A study on the professional ethical relationship between librarian and library work

도서관 업무와 전문사서간의 윤리적 관계에 관한 이론적 고찰

The purpose of this study is to investigate typical ethical problems found in the technical and public services areas. The followings are the summary of the study. There are three distinct elements that govern ethical problems. One element is legal laws. The copyright law and the privacy act are exact examples. The copyright law has strong influence on the inter library loan service where the majority requests from the users are reproduction of copies. The privacy act also creates difficulties for librarians. Most requests for circulation records infringe on the privacy of library user. And advance online access systems also violates the privacy of library users. The second element is the code or rules that private organization has created. American Library Association created many statements that regulate the conduct of librarians. The bill of right, the professional code of ethics and policy on the confidentiality of library records have strong implications in the obligation of librarian. In the case of censorship at the selection of library materials, the code is a defensive tool against intellectual freedom. Yet self-censoring are prevailing practice among librarians. The thirds element is the competence of librarians. The analyzed table 3 showed that beside two elements, the rest of matters are competence required by librarians. The one aspect of it is humaneness and the other one is technical aspects. Technical aspect of competence are:(l) managerial and operational ability (2) communication skill (3) leadership (4) structure of knowledge and (5) self developing professionalism. Humanity aspect of competence are:(l) trust(fiduciary relationship) gained by diligence, objective judgement, ability, belief, rationality, integrity, kindness) (2) objectiveness (free from bias) (3) user-oriented consideration (need, interest, equal treatment, information gap) (4) caution in providing information (5) pride and (6) ability to distinguish advice and guidance specially in medical and law library.