not limited to) the best use of limited resources to meet their users’ needs; remaining relevant, empathetic and trustworthy to their local communities (and parent bodies); doing the ‘right’ thing; and the need to remain at all times within legislative constraints. These considerations all require an ability to use ethical thinking to balance the rights and wrongs of any particular course of action.
“As part of my module teaching, I always encouraged students to differen- tiate between what is ethical and what is legal. Although often the two will align, this is not always the case: an example may be the use of a ‘legal’ tax loophole by a billionaire to avoid paying the full rate of tax due on their estate. This may well be legal, but few would defend it as an ethical course of action.” Louise was lead researcher on the 2012-2014 Managing Access to the Internet in Public Libraries’ (MAIPLE) project, which eventually led to work on creating IFLA guidelines on managing access to the internet in public libraries. That work began over a decade ago, and Louise points out that the criteria about what constitutes “controversial” material does not remain static. She says: “It is one of the greatest chal- lenges facing libraries today. A recent example could be given of the controversy currently surrounding the proposed
East, Russia etc. In the UK specifically, I would suggest that there has been a move- ment from a prominent focus on obscenity, morality and pornography, to a broader focus on materials that could be considered ‘harmful’ or ‘dangerous’ (e.g. information relating to self-harm, bomb-making man- uals, violence etc.), with the focus further broadening to consider material that could be hurtful, discriminatory or person- ally offensive (derogatory comments on appearance, or based on specific protected characteristics such as disability, race, gender, sexual orientation etc.), and more latterly to a well-intentioned move to right historical injustices (e.g. ‘decolonising’ the curriculum).”
Louise Cooke.
‘rewriting’ of Roald Dahl’s extensive series of children’s books, to replace ‘offensive’ descriptions of characters using terms such as ‘ugly’ and ‘fat’.” She adds: “Internationally, many differ- ent factors come into play and it is not easy to draw generalisations from contexts as varied as those in the US, China, Middle
And this shift is driven by a number of factors “ranging from a decline in the role of religion and the church in shaping social norms, the influence of more traditional media sources (e.g. hysteria whipped up by the tabloid press to pursue a political agenda), the rise of misinformation and disinformation on the internet, through to the role of social media, ‘cancel culture’ (perhaps more neutrally defined as ‘call-out’ culture) and influencer or celebrity culture in shaping the information ecosphere. “As the range of exposure to different material grows exponentially, so does our ability and inclination to be offended by what we see. On the gentler side, perhaps, a greater awareness of the rights and sen- sitivities of different groups (arguably a
March 2023
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 17
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