An excerpt from my Information Ethics class discussion. The COVID-19 pandemic marked a significant shift in the use of technology in education. With many students studying from home, schools and universities scrambled to find effective ways to instill knowledge and ensure academic honesty. Some of these efforts, even before the pandemic, crossed the ethical line … Read more
It’s more likely than you think! Accessibility is a hot topic for libraries. Usually this takes the form of making sure shelving is far enough apart for navigating with a wheelchair. More progressive libraries might have discussions about having non-quiet hours for folks who can’t control their speech, or installing lights that don’t flicker to … Read more
An excerpt from my class discussion in Information Ethics. In October of last year, the MYA Network released photographs of embryonic tissue at various stages of early pregnancy. The stated goal for releasing these photos was “to counter misinformation with facts about what pregnancy tissue looks like in an early abortion or miscarriage.” (MYA Network, … Read more
An excerpt from my class discussion in Information Ethics. Georgia, like many other states and the federal government in the US, has a terrible track record for compliance with open records laws. State agencies wait too long, don’t turn over all required documents, and often must be forced to comply by lawsuits filed by information-seeking … Read more
Smiling isn’t free, some people don’t like to be addressed, can we talk about that? I am autistic. I enjoy spending time in libraries because they are often quiet, serene, calming places where I can bury my nose in a book and no one will bother me. It’s a space where I can engage with … Read more
An excerpt from a discussion in my Information Ethics class. I chose the article Ukrainian Libraries in Wartime (Gosart, 2023). It provides a glimpse into the world of a wartime librarian. I believe that the intentional destruction of cultural heritage collections such as libraries is unethical, and I don’t think that’s particularly controversial. The article … Read more
An excerpt from a class discussion on Information Ethics. Human consciousness is difficult to define. It can include things like personality, preferences, emotions, and memories. These things are encoded within the roughly 86 billion neurons of the brain. These neuron encodings are a type of information, and just like a book can be converted into … Read more
This semester, I’m learning about information ethics, and for one of my class projects I decided to examine the ethical implications of Open Educational Resources (OER) and how they compare to the traditional publishing model for educational resources. The submission format was a video presentation which I’ve struggled with before and did again this time. … Read more
The library plays a crucial role in the production of an informed electorate and providing information access to the community, while occupying a precarious space within the legal landscape. As fraught as the existing complexity is, it is further complicated by regulations that continue to evolve, with constant changes to policies and laws and challenges … Read more
This summer, I’m taking a class on information ethics. That is, ethics as applied to information. As one can imagine from that description, it’s a pretty broad field! And it’s condensed into 7 weeks, which is going to make it extra challenging for me as someone who needs longer than a neurotypical person to digest … Read more
