Ethics, strengths and values: a review article

Reviews three books that deal with the mission, values, and ethics of the l ibrary profession, focusing on the theme of the necessity for continuing di scussion and rethinking about lilbrarianship's values and mission in the ne w,'Information Age'. In Alfino and Pierce's book 'Information ethics for li brarians', a series of complex philosophical problems are described in a cl ear manner. Their concise and effective philosophical and historical accoun ts help to understand how certain ethical dilemmas have arisen. German's bo ok,'Our singular strengths: meditations: for librarians', comprises a serie s of short essays discussing numerous and varied topics covering many aspec ts of librarianship and the author's own professional life within the field and commenting on the lives of persons who influenced and inspired him. Ge rman's book,'Our enduring values' describes values in terms of stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, rationalism literacy and learning, equity o f access, privacy, and democracy. The defence of basic librarianship values is well-reasoned and fervent and serves to raise doubts about German's dis cussion of stewardship as a 'unique' librarianship value. (Concludes from t he three books that access is at the heart of all ethical problems relating to the library's mission of service. All of the books under review are use ful for frying to understand the ethical complexities of librarianship, but 'Information ethics for librarians' has the fullest discussion for a frame work relating to the complex ethical problems involved.