Archival Objectivity: An Examination of Mark Greene's Article on the 'Critique of Social Justice as an Archival Imperative'

 Wallace, William A.

Greene, M. A. (2013). A critique of social justice as an archival imperative: What is it we're doing that's all that important? The American Archivist, 76(2), pp. 302-334.

Greene's article opposes recent scholarship regarding social justice as an ethical standard within archival practice. Countering other scholars, he argues that social justice has no place within an archive. He describes social justice as an act against the archivist's standard, objectivity. He acknowledges an archivist's freedoms to be a whistleblower, but says it is no different than the opportunity in any other information profession. He argues that private organizations have a right to privacy. 

I found this article to be informative as one side of archival ethics. Combined with other articles in the other direction, it lays out a good approach to the problem. I agree with his sentiments about the pursuit of objectivity despite its inherent impossibility at times. I also agree that the type of social justice he is describing does constitute an inherent bias that can damage a collection's reputation, depriving it of materials from all sides. All in all, this article gave me a lot to think about, and I recommend it to any aspiring archivist who is looking to learn more about archival ethics.

Representation of libraries in artificial intelligence regulations and implications for ethics and practice

Bradley, F. (2022). Representation of libraries in artificial intelligence regulations and implications for ethics and practice. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 71(3), 189-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2022.2101911

Summary:

This article discusses the existing and potential ethical issues with AI as well as the regulations around AI. It also looks at how AI is being used in libraries and how information professionals are influencing and involved with policy around AI. 

Evaluation:

This article is great because it looks at both the benefits of AI and how libraries are using it as well as ethical problems, and discusses solutions to those problems through the involvement of information professionals. The article also discusses other studies which is helpful. 

Maya Pulfer

 Aggleton, J. (2018). Where are the children in children’s collections? An exploration of ethical principles and practical concerns surrounding children’s participation in collection development. The New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, 24(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614541.2018.1429122

Summary: 

    This article considers the role of children in the development and selection of children's services collections. The author argues that, as the target audience of a children's services collection, children should be involved in this selection process. Children are almost entirely absent from involvement in the writing and publication of children's books, and by keeping them out of the collection development process at school and public libraries, children's literature becomes a reflection of adult culture rather than child culture as is the aim. However, the author does not propose that the process should be handed over to children entirely. Rather, it is argued that libraries and librarians must develop an understanding that "It is not sufficient for adults to assume that they understand children’s opinions on children’s literature" and as such it "is needed is for the librarian or archivist to find ways to enable children to participate, though not to have total control over the process". 

Evaluation:

    I found myself in full agreement with most of what the author of this article was presenting. It is entirely too common for librarians in charge of developing youth or children's collections to do so without any input or participation from the audience they are seeking to serve. The assumption that adults have a firm knowledge on the tastes and desires of young readers must be abolished. While this article doesn't necessarily provide practical steps for facilitating the involvement of children in the selection process, it provides a solid theoretical understanding for the importance of doing so and could be used to support the implementation of these practices in library systems that are hesitant to do so. 

Ethical Issues In Collection Development

Hay, Shana

Morrisey, L. J. (2008). Ethical issues in collection development. Journal of Library Administration, 47(3/4), 163-171. doi: 10.1080/01930820802186506

Evaluation: This article looks at some of the ethical issues that may arise in the undertaking of a collection development policy. The author specifically outlines how information obtained from interactions between the managers, vendors, and patrons of a given library system can have a direct effect on the resources available in a library. It is critical that collections staff make equitable and ethical decisions when considering what materials to acquire, and this paper recommends utilising a combination of the ALA Code of Ethics, internal collections guidelines, and collaboration with fellow collections staff as a way of ensuring ethical guidelines are being followed when building and providing access to library resources.  

Summary: This article poses several questions designed to help librarians assess the ethical issues that may affect the development of an equitable collection reflective of the community being served by a given library system. I appreciated how Morrisey took specific lines from the ALA’s Code of Ethics and showed how those principles can guide collections development, and he brought up several points I had never considered. First, he outlines the importance of establishing a mechanism for accepting and responding to collection requests- allowing patrons to directly influence purchases and thus creating a collection reflective of the community (and not the preferences of the collections librarian!). Interestingly, the author recommends not acknowledging what he defines as “self interested communication”, in other words, direct contact from publishers or authors. I don’t know if I agree with this rule, as I can see benefits from building relationships with content creators, however I understand the need to look at these connections with some caution to avoid the appearance of favouritism.

   One of the more interesting sections of the article deals with the need for collections librarians to separate personal feelings when evaluating controversial materials. The example of a librarian working in a religious institution tasked with deciding what resources related to birth control or LGBTQI topics to include. Librarians must resist all efforts to censor library resources, but how can this principle be practically applied, and how is this ensured? This ties into the author’s later conversation regarding the importance of distinguishing between personal convictions and professional duties and stresses the need for collections decisions to be made collaboratively when possible, to avoid personal bias. Collaboration also helps ensure that the interests of library users come before the personal interests of a particular librarian.

   The notion of gifts and perks was one I had never connected with librarianship before, and this article does a great job of outlining some of the concerns surrounding receiving gifts such as dinners or appointments to vendor advisory boards. These gifts should only be accepted with conditions that the acceptance does not indicate a preference for one vendor over another. When considering a digital subscription, it is also important to understand the scope of the vendor’s access to patron information. Will they be able to track individual users? Will they use collected stats to market other services to the library? The answers to these questions may impact the adoption of a service and should be considered before entering into any agreements with vendors.

   This article highlights some of the important ethical issues that should be considered by collections staff as they develop the resources of their institution. By outlining the specific sections in the ALA’s statement on the ethical responsibilities of librarians and providing examples of when those responsibilities may be tested, this article serves as a practical resource for libraries as they continue to develop their collections. Morrisey has developed a useful best practice guide that offers easy to follow advice related to tackling issues of ethics in library collections.

Collection Development and Management for 21st Century Library Collections: an Introduction by Vicki L. Gregory

Gregory, V. L. (2011). Collection development and management for 21^st century library collections: An introduction. New York: Neal-Schuman.

            I chose to read Collection development and management for 21^st century library collections: an introduction by Vicki L. Gregory in addition to the course textbook. It is a very readable, well-written, and thorough introduction to the subject. Although published seven years ago, it is still up-to-date on topics of both classic and recent interest. A selection of some chapters of interest:

Chapter 1: The impact of new technologies on collection development and management.

            The world wide web has made information so accessible that the demand has shifted from the traditional library core collection of a little bit about everything to the demand for everything, including very specialized resources. Gregory refers to The Long Tail by Chris Anderson (2006) to describe the many specialized titles that were more hidden before the internet and social media made everything available to anyone at any time. In this new age of “every possible resource must be available,” it is up to the librarian to act as a filter to find the best resources.

Chapter 7: Assessment and evaluation of the collection, including deselection (weeding).

            Gregory enumerates several ways of assessing a collection, including circulation statistics for any library (including database and eresource hits) and citation analysis of student and faculty papers to determine if there was a need to go to outside sources or if everything needed was found at the college or university library or website. She goes on to thoroughly discuss why weeding is so important, several tools and guidelines like CREW (continuous review, evaluation, and weeding) and MUSTIE (misleading, ugly, superceded, trivial, irrelevant, elsewhere). The sometimes outraged public reaction to weeding can be averted by constantly performing it rather than weeding a large portion of the collection all at once.

Chapter 10: Professional ethics and intellectual freedom.

            All library professionals are bound by personal and professional ethical standards. ALCTS (Association for Collections and Technical Services), a subgroup of ALA, has composed special guidelines in addition to the ALA general guidelines. Collection development and acquisitions librarians have unique issues because of their close contact with vendors and the spending of thousands or millions of dollars of institutional funds. The acceptance of gifts is one such issue, even of a meal. Gifts should never prejudice a decision towards or away from a vendor. With electronic media, patron privacy and confidentiality have become prime issues, as well. Gregory refers to ALA’s Library Bill of Rights to illustrate how to maintain intellectual freedom and refrain from censorship, even the self-censorship of not purchasing controversial materials in the first place.

Chapter 11: Preservation.

            Gregory gives a synopsis of physical preservation in libraries. Of interest is the special challenge of electronic resource preservation. One of the stumbling blocks of electronic formats, including hardware and software, is the swift pace of technological advancement that renders older formats redundant and sometimes unusable. For example, does anyone still have 8-track tape players available? Even carefully digitized or born-digital collections have to be migrated to newer platforms and file forms as technology progresses.

Chapter 12: The future of collection development and management.

            The future involves the ever-expanding role of electronic resources, of course, but also of the increasing local contribution of information, such as digital repositories of local research. Information literacy is of greater importance now than ever with the many competing unauthorized (and downright incorrect) resources available on the web. The author opines that the physical book will never completely vanish. I certainly hope so. Although I love the ease and speed of acquiring and using eaudiobooks, ebooks, and other online resources, I also appreciate the ease of reading, rereading, note taking, and referring back inherent in the physical paper form.