03.28.08
Stealing our history
Working in the fields of Information and Records (in all its varieties and forms) Management, we are in a unique position. We have the capability of learning a great deal about the organisations where we work, and the people we work with. We can learn about the trials, tribulations and many of the issues facing the organisation and the steps they are taking to counter the problems. And we have access to things few others will ever have the access or privilege to see. As a librarian I have been through some of the best libraries in the world, and have seen items such as the original drawings and notes made by Darwin. It is a sense of pride and honour to know that we are custodians of these unique pieces of work, ensuring their survival long after we have departed this planet we call home.
But what happens when some people use their position for personal gain?
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Issue 66 – March 2008 – Stealing our history.
03.12.08
Loan of the century
A library book was returned more than a century late.
A Finnish library-goer apparently thought ‘better late than never’ and quietly returned a book on loan for more than 100 years to a library in Vantaa, in southern Finland.
The library had long since lost track of the loan but welcomed back to its collections the bound copy of a 1902 volume of Vartija, an active religious monthly periodical at the time.
“We are unclear when exactly it was borrowed and who returned it. There weren’t any documents with it,” librarian Minna Saastamoinen told Reuters.
“There is an old note attached to the book which says there is a fine of 10 pennies a week for late returns,” she added.
The library sticker inside the cover, and the old-fashioned handwriting on it, showed the book was last officially loaned out at the beginning of the last century, she said.
Finland is known for a comprehensive library network with more than 900 libraries for its 5.3 million inhabitants. In 2006, each Finn on average visited a library 11 times and borrowed nearly 20 books.
The periodical was borrowed such a long time ago that the Korso branch of the Vantaa library, where the tome was finally handed in, did not even exist when the book was borrowed. Original report here
03.05.08
The digital library, museum and archive for Europe
03.04.08
Ethically speaking
I have just been reading a couple of articles in the Dec/January issue of the Information Age (ACS Journal) about ethics and computer ethics. The article by Matthew Allen “Computer says NO” – humans, ICT and ethics (Jan 2008, p. 37-41) was thought provoking for me. As most of us have, I have become very aware of the impact of ICT on my life. I have internet access at home and at work, I have a mobile phone that can integrate with my computer, I have profiles on a couple of social network sites and probably communicate at least 80% of the time using all of this technology. I, like you, will have read articles in the news (online or otherwise) where photographs have been taken from persons Facebook or MySpace profiles. I have even been reading articles and press releases from the Privacy Commissioner about the concern regarding privacy when joining and posting information on social network sites.
Is it because of this impact that ICT professionals are considering their ethical position? This may be some of the reason but it is more the desire and need for ICT to obtain its professional status. Ethical behaviour and self-regulation is part of obtaining that status.
Anyway, Matthew Allen’s article referred me to works of Luciano Floridi and concepts of Information Ethics. The idea of having information as the central point of departure for understanding ethical conduct and that humans are themselves information (Allen, 2008, p38) is an interesting concept and makes me think about what I do to information. As a person with library, records management and computing expertise I am very conscious of what I do to information but I’d not always thought of it in ethical terms. I felt exhilarated to read Allen particularly when he stated:
When we characterizes all information – all objects in the infosphere – as subject to ethical consideration, we might thereby gain guidance on what to do, for example, when thinking about deleting those e-mails which could later have unpleasant consequences should they be found. (Allen, p39)
For me this statement being placed in the journal of the Australian Computer Society indicated that the industries/professions that I’d always delved into did have something in common. I’ve always known it in my heart of hearts but found it difficult to legitimize my feelings. I would read articles in the various professional journals discussing issues of taxonomies, classification, disaster recovery, storage, security, control and access but there always seemed to be great divides in how these subjects were being addressed and the tussle for professional ground within the corporate world. But now I shout EUREKA because I have now found the common ground where we can start working from. Ethics. I have always wondered why I felt so strongly about this one subject. It is this that can draw the information professions together and from this the professions should be able to put a convincing argument together to the corporate world why information is so important and how it can be managed.
Well, that’s my slant on it anyway – I am the eternal optimist!
SRC
