The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium

Citation

Rockenbach, B. (2002), "The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 19 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2002.23919bac.002

The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium

Barbara Rockenbach

The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium was held in Memphis, Tennessee, October 18-21, 2001. This annual Symposium is in its fifth year and it has been held at and sponsored by the University of Memphis since 1997. The symposium has always focused on the ethical issues surrounding electronic information and information technology, drawing upon scholarship in the fields of philosophy, library and information science, computer science, law, medicine, and media studies. Additionally, the Symposium, although small (around 30-35 attendees and 20 papers), attracts participants from all over the world including the UK, South Africa, Portugal, Greece, Canada, and Germany. Tom Mendina, Assistant to the Dean of Libraries at the University of Memphis, is the Chairman of EEI21 ­ Memphis.

Les Pourciau, former Director of the University of Memphis Libraries, and Tom Mendina organized and planned the first Symposium in 1997 and the proceedings from that Symposium were published that year by the Purdue University Press in a volume entitled, Ethics and Electronic Information in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Pourciau. Since then the proceedings have been published in the Journal of Information Ethics and the International Journal of Information and Library Studies. This year's proceedings are forthcoming in a volume being published by McFarland & Company, Inc.

The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium is held every year in the Fogelman Executive Center on the campus of the University of Memphis. The facility not only has a wonderful meeting room but is also a hotel and banquet facility. The very reasonable Symposium fee of $100 includes meals for the two-day event.

This year's Symposium was organized into four sections:

1. 1.

   a homage to Professor Stephen Almagno;

2. 2.

   library issues;

3. 3.

   a post-September 11 Forum; and

4. 4.

   topical issues.

The Symposium recognized the retirement of Professor Stephen Almagno by honoring his life and career. Professor Almagno taught in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh for 30 years, retiring in December 2001 to assume leadership of the world-wide education programs of The Franciscan Order in Rome. He was the first professor to teach a course in Information Ethics in an American Library Science program and he is acknowledged as a forerunner in the development of the field of Information Ethics. In his 30 years in the profession he has taught: History of Book Publishing and Printing, Rare Books, Critical Bibliography, Resources in the Humanities, Theological Librarianship, Information Ethics, and Latin and Greek Manuscripts.

The first section was moderated by a former student of Professor Almagno's, Barbara Rockenbach, and featured the keynote address by Professor Almagno entitled "Ma Position Intellectuelle," on his teaching philosophy and intellectual development in relation to his information ethics courses. Two of his students responded to his paper, Dr Nancy Zimmerman and Dr Jeffrey Huber, and a colleague, Dr Netiva Caftori. Dr Zimmerman's paper focused on her experiences as one of Professor Almagno's students and how that experience has influenced her own teaching. Dr Huber's talk, "Ma Position Intellectuelle: A Discourse-Specific Response," was framed within a particular discourse, the discourse of homosexuality. Dr Caftori's paper was a motivational exercise meant to awaken in the listener the desire to learn more about ethics and philosophy and to pass it on to students.

The second section, Library Issues, was moderated by Wallace Koehler, a professor of Library and Information Science at Valdosta State University in Georgia. There were eight papers in this section with topics as diverse as: trust in information service, information codes of ethics, privacy in the digital library, the education of information professionals in consumer health issues, libraries in the world of e-commerce, librarianship in the twenty-first century, internet plagiarism, and the ethics of bibliographic control. Yet, even with such wide-ranging issues, several ethical concerns were mentioned in almost all the papers, issues of trust, privacy, and the credibility and authority of digital information. Libraries, as cultural institutions, are faced with the migration of cultural materials from analog to digital and the fact that migration brings many ethical issues unknown to libraries in the past to the fore. The presenters all recognized the great responsibility librarians and information professionals have in this new digital world to educate and make users aware of the ethical implications of digital technology.

The third section, a Post-September 11 forum, was moderated by Dr Martha Smith, a professor at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Dr Smith framed the presentation of the events of September 11 in a discussion about the scholars Hans Jonas and Thomas Kuhn and their response, as educators, to the aftermath of the Second World War. She then opened up the discussion to the Symposium attendees, asking if the events of September 11 represent a paradigm shift in education akin to that of the Second World War. Most agreed that September 11 does not represent such a paradigm shift, but the events do refocus the way in which educators teach, especially in the field of ethics. The discussion was intelligent and respectful, even at times when it became quite heated. A fuller description of the forum will be published in the McFarland volume this spring.

Thomas Froehlich, a professor of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, moderated the final section of the Symposium on Saturday afternoon. This section on topical issues included six papers on watermarking, ethical hacking, social democracy and information media policy, Internet user dependence and the duty of loyalty, unsolicited commercial e-mail, and the ethics of dialogue in the electronic world. Again, all the papers highlighted several common ethical issues in terms of digital information, including information authentication, access to digital information, and ethical conduct in digital transactions.

The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium is one of the few events dedicated to ethical issues and information. Its interdisciplinary and international nature makes it valuable to anyone interested in the ethical implications of digital information. The Symposium is also a wonderful opportunity for students to be exposed to the big issues facing information professionals today. The Symposium will be held again next year in Memphis, October 24-27, 2002. For more information about the Symposium or to view the call for papers visit: http://www.memphis.edu/ethics21/ or contact Tom Mendina, tmendina@postoffice.memphis.edu or Barbara Rockenbach, barbara.rockenbach@yale.edu

Barbara Rockenbach­ (barbara.rockenbach@yale.edu) is the Instructional Services Librarian in the Arts Library at Yale University.