ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, ACCESS AND USE IN THE DIDGITAL

ENVIRONMENT

by

EGUNJOBI, R.A. PhDCOLLEGE LIBRARIAN

ADEYEMI COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ONDO 4TH ANNUAL NATIONAL SEMINAR/ WORKSHOP OF THE ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES SECTION, UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR, 20TH-23RD,

2012

Transformation of information media

Paper• 1960s• Information

store in paper files

Electronic(Audio and

video)

• 1970s• Information

stored in audio/video cassettes and CDs

Digital(Multiple channels)

• 1980s• Information

stored in networks- ICT and Web

INTRODUCTIONInformation Management could therefore be seen as the

organization of and control over the structure, processing and delivery of information.

Information management (IM) has been described as the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information. (Wikipedia, 2000)

information sharing, access and use are essentially the core of information management

The advent of information technology has changed the face of information sharing, access and use all over the world.

INTRODUCTION ContdBefore the 1970s, information management was

limited to files, file maintenance, and the life cycle management of paper-based files, other media and records.

Information today includes both electronic and physical information including data, paper documents, electronic documents, audio and video

Information today is delivered through multiple channels like cell phones and web interfaces. This reality gave birth to the acceptance in the late 1980s that the world is operating in a digital environment.

INTRODUCTION ContdLibraries and information centres in Africa are also not left

out of this transformation from print to digital information This transformation has also brought with it new

opportunities and challenges in creation, processing, storage, dissemination and management of information.

These among others are: 0 Information and Communication Technology infrastructure

issues, 0 issues of access and fair use,0 legal issues0 funding 0 and ethical issues

What are the ethical and legal issues in librarianship?

What are ethics ?

Lynch (2000)- moral choices made by individuals in relation to the rest of the community, standards of acceptable behavior, and rules governing members of a profession.

McMenemy, Poulter & Burton, (2007) -“choices made and the actions undertaken by the individual and how these impact on wider society”

Ethical issues are issues of human conscience; what man feels right or wrong

Ethics of Librarianship 0 ethics of a profession - statement of principles that

guide the practice of that profession, the values and the responsibilities of the profession.

0Librarianship is a profession that has its own ethics well spelt out.

0Sturges (2009)- Ethics of Librarianship not different from media and press ethics, computer and Internet ethics, and ethics of governance and business

0 core issues- intellectual freedom, privacy and secrecy, social equity and justice and ownership of information.

Ethics of Librarianship ContdNo handy document on ethics of library

practice in Nigeria, the American Library Association (ALA)

code of ethics adopted for the for the purpose of this discussion,

The main issues in the code of ethics is reproduced hereunder for the purpose of this discussion:

Ethics of Librarianship- main issues

main issues includeintellectual freedom, censorship of library resources intellectual property rights relationship with colleagues professional development of members /capacity

building.these are 'traditional ethical issues’ They also remain constant in a digital

environment

1960s-paper 1970s-Electronic 1980s-Digital

• intellectual freedom,

• censorship of library resources

• intellectual property rights

• relationship with colleagues

• professional development /capacity building

• intellectual freedom

• censorship of library resources

• intellectual property rights

• relationship with colleagues

• professional development /capacity building

• intellectual freedom

• censorship of library resources

• intellectual property rights

• relationship with colleagues

• professional development of members /capacity building

• information overload

• digital divide.

ethical issues and legal issues- any relationship?

Ethical issues are issues of human conscience; what man feels right or wrong,

there are powers and authorities enforcing legal issues

Both issues are sometimes usually related and interwoven

where there are no laws or where laws are not clearly spelt out, ethics cover up

Within the interval of advancement and the establishment of related laws, the right or wrong use usually decided by peoples’ conscience

Our summarytraditional library ethics overlap with digital ethics but

with new additionsethical and legal issues in information service cannot

be separated. These include

intellectual freedom, censorship,intellectual property rights, relationship with co-workers capacity buildingprivacy and securityinformation overload digital divide.

Intellectual property right0The World Trade Organization (WTO) defined it

as the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds

0Here, the creator is given an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

0Intellectual property rights comprise copyright and rights related to copyright and Industrial property.

0However, the focus of this discussion is mainly on copyright

Copyright a legal device that provides the creator of a work of

art or literature, or a work that conveys information or ideas, the right to control how the work is used (Fishman, 2008)

forbids unauthorized reproduction, distribution, performance, or display of works without the consent of its creator

protects the commercial value of the work and help the author to have some economic gain for his invention

applies to both published and unpublished original works of authorship (literary, musical, dramatic, graphic, audiovisual, architectural works, and sound recordings)

The four main areas of protection

the right to make copies of the worksell or otherwise distribute copies of the

workprepare new works based on the

protected work and perform the protected work (in

stage play or painting)

Copyright law and libraries Copyright law affects the services libraries provide to

users, and the conditions of providing access to copyright materials.

It permeates both traditional and digital library service

It is also both an ethical and a legal issue in information service

The copyright challenges of the traditional library system are those brought by photocopy machines, videocassette recorder (VCR), and tape recorders.

Additionally, these existing laws are now being challenged by electronic information systems.

Copyright challenges in electronic information systems.

the ease with which electronic files can be distributed creates problems within existing copyright law:

either the law does not address the peculiarities of electronic information or the law is too easily subverted by the ease with which files can be copied and transferred

difference in copyright laws in different countries creates problem of enforcement on information made available digitally in other places

fair use and plagiarism.Associated with copyright are two main issues

of fair use and plagiarism.fair use implies using another person’s work

fairly, causing no injury to his copyright, there are no universally accepted standards or

guidelines. It is left to the judgment of the individual user

of the copyrighted work enforcement of the underlying principles of fair

use is difficult if not impossible

The questions the user will ask

Is the new work merely a copy of the original?

Does the new work offer something above and beyond the original?

Is the use of the copyrighted work for nonprofit or educational purposes?

Is the copyrighted work a published or unpublished work?

Is the copyrighted work out of print?

Is the work factual or artistic?

Does the amount you use exceed a reasonable expectation?

Is the particular portion used likely to adversely affect the author's economic gain?

• Does the work appeal to the same audience as the original?

• Does the new work contain anything original?

How much

does the new work differ

from the original?

it is NOT fair use If× it is simply a copy of the original× it is a copy of an unpublished

work× tends more toward artistic

expression× it approaches 50 percent of the

entire work× the "heart" or "essence" of a work is

used

it is fair use if the work is altered significantly

used for another purpose or appeals to a different audience

the work is used for nonprofit or educational purposes

Food for thought?????????????

Is it possible to have fair use of information resources in Nigeria?

And if yes, to what extent?

Plagiarism? to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of

another) as one's own, to use (another's production) without crediting the source

to commit literary theft or to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

plagiarism is stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward

It is plagiarism if you turn in someone else's work as your own copy words or ideas from someone else without

giving credit fail to put a quotation in quotation marksgive incorrect information about the source of a

quotationchange words but copy the sentence structure of a

source without giving creditcopy so many words or ideas from a source that it

makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not

Plagiarism-Digitized or traditional

Digitized or traditional-information is not different

copying digitized information is similar to copying from a printed source.

As such the same rules apply in both cases

? ? ? ? ?Having examined copyright and her twin relatives

the questions to ask here are:

• How does copyright law apply to the digital and online worlds?

• What constitutes fair use and plagiarism in this new environment?

• What will be the role of libraries in this environment?

Role of libraries in Digital environment?(IFLA resolutions of 2000)

libraries and librarians’ critical role remains unchanged- ensuring access for all in the information society.

Now done in an information network environment.

traditionally libraries purchased copies of copyright works for inclusion in their collections, if the same applies to digital information, meeting the needs of users may be restricted.

Copyright application to digital info?

IFLA advocated for reasonable access to copyright works in the digital environment to remove the barrier of access to those who cannot afford to pay.

libraries and citizen’s should be allowed access and use without payment for purposes which are in the public interest and in line with fair practice such as education and research,

digital information is not different, so, the Berne Convention should equally apply to information in electronic form.

Copyright application to digital info Contd

• without a charge or permission, library users should be able to: browse publicly available copyright material read, listen to, or view publicly marketed

copyright material privately, on site or remotely copy, or have copied for them by library and

information staff a reasonable proportion of a digital work in copyright for personal, educational or research use.

The challenge

maintaining a balance between protecting the right of authors

informing and educating users about copyright law

discouraging piracy, unfair use and unauthorized exploitation

facilitating access to the increasing number of local and remote electronic information resources

Intellectual Freedom-

Intellectual freedom is the essential tenet of librarianship.

At the core of intellectual freedom are free access to information and freedom of expression.

freedom of access to information has long been regarded as one of the key values of librarianship.

Intellectual Property

Freedom of Access

Free Access Privacy

Free of expression

Free Access, Free Expression

+It is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some elements of society may consider to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable (Canadian Library Association (CLA), 1976)

+Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. (Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

the challenges in maintaining intellectual freedom, there are two major

ethical challenges- providing access and maintaining privacy and confidentiality.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty of 1996 provides that users of digital works continue to have statutory rights of access to information in the same way as users of analogue works

American Library Association’s (ALA) Code of Ethics for members stressed the responsibility to protect the rights of library users to privacy and confidentiality regarding information that they have sought or received and resources that they have consulted, borrowed, acquired, or transmitted.

free access ?The subject of free access is a major challenge to

libraries in a digital environment some authors have devised their own systems of

protecting and controlling their worksThey now employ the use of digital rights management

(DRM) DRM covers issues like product authenticity, user

charges, terms-of-use and expiration of rights. With DRM, copyright is being extended beyond the

realm of protection - into the realm of complete control over works which may hinder certain legitimate practices or uses of works(Nicholson 2009)

Privacy?0 privacy remains one of the most discussed and worried-

about aspects of today’s information age (Waldo, Lin and Millett, 2007).

0It is also a major question confronting users’ rights to access information.

0Libraries of all types see their core mission as storing and organizing information so that it can be accessed by their patrons.

0They also see privacy as a necessary condition for the accomplishment of the primary goal,

0 libraries do keep significant amounts of personal information about their patrons, especially on their intellectual lives which technologies can make available for access- what do we do?

A scenario

librarians in other climes have had to confront situations where they needed to make tradeoffs between privacy and such other values as law enforcement, and security.

When legislation is used, for example, to obtain library users’ borrowing records and to carry out surveillance in libraries, with the desire to scrutinize and limit their activities, for security reasons-What do we do?

In this kind of situation, the library profession had a responsibility to help protect society against terrorism, but it also has a duty of client confidentiality.

The end result of tradeoffs between security issues and the breaching of patrons’ privacy by libraries in the past has always been in favor of privacy of the patrons

Censorship

traditional or digital -there is a direct linkage between censorship and information dissemination

Libraries are supposed to operate a “no censorship” principle

. "No censorship" means the inclusion of library resources in a library collection for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people without consideration for the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

Censorship is using the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation as basis for be exclusion of a material in the collection of a library

Censorship- Who& What0Censorship is usually defined in line with the

entity that does the censoring and what is being censored.

things(What)that are usually censored are ideas

books electronic media

0entities (Who) that do the censoring include governments-local, national or internationalorganizations libraries

Positive?

Censorship

Information suppression.

Propaganda

Government conspiracy

Dictatorship Totalitarianism

Why censorship?Traditionally, censorship of materials

usually results from issues of national security cases of obscene materials which are

against societal norms and standardsissue of censorship still remains relevant

with digitized information but with a slight change

Censorship of digitized informationwith the advent of the Internet, government

control over the “masses” has lessened Though Governments don’t have direct

control, they still use corporations in information technology.

big corporations, especially in the technology sector now take part in censoring.

the central concern for censorship still remains security and obscene materials.

Examples of Digital censorshipThe Chinese government uses Internet search engine

Baidu to censor a huge list of “undesirable” sites and searches at the behest of the socialist government.

This censorship includes any content that criticizes the ruling Communist Party.

Here, the entity that censors is the government.(Security reasons)

Google’s recently attempted to tackle the problem of child pornography on the Net. It has reconfigured one of its filtering algorithms to recognize and filter certain patterns that are indicative of pedophilic or other such obscene conduct.

Here, the entity that censors is the IT Organization.(Social norms)

how does this affect library services?Libraries are expected to provide materials and

information presenting all points of view libraries will only collect what is found in the

information market. librarians consider some factors as reasons for either

inclusion or exclusion of particular materials. it is difficult to delineate between selection and

censorship (Moellendick, 2009) In real practice, issues of relevance, social acceptability,

political acceptability, morality and community interest play major roles in decision making (Coyle, 1995; Moellendick, 2009).

The digital divideIt is the gap between those that have, and those that

do not have access to the information technologies. the differing amount of information between those

who have access to the Internet and those who do not have access.

it is an inequality between groups, in terms of access to, use of, or knowledge ICT

Also referred to as the digital split or the information divide.

not necessarily determined by the access to the Internet, but by access to ICT and to media that the different segments of society can use.

Where in the divide?We cannot shy away from the importance of

the internet in a digital environment. The central issues are

availability of ICT access at an affordable cost quality

people’s access to the internet is a definition of where they are in the digital divide.

The question now is ‘Where are we?’

Whither Nigeria? it is evident that the percentage of persons that could

afford internet access is small. 56% of Americans and 74% of Europeans have

internet access, only 13% of Africans use the internet (International Communication Union, 2011).

More specifically, only 28.4% of the Nigerian population use the internet.

Even in this decade of digitization, not many of Nigerian libraries could really provide access to virtual information for her patron.

This calls for urgent and radical steps to be taken for improvement

Capacity buildingMeans strengthening the skills, competencies and abilities of

people and communities so they can overcome the causes of their exclusion and suffering.

an ongoing process through which individuals, groups, organizations and societies enhance their ability to identify and meet development challenges (Catholic Relief Services , 2012)

objective of capacity building in librarianship is to enhance the skills and ability of librarians

working with ICT in information service requires more skills than what is given in contemporary library schools

There are practicing librarians that are not ICT literate, the literate have limited skills in exploitation of ICT.

Let us ask if libraries make enough provision for training and retraining of their staff.

What to be doneLibrarians must ensure the free flow of information to the widest possible audience and in whatever possible format

Librarians will need to step up a global campaign in favour of balanced copyright.

Librarians need to mount up workshops and seminars for users on copyright issues of plagiarism and fair use

Libraries in Nigeria need to embrace provision of virtual access to information.

Government needs to institute national programs that will help make access to ICT and virtual information cheap and affordable

Thank you for listening