Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
5-2020
Abstract
The present paper focuses on the issue of professional ethics and related problems in the field of Library and Information Science. The study, to begin with, reveals the dichotomy of professional ethics from the general social ethics through visible boundaries and jurisdictions. Further, some most general and universally found issues and reasons of ethical tensions are discussed. The study argues that unawareness about professional ethics, lack of universal patterns of ethics as well as universal mechanism for the implementation and the dilemma of social ethics versus professional ethics are the issues, which result in ethical tensions. Besides these, in certain cases, the individual preference of a library professional to self-interest while ignoring the professional ethics also creates problems. The study suggests that a universal mechanism of prescribing and implementing the professional ethics in the field of Library and Information Science is sturdily required to reduce the amount as well as enormity of ethical tensions in the discipline.