ETHICS OF
LIBRARIANSHIP is a noble and exalted profession. Service of mankind is its motto. It is not a business and those who entertain mercenary outlook and habits may nit be fit persons for this emulated profession. It is not a business and those who entertain mercenary outlook and habits may hot be fit persons for this emulated profession. In the West, the profession has been making wonderful progress. It has been successful in building up the mighty edifice of healthy traditions in the field after much sweating labour.
Librarians are the persons who have to be vigilant and conscientious to keep existing high ideals alive. Rather it is desirable that they should build even healthier traditions for the steady growth of this profession.
Once, Late Krisnaswamy Aiyer said about the legal profession. He remarked, ‘Destory the Bar and you will destroy a bulwark of Civil and Criminal Justice.’ The maxim is equally applicable to the library profession. It can be stated, ‘Destroy the library profession and the people will become amenable to the demon of Ignorance. To keep the lamp of knowledge burning, a librarian has to work hard.
‘The essence of profession is that, although people enter it to gain a livelihood, the measure of their success is the service they perform, and not the financial gains which result.’
The criteria for determining a profession may be:
1. Intellectual operations coupled with large individual responsibilities,
2. Raw materials drawn from science and learning.
3. Practical application,
4. An educationally communicable technique,
5. Tendency toward self-organization, and
6. Increasingly altruistic motivation.
William B. Paton mentions six methods about this profession. These are:
1. A body of knowledge (science) or of art (skill) held as a common possession and extended
by the united effort;
2. A standard conduct based on courtesy, honor and ethics, which guides the practitioner
in his relations with clients, colleagues and the public;
3. An educational process based on the body of knowledge and art, in ordering which the
professional group has a recognized responsibility;
4. A standard of professional qualifications for admission to the professional group based
on character, training and proved competence:
(a) Liberal basic education;
(b) Examination syllabus; and
(c) Training and proved competence by practical training.
5. Recognition of status by one’s colleagues or by the State as a basis of good standing; and
6. Organization of the professional group devoted to its common advancement and its social duty rather than the maintenance of tan economic monopoly.
In professional client relationship, the client relies upon the professional for the expertise which his problem or situation requires. Viewed from professional-institution relationship, professional perform professional works. A professional should have freedom to function independently, to exercise his discretion, to formulate his own independent judgments in client relationships based upon his own professional standards, norms and ethical considerations. However the professional must not be oblivious of institutional requirement which may be enforced to ensure maximum good to the maximum number of clients. In professional-professional group relationships the patterns of the librarian’s behavior and his continued professional growth are involved. The professional body exercise general oversight over the behavior of its members. Librarianship has got all the essential attributes of a professional as mentioned above. ‘As a profession, librarianship aims at service. Only those persons should be encouraged to enter the field who are interested at least as much in opportunities to help others as in suitable salary and satisfactory conditions of work. Librarians-to-be should, of course, like books. They should also like people and be able to work well with people. Good physical health and a certain amount of vitality are also required.
Dr. Ranganathan says, ‘Library profession is a noble profession. It can do no harm to anybody. He exhorted them to imbibe the spirit of service and research with dedication and undivided loyalty. He said, ‘’............. if the young aspirants to the library profession, now put above want and on a par with other professions, devote themselves to their work with undivided attention, and throw themselves heart and soul to give the library service to every reader at every time...........they will have the satisfaction of having left not only library service and library science, but also our country at a much more advanced stage than what they found when they entered the library profession.
Ethics of Librarianship: The word ‘Ethics’ is derived from ‘Ethos’- a Greek word. It means custom or character. Ethics is a science of morals. It is that branch of philosophy which is concerned with human character and conduct.
A library professional owes certain obligations to the library’s public and its books, the library professional organization and to himself. The Five Laws of Library Science are cardinal principles to be observed by a library professional in all his possible relations.
Duty to the readers:
A librarian is for the readers and the latter cannot do without the valuable and expert services of a qualified librarian. Their bond of friendship is unbreakable. A librarian is called ‘the guide, the philosopher and the friend’ of the uninitiated and the scholar alike. It is the religious duty of a librarian to acquaint himself as much as he can do with the books and other kindred materials of his library so that he may guide the readers properly because only the enlightened person can enlighten others.
If the books are not available in the library, the librarian should either purchase or acquire them on inter-library loan or at least guide the readers as to wherefrom they can find out the requisite material. For that purpose, maintenance of Union catalogues and Lists at various levels is essential. Further, it depends upon the intelligence of the librarian as to how he guides the readers.
Duty of the books:
Books -the life blood of great thinkers of the past and the present-are the essential constituents of library. Without these a library cannot come into existence. In short, the duty of a librarian towards the book is two-fold i.e. the preservation of the book and putting it to maximum use. In other words, he has to fulfill the demands of both the First Law of Library Science viz. ‘Books are for use (not for preservation)’ and the Third Law viz. ‘Every book its readers’, at one and the same time. Moreover, in order to be true to his duties to the books he must bring them in close contact with the readers in an exciting manner. A librarian is called a match-maker of the beautiful bride-the book, and the anxious bride-groom-the reader.
Duty to the profession:
A profession is a calling, for admission to which, special training education and character are required. The exalted profession librarianship being a learned profession has public service as its idea.
Every librarian should try to help his professional brethren whatever small way he can do. He should try to inculcate fellow feeing amongst his fellow librarians so that the intellectual and mater well-being of librarians is vouchsafed. In this way, he becomes instep mental in ensuring fuller education of the nation as a whole.
A librarian should never use disparaging words against predecessors and other professional brethren in the presence of his readers because it will ultimately throw a reflection upon his own character and the readers will ultimately have very poor impression about this noble profession.
Each member of the staff should be regarded by the librarian as a colleague and should be encouraged to realize that his work, hoverer menial it may appear, is essential for the smooth working of the whole establishment.
Duty to Himself:
It means the acquaintance of a librarian with those books with which he is there to serve his clientele. He must know something of everything so that he may fulfill his duty to himself in a befitting manner.
B.M. Headicar remarked, ‘We must have both dignity and humility.’ He further said, ‘If complaints reach you that you are too flippant, too undignified to produce the best results to the service, it is wiser to search for any foundation for the criticism and to recognize it if it exists than to abuse the originators of it; if it is said that your methods are antiquated and that you would rather continue in the rut than spoil your own comfort by improving the service, it is only fair to the public and it is your bounden duty not to resent his, but, ‘if on examination it is proved correct,’ immediately to set about things with a view to improvement, or else to hand over your job to a fitter person.
Ø Impersonal Book Selection:
A librarian must select books without any prejudice. He should not accept the books on the basis of his personal dislike of the authors of the books under the garb of declaring these as bellow standard.
ØService before self:
Service before self must be the motto of a librarian since he is there not for himself but is a means to an end i.e. fulfillment of the reading requirements of his readers.
ØSplit –mind:
A librarian must have a spilt-mind. In order words he should be capable of keeping alive the unfulfilled demands of his readers in his mind until he fulfills the same. Secondly, he should be capable of attending to many enquiries at a time. He must have an active mind.
ØSympathetic Behavior:
A librarian must have sympathetic attitude towards the readers and should try to inculcate self-confidence amongst them. He should treat them in such a manner that he becomes a lovable personality.
ØTact:
A librarian must be tactful; otherwise he will find it difficult to succeed since he has to deal with various types of human beings. Unless he tackles them in a tactful manner, he is sure to bring bad name to the profession.
ØIndustry:
A librarian’s job is not a ‘bed of roses’. It demands hard labor and perseverance. Those who cannot put their heart and soul into their jobs we advised to tap at some other door. Librarianship is not the last resort for the rejected souls. A librarian must be industrious and patient in his disposition and nature.
ØScholarship:
Last but not the least; a librarian must be a scholar himself first, so that he may serve as a guide to others in the true sense of the word ‘guide’. He should be fully conversant with the reading materials which are stocked in his library in order to guide his readers. His scholarship should attract research workers towards his library and himself.
Ø Conclusion:
A final caveat is in order. Ethical behavior in librarianship does not mean that one should take no action, that is, avoid certain actions or books or ideas in an effort to keep out of trouble. On the contrary, the notion of ethics suggests that librarians take actions that are socially just. Only by actively pursuing social aims can librarians be ethically responsive. There is evidence to suggest that librarians choose not to choose, to “play it safe” with services and collections. Instead, librarians ought to exercise ethical judgment in their duties. Only by demonstrating the highest standards of ethical decision making will librarians inspire confidence and respect in the information arena.
