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The library profession has been concerned with ethical issues since its beginning. Ethical issues raised in the early years dealt primarily with librarians’ responsibility to the employer or patron. The focus later shifted to questions of professional identity, organisational environment, and social responsibilities. Rapid technological change and the advent of the information age are forcing the library profession to rethink its mission and responsibilities. This paper expands research on a survey of librarians’ ethical values reported by Dole and Hurych (forthcoming) at the 1998 EEI21 Symposium. In the 1998 study, they conducted a survey of North American librarians and librarians at a conference in the Crimea (Ukraine) to examine the values considered most important by each group and to identify differences in the priorities of values assigned by the groups studied. They found that all three groups held similar values. The current study replicates the 1998 survey among librarians throughout the world. Additional professional and demographic data were collected during the second iteration to support consideration of professional training, library experience and type, and professional responsibilities as possible factors contributing to value formation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify core values commonly held by library and information professionals and discusses whether Rushworth Kidder's concept of dilemma paradigms may be used to analyze and resolve conflicts between the right to access to information and other core values. Kidder identifies two types of dilemmas: “right‐versus‐wrong” and “right‐versus‐right”. He defines “right‐versus‐right” dilemmas as those that “however complex and varied, typically reduce themselves to one or more of the following dilemma paradigms: Truth versus Loyalty, Self versus Community, Short Term versus Long Term and Justice versus Mercy.”

The paper discusses Kidder's theory and applies it to several situations or scenarios reported by practicing librarians.

The analysis of the scenarios highlights the complex nature of dilemmas faced by library and information professionals.

The scenarios are limited in number and drawn from only one country. The authors recommend more research on the application of Kidder's theory to authentic library scenarios.

There is little discussion of Kidder in library literature. Despite the limitations, this paper will introduce librarians to dilemma paradigms as one possible tool for resolving conflicts.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether Beck's research method and instruments, which were carried out in 2002 in larger and more research‐based libraries, are applicable to academic libraries of other types and sizes.

This paper reports the results of a year‐long study on the impact of assessment on library decision making in nine small to medium sized academic libraries in the USA. The study replicates Susan J. Beck's 2002 study on the impact of assessment on decision making in nine Association of Research Libraries (ARL) libraries in North America which was carried out in larger and more research‐based libraries. Directors and key administrators were interviewed to gather qualitative data. Two survey instruments were used to gather quantitative data: Beck's “Factors in decision‐making” survey and “Do you have a culture of assessment?” survey adapted from Amos Lakos (University of California at Los Angeles) and Betsy Wilson (University of Washington) – 1998; revised and updated by Shelley Phipps (University of Arizona) – 2002; additional revisions by Julia Blixrud – 2003. Qualitative data are transcribed and weighted. The quantitative data are run through standard statistical tests. The authors discuss their experience with the survey instruments and compare the results of their survey with those of Beck's.

Beck's method is transferable to different types of library, where similar findings result.

The paper offers insights into using performance measurement for decision making in mid‐sized academic libraries.

conference held in Dubrovnik, May 2004, which had the dual theme of human information behaviour and competences for digital libraries.

Based on information derived from bibliographic titles in Ergonomic Abstracts, this paper analyzes research done on human factors in disaster management. A bibliometric analysis is done to identify the most useful material in this important and timely subject area.

We have conducted a study of academic faculty use of databases for research, their need for evaluative guides to databases, and the appropriateness of currently‐available guides. Although the response rate was low (19%), the follow‐up survey suggested only a minimal non‐response bias. Our findings suggest that academic faculty are typically unaware of the range of databases available and few recognize the need for databases in research. Of those faculty who do use databases, most delegate the searching to a librarian or an assistant, rather than performing the searches themselves. We identified thirty‐nine database guides; these tend to be descriptive rather than evaluative.