relationships. By being approachable, friendly and informal. The transformational leader must be approachable, friendly, and informal. They must be active mentors, teachers, and coaches. Promote professional development and learning opportunities, and recognized employees by formal and informal reward and praises.
Developing a Supporting Organizational Culture. The transformational leader must treat all of the people in the organization with respect. People throughout the organization come from different types of diversity and backgrounds, and care should be taken to treat all with respect and dignity.
Guiding Implementation. Through strategic planning, team building, and setting high expectations.
Exhibiting Character. Transformational leaders show self-confidence, passion, and a commitment to the goals and vision of the organization.
Achieving Results. Transformational leaders are successful in achieving the shared vision; those followers who share the vision have a high level of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Transformational leaders can fall into a trap, in which their passion and confidence is mistaken for truth and reality. Also transformational leaders tend to be able to see the finishing goals of a project, but may fail to see the different levels of the project. For example, if the goal is to move all the videos to one floor and the space is available, they may instruct a staff member to move the videos, without thinking the project through. The catalog call number may have needed to be changed, or there could have been a more important part of the collection that should have occupied the new space.
A leader needs to work on the transformational style of leadership; it is a process that needs to be learned. The leader must understand the basics of transformational leadership and also bring the four I’s into their leadership approach. According to Northouse (2001) there are several qualities that a leader has to have, such as the ability to empower followers to do what is best for the organization. They have to be strong role models, who have the ability to listen to viewpoints of others, and create a vision for the employees of the organization.
One of the benefits of being a transformational leader is that the leader stimulates the follower intellectually, encouraging them to develop new ways to think through problems. This can be a great asset for the library field worker. When a patron asks a question is not easy to answer, the follower trained by the leader will have the skills needed to think it through. They will know which reference books to look in first, they look in a database, or can the answers be found with in the libraries general collection? The confidence that the follower gains from the transformational leader will prove valuable to the library.
One important aspect of a transformational leader is that the leader has the ability not only to think up a vision of what the organization should accomplish, but also be able to explain the vision and bring it to life for others. It is not predicting the future; it is creating the future that is predicted. An example of this would be building a collection of Bilingual materials in the children’s department for the purpose of increasing circulation numbers. Simply adding the materials will not increase the numbers of circulation in the department. Advertising, bookshelf displays, and staff suggestions to patrons will increase the circulation numbers. It is up to the transformational leader to convince their staff that these materials are needed, and are an important, a great resource for the patron.
From a children’s librarian perspective the transformational leadership theory would be very useful for someone who used teens as volunteers in their department. Teaching the teen volunteer simple tasks and then building on the skills to gain new skills, will give the teen volunteer confidence and a desire to do more and make the children’s librarian proud of them.
Sources:
Bass, B. M. (1998A). The ethics of transformational leadership. In Ciulia, J (Ed.)
Ethics, the heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, (Winter): 19-31.
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
Hoover, Nancy R., and others. (1991). "Transformational and Transactional
Leadership: An Empirical Test of a Theory." Paper presented at annual
meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, Illinois,
April 1991). 36 pages. ED 331 117.
Keeley, M. ( 1995). The trouble with transformational leadership: Toward a federalist ethic for organizations. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5, 67-95.
Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (1993). Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it and why people demand it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Leithwood, K. (1994). Leadership for school restructuring. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 30 (4), 498-518.
Leithwood, Kenneth, and Doris Jantzi. (1990). "Transformational Leadership: How Principals Can Help School Cultures." Paper presented at annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (Victoria, British Columbia, June 1990). 49 pages. ED 323 622.
McKendall, M. (1993) The tyranny of change: Organizational development revisited. Journal of Business Ethics, 12, 93-104.
Northouse, Peter G. (2001). Leadership Theory and Practice, second edition.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Rost, J.C. (1991). Leadership for the 21st century. New York: Praeger.
Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances, private realities: The psychology of self-
monitoring. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman & Co.
Stevens, C.U., D’Intino, R.S. & Victor, B.(1995). The moral quandary of
transformational leadership: Change for whom? Research in Organizational
Change and Development, 8, 123-143.
Professional Association
The Role of the Librarian as a professional
According to the American Library Association In our profession, "We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources."
(http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/codeofethics/codeethics.htm). Most codes are written in a way that they are general about the ethics inn libraries and library service. One of the things that has changed library service and library function is the Internet. We use it to link our library collections, find out information about patrons whom might not bring materials back; we can use it to find information both on the open Internet and on our online databases. It is hard to remember when libraries didn’t have the Internet. But as with the addition of new materials the Internet needs to be evaluated. If libraries believe that all materials should be free and equal access to all, should the Internet be included in this?
There are five key themes in information ethics: community, ownership, access, privacy and security. (Elrod and Smith, 2005 p.1006) As a profession we work in the best interest of the community, whether that be the community of the town and city citizens, or the students and professors from a college. We are in-trusted with the fact that we will give open and free access, keep our patrons information private, and have a clear understanding of ownership and security.
Role of the Library Associations
Library associations have different roles, depending on the association. The ALA is the national association, which writes policies for libraries as a whole. While Public Library Association (PLA) would work on policy and programs from the public library stand point. Each state also has their own association Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) works on issues that effect libraries in Massachusetts these can be public, special, or academic.
Most of the association hold conferences, scholarships, employment placement assistance, have information about grants, and general news about library happenings. Last spring I attended the MLA conference and while there attended the annual auction. The president of the ALA was the auctioneer, when the MLA fell short of its fundraising goals he auctioned is ALA Presidents pin off, and I was lucky enough to have the winning bid. Of course there were many other important things to learn about at the conference, like children’s programs, storytelling ideas, E-Bay working to make the library money, and the exhibits. In the reading Tavani mentions that the "ethical code of conduct can never substitute for careful moral deliberation." (Tavani, 2004 p.604) The professional organization whether it is public library or academic is suppose to use these codes as a guide and blend them together with the conditions and the community opinion that govern the library.
Elrod, E. & Smith, M. (2005). Information Ethics. In Encyclopedia of Science,
Technology, and Ethics, Ed. Carl Mitcham. Vol. 2: D-K (1004-1011).
Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved February 18, 2006, PDF
Page Gale Virtual Reference Library via Thomson Gale.
Spinello, R. & Tavani, H. (eds.) (2004). Readings in cyberethics. 2nd ed.
Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Pub., Inc.
Tavani, H. (2004). Ethics technology: Ethical issues in an age of information
and communication technology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
According to the American Library Association In our profession, "We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources."
(http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/codeofethics/codeethics.htm). Most codes are written in a way that they are general about the ethics inn libraries and library service. One of the things that has changed library service and library function is the Internet. We use it to link our library collections, find out information about patrons whom might not bring materials back; we can use it to find information both on the open Internet and on our online databases. It is hard to remember when libraries didn’t have the Internet. But as with the addition of new materials the Internet needs to be evaluated. If libraries believe that all materials should be free and equal access to all, should the Internet be included in this?
There are five key themes in information ethics: community, ownership, access, privacy and security. (Elrod and Smith, 2005 p.1006) As a profession we work in the best interest of the community, whether that be the community of the town and city citizens, or the students and professors from a college. We are in-trusted with the fact that we will give open and free access, keep our patrons information private, and have a clear understanding of ownership and security.
Role of the Library Associations
Library associations have different roles, depending on the association. The ALA is the national association, which writes policies for libraries as a whole. While Public Library Association (PLA) would work on policy and programs from the public library stand point. Each state also has their own association Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) works on issues that effect libraries in Massachusetts these can be public, special, or academic.
Most of the association hold conferences, scholarships, employment placement assistance, have information about grants, and general news about library happenings. Last spring I attended the MLA conference and while there attended the annual auction. The president of the ALA was the auctioneer, when the MLA fell short of its fundraising goals he auctioned is ALA Presidents pin off, and I was lucky enough to have the winning bid. Of course there were many other important things to learn about at the conference, like children’s programs, storytelling ideas, E-Bay working to make the library money, and the exhibits. In the reading Tavani mentions that the "ethical code of conduct can never substitute for careful moral deliberation." (Tavani, 2004 p.604) The professional organization whether it is public library or academic is suppose to use these codes as a guide and blend them together with the conditions and the community opinion that govern the library.
Elrod, E. & Smith, M. (2005). Information Ethics. In Encyclopedia of Science,
Technology, and Ethics, Ed. Carl Mitcham. Vol. 2: D-K (1004-1011).
Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved February 18, 2006, PDF
Page Gale Virtual Reference Library via Thomson Gale.
Spinello, R. & Tavani, H. (eds.) (2004). Readings in cyberethics. 2nd ed.
Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Pub., Inc.
Tavani, H. (2004). Ethics technology: Ethical issues in an age of information
and communication technology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
