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Ethical considerations regarding library nonprofessionals: competing perspectives and values
Library Trends, Wntr, 1998 by Thomas J. Froehlich
INTRODUCTION
Ethics is rarely ever a matter of invoking some absolute principle which is unambiguously applied to a particular context and for which there are no competing interpretations or no evocation of diverse and contrary moral demands. In fact, ethics usually entails deliberation: deliberation about which moral principles might apply to a situation, which ones have higher priority, how they might be applied to a given context, and how various stakeholders, even competing roles of each stakeholder, might affect the decision. Applied to the use of nonprofessionals in the context of libraries and information centers, such deliberation is often exacerbated because of the diversity of moral principles that might be brought to bear, the variety of stakeholders and their interpretations of the issues, and the diversity of situations.
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There are many issues to be addressed. Who is a professional and, concomitantly, a nonprofessional or paraprofessional? Who are the stakeholders and what is their influence in ethical deliberations? What moral principles, obligations, and values are involved? Are they competitive or harmonious? How can they be applied fruitfully?
CHARACTERIZATION OF A PROFESSIONAL
Admittedly, there is some difficulty with the term "nonprofessional" which has a derogatory flavor, ostensibly devaluing the work of such employees in the library. There are grades of support staff, articulated and recommended in documents of the American Library Association--e.g., clerk, library technical assistant, technical assistant, library associate, and associate specialist--those categories with library in the title having some component of specific library training (in Chernik, 1992, pp. 205-12). These categories are not consistently applied and other terms have been used: support staff, library technicians, information assistants, senior library assistant, library clerk, paraprofessional (Casteleyn, 1990, p. 159; Rodgers, 1997, p. 2). For the purposes of this article, all nonprofessional titles and levels will be clustered under the term "nonprofessional." Nothing negative is intended by its use. Furthermore, distinctions among library professional grades and levels will also be ignored. While there are differences in skill levels and responsibilities of each nonprofessional and professional staff member, and while there are ethical issues in employee treatment, status, and promotion in each category, the focus of this analysis will be on the ethical issue of the relation of nonprofessionals to professionals, and such distinctions are generally not crucial to this analysis.
Part of the problem is coming to grips with the designation of a professional. The issue is not simply a semantic one, but rather the criteria that one invokes to identify professional status frames how one sees the problem of nonprofessionals vis-a-vis professionals and how one addresses such issues as their role, status, claims, and compensation. To complicate matters, because of the rapid growth of the technological infrastructure of libraries and information centers, there are many kinds of professionals--e.g., not only librarians and information specialists but also computer systems professionals--most of whom do not come from schools of library and information science. Given the size of certain libraries, one may also have accountants or business professionals on staff. How these personnel attain the designation of "professional" may vary considerably.
There are three major areas of ethical concern regarding nonprofessionals in libraries and information services: (1) the role, status, and compensation of such nonprofessionals as library clerks or technicians vis-a-vis professionals, the organization, and the public, particularly in their claims for, or realization of, professional status; (2) the role, authority, status, and compensation of nonlibrarian professionals appointed as directors or supervisors; and (3) the relation of professional librarians to other professionals on the library or information center staff. In order to address the ethical dimensions of these issues, one must determine the way or ways in which a person might be designated a professional and a library and information services professional in particular.
Who is a professional? A professional can be determined by looking at his or her internal disposition (including training, expertise, or abilities) or by external signs. Bommer et al. (1987) argue that: "Fields of activity are properly designated professions only if they are characterized by (a) professional associations, (b) established licensing procedures or (c) both" (p. 270). First of all, in the United States, there are no licensing procedures for librarians or information professionals. In contrast, in the United Kingdom, there are rigorous procedures for becoming a member of an information association--e.g., a fellow of the Library Association or a member of the Institute of Information Scientists. For some associations there are often requirements for nomination of candidates created by existing members of the association.
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