Ethical values in the International Cataloging Principles

Abstract

Cataloging involves ethical implications, linked to equal access to information, privacy and social and intellectual inequalities. Professionals must be aware of these issues, backed by the codes of ethics in the field, so that they can fulfill the main objective of cataloguing: to serve the demands of the user. However, it is not yet clear how the International Cataloguing Principles (ICP) address the ethical values discussed in the codes and in the specialized literature in the field. In view of this, this research seeks to discuss the ethical values present in the ICPs and its secondary objectives are: to present conceptual aspects of the cataloging process; to describe the ICPs; to discuss professional codes of ethics; to demonstrate research that relates ethics to cataloging studies and to identify ethical values that could be better involved in the ICPs. Cataloguing is a discipline in the area of Information Organization and Representation, in the field of Information Science, which aims to provide a bibliographic representation of the items in a documentary collection. This process allows users to interact with catalogs in order to efficiently search for, retrieve and access documents that meet their research interests. In order for cataloging to take place and for the catalog, as a product, to become a reality, principles are needed that support and consolidate the construction of cataloging codes and also promote the evolution of cataloging theories. The cataloging process, therefore, involves a great deal of intellectual effort, and even implies that an ethical stance is taken in its development. The choices made during cataloging can shape or even influence the way users search for and interpret the data in the documents of interest. In this way, cataloging is also an act that implies moral and social responsibility. Ethics relates to cataloging through a series of aspects, including justice, equal access to information, privacy, respect for differences, social and intellectual inequality. Some studies have already worked on ethics applied to cataloging, but no parameters have been identified to measure how these studies reflect what is proposed in the PICs. Generally speaking, ethics can be understood as an area of study in philosophy that deals with the principles and values that guide human behavior, helping to distinguish what is considered right or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair. Ethics therefore seeks to understand and evaluate human actions in terms of morality, questioning what we should do and how we should live. One of the aspects of ethics is its deontological issues, i.e. moral rules related to professional practice, usually expressed in codes of ethics. In the field of Information Science, important codes of ethics have been developed, such as that of the American Library Association (ALA), the International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (IFLA) or, in the Brazilian context, that of the Federal Council of Librarianship. However, none of these codes reflect in depth the ethical issues of cataloging. This study has a qualitative approach and is of an applied nature. With exploratory objectives, it uses bibliographic and documentary research procedures, an approach that allows for an in-depth analysis of the ethical principles that guide cataloging, guaranteeing the relevance and validity of the results obtained. The combination of these methodological elements provides a solid basis for understanding the ethical challenges faced by professionals, contributing to the promotion of ethical practices in the field of cataloging. Based on the bibliographical research, studies were selected according to their thematic relevance and analyzed, identifying the main trends and debates related to the central theme of this research. Articles from periodicals and events, dissertations and theses in Portuguese and English were selected. The analysis of the results was based on a categorical content analysis of the material collected which, once systematized, was compared to the elements defined in the PICs. The bibliographic survey provided documents that were read and analyzed by the authors in the light of the narrative review, in order to ascertain the values expressed by this literature. Based on the analysis of this material, the following ethical values were identified as expressed in the literature analysed: access to information, cataloguing and ethics, confidentiality, ethical training, the impact of new technologies, the importance of codes of ethics, interoperability, justice, neutrality, the organization of information and ethics, accuracy, privacy, intellectual property, respect for diversity, professional responsibility, and transparency and impartiality. It is important to note that the values expressed in the literature and identified in this research as Cataloguing and ethics and Organization of information and ethics are present in all PICs. However, values such as ethical training, confidentiality, professional responsibility, privacy and intellectual property were not addressed by the PICs. In the context of this research, it is argued that some of the values listed in the literature could be present in the PICs, such as: [1] Ethical Responsibility: since cataloging involves decisions that impact the cultural, social and historical representation of various social groups, ethical responsibility should be encouraged when deciding on terms and descriptors for items in the collection, ensuring that they are inclusive and respect cultural sensitivities; [2] Ethical Sustainability: taking into account that ethical training is necessary to ensure that cataloging practices are surrounded by an ethical aspect throughout this activity, introducing discussions regarding the ethical dilemmas encountered by professionals in their day-to-day work; [3] Data Protection and User Privacy: values that reflect the value of Confidentiality and consider how it involves the protection of data relating to the user's search behavior and personal data, as well as, the restriction of access to sensitive materials - such as government documents or research data in repositories, among other consents relating to data; [4] Intellectual Property: so that it expressed the importance of complying with copyright laws in order to ensure that any work included in the collection had its rights duly recognized, including mentions of authors and licenses of use, and the correct attribution of authorship and credits.