Page 265 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Foundation of Library and Information Science Reena Kapoor, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 14: Library Profession

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
14.1 Profession, Professionals and Professionalism

14.2 Professional Ethics
14.3 Librarianship as a Profession
14.4 Professional Ethics in Librarianship

14.4.1 Indian Situation
14.4.2 US Experience
14.4.3 UK Experience

14.5 Summary
14.6 Keywords
14.7 Review Questions

14.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Explain the concept of Profession, Professionals and Professionalism
Discuss the concept of Professional Ethics
Describe the Librarianship as a Profession

Discuss the Professional Ethics in Librarianship

Introduction

In the previous unit, we dealt with the Copyright Act, 1957, Press and Registration of Books Act,
1867 and Delivery of Books and Newspaper Act (Public Libraries Act), 1954. Professional
performances should conform to ethical principles to give customers full satisfaction for services
rendered by professionals: Librarianship/Information service fulfils prescribed characteristics
in order to quality as a profession. The general meaning of ethics is that it is a set of moral
principles. These may be rules of conduct recognised with respect to a particular class of human
actions or a particular group, culture, etc. Professional associations have been keen to develop
ethical values, as to set ethical codes to be followed by professionals. The age-old professions
like medicine, education, law, religion and others have been constantly reviewing the need for
ethical codes for their professionals to set minimum standards of performance. The
implementation of ethical codes in professional practice is, however, a self-imposed issue mainly
because it is not possible for others to enforce these codes on professional practitioners. The
profession of librarianship is also under such pressures. In recent decades, the dimensions of
library science have widened, with the application of information technology, rapidly expanding

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