the virtual library: changing roles and ethical challenges for librarians

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Page 1: The Virtual Library: Changing Roles and Ethical Challenges for Librarians

Intl. Inform. & Libr. Rev. (2000), 32, 313^324doi:10.1006/iilr.2000.0138Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

The Virtual Library: Changing Rolesand Ethical Challenges for LibrariansJAN T. ORICK*{

ABSTRACT

Since the 1930s, the Library Bill of Rights has acknowledgedthe ethical responsibility of librarians to provide access toinformation in all formats to all people. Librarians arecharged with selecting, organizing, and instructing patronson how to locate and use the resources, and preserving infor-mation regardless of format or technology. The informationrevolution and the pervasive thinking that everythingis available on the Web have created new challengesto these traditional professional ethics. Acquiring andproviding dependable access to electronic resourcesrequire librarians to learn and apply new skills such asnegotiating license agreements and understanding evolvingtechnologies. Print publications provide a degree of perma-nence, but e-information, if it is not properly managed, canbe highly transient. Internet services provide large, uncon-trolled, unregulated collection of resources. If the very nat-ure of the Internet makes it nearly if not completelyimpossible to evaluate the content of web-sites, how doesthe librarian protect the integrity of the information thelibrary provides? Along with traditional ethical con£icts,librarians in the virtual library are faced with new chal-lenges to provide equitable access to usefully organized re-sources, to address petitions to deselect or ¢lter, to negotiateless-restrictive licensing policies, and to maintain the anony-mity of individual users within electronic transactions.

# 2000 Academic Press

*St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Biomedical Library, 332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN38105, USA.E-mail: [email protected]

{A special thanks to my sta¡ for their patience and support and to Flo Witte for her editingassistance. Supported in part by Cancer Center Support (CORE) Grant P30 CA21765 fromthe National Cancer Institute and by the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities(ALSAC).

1057^2317/00/030313 + 12 $30.00/0 # 2000 Academic Press

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The library profession has many governing bodies that provide codes ofethical conduct. Because the American Library Association was the ¢rstto publish a Code of Ethics in 1938, that code, as amended, remains therecognized standard for all codes of ethics for librarianship. Tradition-ally, these codes addressed ethical standards that applied to evaluating,selecting, and providing access to printed materials and to serving a pa-tron who physically came to a library to ¢nd information. Librariansrecognize the importance of ethical codes for professionals. As informa-tion professionals, librarians are knowledgeable in their ¢elds and aretrusted by society to act in the society’s best interests.One primary role of librarians is to provide leadership and expertise

in the design, development, and ethical management of knowledge-based information systems in order to meet the information needs andobligations of the patron or institution. Electronic information provideslibrarians with challenges that are not necessarily new; however, as thenature of the librarians’ roles changes, so do the challenges to long-standing professional codes of ethics. Marshall Keys writes that in thefuture, as now, ‘‘we can expect the virtual library to be the organizationthat identi¢es, selects, negotiates for, and provides access to an incrediblerange of information resources on our behalf ’’.1

A 1998 survey published by the Special Libraries Association (SLA)found that, although our roles are indeed changing,

‘‘librarians foresee their role evolving to that of consultant and planner, where theyfacilitate the delivery of end-user information through the corporate network (i.e.manage the content, train end-users, deal with more complex inquiries). At thestrategic level, they could play an important role in managing the knowledge re-sources of the organization’’.2

The same survey reports that ‘‘there has been no signi¢cant change inthe amount of time spent on strategic activities. . . . Special librariansstill spend close to one third (30%) of their time conducting researchor providing assistance to end-users. . . . A large proportion (32%) oftime is also dedicated to various administrative duties’’.3

Keys writes that the evolution toward a digital library creates achange in the ‘‘locus of control’’. ‘‘The library’s collection is moving out-side the library itself. Digital collections can be stored o¡-site, and theindividual library will have far less control than today over the actual

1Keyes, M. (1999) The evolving virtual library: A vision through a glass, darkly. In L. M. Saun-ders (Ed.) The Evolving Virtual Library II Medford. InformationToday, Inc. p. 180.

2 Phase 5 Research, Inc. (1998) Information Service Panel Survey, Summary Results. See http://www.sla.org/research/isp98.html.

3 Ibid.

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availability of information to the end user’’.4 Electronic informationcreates challenges for the library community at its very foundation,moving it away from the traditional paper-and-print format to an ethe-real world of circuits and connectivity. The library is no longer de¢nedsimply as a building or a physical repository that houses information.The report entitledThe Changing Role of the Informational Professional 2000tells us that ‘‘two-thirds of survey respondents are moving toward fully-digital or nearly-digital libraries, making it more feasible to serve distantcustomers’’.5 The terms ‘‘digital library’’ and ‘‘virtual library’’ imply ‘‘alibrary that provides access to a collection of distributed information inelectronic format through pointers provided locally. . . or a collection ofdigital objects housed in the same place, virtual or physial’’.6 The virtualor digital library will have many familiar library features, but there willbe a change in the way in which the library acquires and provides accessto collections and in the composition and roles of the library sta¡.The globalization of information means that access to information is nolonger limited by what is available in the local collection. The librarianis no longer the primary ‘‘gatekeeper’’ or guide to information. Greaterchallenges in evaluating content, especially health or medical resourcesin multiple formats, face the librarian.Moving toward a digital or virtual library challenges not only the

accessibility of the information but also the entire philosophy of whatconstitutes a document. Many librarians had heard that by the year2000 all new resources would be digital. Although we have not quitereached that point, today most libraries are struggling to maintain a‘‘transitional library’’ collecting and organizing both print and electronicresources. Walt Crawford says that ‘‘ongoing complexity and unpredict-able currents of change will mark the future of libraries’’.7 Even the ter-minology describing information is changing. Once we describedinformation in a printed, permanent format as a ‘‘document’’; now, infor-mation is described as a ‘‘resource’’. Once one user looked at one book orjournal at a time. Now, electronic information can be stored and ac-cessed by millions of users simultaneously from personal computers(PCs) with modems or through direct Internet connections from home,work, or practically anywhere. Patrons no longer have to physicallyvisit the library to retrieve information. This ability to access full-textresources electronically from within the institution or from any PC

4Keyes, M. (1999) Op. cit. , p. 169.5Outsell, Inc. (2000) The Changing Role of the Informational Professional 2000: Implications

for vendors. Buyers and users of content in the corporate market. In Information about information,executive summary. p. 6.

6Keyes, M. (1999) Op. cit., p. 168.7 Crawford, W. (2000) Principled libraries in changing times. Online, 24(2), p. 49.

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provides the user with convenient and immediate access to information.Expanded use of interlibrary loan and document delivery also o¡ers thepotential to provide access to all materials, rather than only to materialsowned locally.Technology provides challenges to access. The ALA’s 1995 Code of

Ethics and the Library Bill of Rights clearly state that everyone shouldhave access to information. The recent explosion of information avail-able on the Internet presents challenges to the traditional AmericanLibrary Association (ALA) code of ethics that is taught in libraryschool. Librarians make ethical decisions every day on the basis of theculture of their organizations. Some organizations limit access to parti-cular levels of employees by requiring a username and password; othersmay institute behind-the-scenes ¢ltering software or restrictive policiesfor providing access to the entire Internet. Because these steps challengethe very essence of librarianship (providing access to all), the librarianmust step up and voice concern for the patron’s rights. Establishing well-de¢ned access policies will help to clarify who has access to the Internet,under what conditions, for what purposes, and with what restrictions.Policies should consider how to integrate the new technology and howits use re£ects the objectives and values of the library.Many librarians argue that collection development and selection of

materials are a form of ¢ltering. I disagree. Selection is an active processperformed by professional librarians who consider and make purchasingdecisions on the basis of their knowledge of the collection as a wholeand the needs of the clients of the library. Filtering, on the other hand,is passive and arbitrary. Filters are created not by trained professionalsbut by an anonymous person outside the library sta¡ and the commu-nity. In the case of keyword ¢lters, someone, usually not the librarian,decides what information is ¢ltered on the basis of what words it con-tains, not on he basis of the content of the site as a whole.Whenever the¢lter sees those words, the site is automatically blocked. Sometimes alibrary within an academic or private institution is not even consultedor given the chance to contest ¢ltering of electronic resources. At thispoint, the librarian must make the ethical choice to accept or reject theadministration’s policy, or at the very least to document that the libraryis opposed to the arbitrary blocking of access to information. These canbe di⁄cult positions to take.According to Mary Ellen Bates, another role change technology

brings is that the ‘‘library and information center managers are oftenasked to negotiate these electronic subscriptions. This requires a new setof skills and even an entirely new relationship with publishers’’.8 When

8 Bates, M.E. (1998) How to implement electronic subscriptions. Online 22(3), p. 82.

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books or print media were the sole domain of the library, libra-rians could simply purchase a book. The price of the book was notdetermined by the number of students or full-time employees or facultymembers at the institution, or by the number of locations in which thebook would be placed. An appropriate number of copies were pur-chased for multiple locations. Today, publishers may choose not to recog-nize a global organization or multicampus institution and may limitaccess to one computer in the library that houses the print subscription.Some publishers provide access to their electronic full-text products onlyto those libraries that agree to continue subscribing to the print version,or they require users of the electronic versions to be on the same physi-cal campus as the library.The increasing cost of both print and electronic journals causes many

libraries to cut subscriptions and to purchase data for a particular audi-ence. It is the job of the librarian to choose what is to be cancelled andto decide who will su¡er least from the lack of access to particular infor-mation. In the decision to cancel subscriptions, the librarian considers,among other things, the needs of the community the library serves andwhether the information is also available within the organization. Priceand timeliness in retrieving the information are also considered. Whennegotiating access with a publisher, the librarian must agree to certainrestrictions on photocopying or distribution of electronic materials. De-spite copyright notices and e¡orts to educate employees about intellec-tual property rights, electronic publications can be easily forwarded topeople outside the licensed user group. The library is responsible formaintaining the awareness of all employees about copyright issues.Electronic access is wonderful if one has the resources and is ‘‘con-

nected’’. In reality, not everyone has equal access to the Internet athome, and many libraries lag far behind in providing their patrons withPCs with Internet access. ‘‘Equity of access to all materials and serviceswill vary depending on the type of library and its clientele’’.9 The inter-pretation of the Library Bill of Rights describes several reasons for thisinequity: ‘‘electronic information £ows across boundaries and barriersdespite attempts by individuals, governments, and private entities tochannel or control it. Even so, many people, for reasons of technology,infrastructure, or socioeconomic status do not have access to electronicinformation’’.10

9 Jackson, M. (2000) Who gets to use what (and how all that is changing). American Libraries31(4). p. 43.10 ALA (1996) Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks: An interpretation of the Library Billof Rights. http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oil/electacc.html

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Making materials we collect available to all current and future usersis another of the core values of librarianship. The challenge is for thelibrarian to contribute to establish realistic collection-developmentpolicies covering acquisition of and provision of access to electronicresources for users now and in the future.With the increase in electronicresources, librarians and libraries are no longer just collecting and car-ing for print materials. The long-term consequences of failing to storeand preserve information are that resources are not archived and pro-tected for future researchers. Unlike a print book or a journal, electronicresources cannot be considered a permanent addition to a collection.Payment for a product covered by a license is a payment to use the in-formation product for a period of time that is usually speci¢ed in a con-tract. This payment is not for the outright purchase of the product or forownership of all the rights to that product. A digitized collection meansthat libraries share the use of the collections with other institutions, notonly locally, but also globally. It is the publisher who dictates how muchaccess will be provided, which issues will be available, and how muchaccess will cost. According to Keys, ‘‘access to these materials will beneither free nor certain as control of them passes out of the hands ofthe library’’.11

The question of archiving is very nebulous. Libraries, vendors, andpublishers are all relying on someone else to archive and preserve infor-mation for the future. Some publishers may provide the archived infor-mation on a CD-ROM, usually at an additional cost, but many do not.Instead, they provide rolling-year access, so that each year the oldestcontent will not be available. Older articles can be found by a visit to amedical or university library. Although they may be on micro¢che ormicro¢lm rather than in paper form, they will be catalogued and acces-sible. Looking for pre-1997 full-text information from a database provi-der or on the Internet is a hit-or-miss proposition. ‘‘It is not likely thatcommercial publishers and database aggregators will archive and pro-vide perpetual access to electronic resources as libraries now archiveprint materials’’.12 Thus, the ethical dilemma becomes: is it my library’sresponsibility to archive and preserve this information for the future, orcan I get away with assuming that someone else is archiving and thatwe can always use interlibrary loan or document delivery to get olderarticles? Of course, every library should continue to do its part to pre-serve information in all formats. Failure to do so will result in gaps ininformation for future research. Instead of everyone having access to the

11Keyes, M. (1999) Op. cit., p. 171.12 Jackson, M. (2000) Op. cit.

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information, no one will have access in any format or the cost to re-trieve the materials will be prohibitive.Some access problems result from technology that is beyond the do-

main and control of the librarian. Librarians in hospitals or in speciallibraries with no library network or information systems person ontheir teams run into access problems. They can locate electronic infor-mation resources and negotiate site licenses, but they may still not beable to provide access to patrons because the information systems de-partment or whoever controls the Internet and ¢rewall within the insti-tution denies it. The librarian must then negotiate with these otherdepartments for access. Because these components are not under thecontrol of the library itself, any failure in these components or in thesenegotiations leads to the failure of the library to deliver access to theinformation.‘‘The preeminent value in librarianship is, of course, service’’.13 Librar-

ians de¢ne themselves as service professionals. They create collectionsand provide resources to meet the needs of their patrons and their com-munities. The ease of retrieving information from the Internet leads tothe thinking that the librarian, who is trained to search for informationand to create front-end searching of databases, is now redundant andunnecessary. Herbert S. While describes the

‘‘incessant propaganda with which the developers and sellers of computer systems,both hardware and software, constantly bombard us as: (1) using technology iseasy, (2) using technology is fun, and, (3) using technology saves both time andmoney’’.14

These messages lead patrons to believe that they no longer need anyassistance in locating information, that all information is found on theInternet, and, even better, that it is all free. The graphical interface andpoint-and-click navigation of the Internet mean that the user no longerhas to know complex commands. Navigating from one site to anothercan largely be accomplished by clicking a mouse, and when a good siteis found, another click adds it to a ‘‘favorites’’ or ‘‘bookmarks’’ ¢le. Is ittrue that ‘‘technological progress is reducing society’s need for a group ofexperts who, for the last few centuries, have been the guardians andguides to information’’?15 Because librarians are trained to performsearches electronically and to select appropriate resources, they know

13 Baker, B. (2000) Can library service survive in a sea of change? American Libraries 31(4), p. 47.14White, H.S. (1999) Librarians and information technology: Which is the tail and which is thedog. LibraryTrends 48(1), p. 271.15 Rashbass, J. (2000) Will technology kill the healthcare library? Health Libraries Review 17(1),p. 51.

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that the information the average patron retrieves is often of poor qualityand that important resources can be missed. Patrons may retrieve somuch information and so many ‘‘hits’’ that they are satis¢ed with theinformation from the ¢rst few sites browsed. ‘‘Eighty-¢ve percent of Webusers use search engines to ¢nd needed information, but nearly as high apercentage cite the inability to ¢nd desired information as one of theirbiggest frustrations’’.16 The SLA survey predicts that:

‘‘as more and more end-users acquire desktop access to information in an intuitive,seamless search environment, the word ‘librarian’ itself will become a misnomer.Rather, this changing role implies a di¡erent skill set. The emphasis will shift fromtechnical skills in the library to communication, facilitation, training and manage-ment skills (e.g. strategic and marketing management). To interact with ITsta¡ andmanagers (e.g. in managing the Intranet), information professionals will also re-quire a basic understanding of computing and network architectures’’.17

Most librarians believe that their role as gatekeeper or guide has notchanged even if the format of the information has changed. The trend isfor the role of the librarian to move from that of a passive intermediaryresponsible for guiding patrons to appropriate information resources to-ward that of a much more proactive professional whose role includesanalyzing and repackaging information. Librarians have faced this chal-lenge head on by becoming masters of the Web. Librarians createpowerful Web sites such as the National Library of Medicine’s PubMeddatabase. Librarians see the Web as an easier way to share what theyknow with others. They gather electronic information and create elec-tronic path¢nders and front-end search tools to help users. Librarianscreate online tutorials and instructional Web pages to help patrons per-form the best searchers. They gather links to web-sites on speci¢c topicsand lead patrons to these evaluated sites as a starting point. However,the collection of links points to digital resources that are the result ofremote and collective, rather than individual, decision making outsidethe library. Because patrons do not always directly ask them to retrieveinformation, librarians also work behind the scenes, guiding searchers toevaluated web-sites. They evaluate and select appropriate and notableelectronic resources by using the same criteria that they have alwaysused to evaluate other types of media. In our library, we have seen atrend toward an increase in requests for instructions and a decrease inrequests for mediated literature searches and walk-in reference questions.As the number of questions dwindles, the number of hits on the library’s

16 GVU (graphics, visualization and usability) (1999) WWW User Survey, May 14. http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user^surveys/survey-1998-10/tenyhreport.html.17 Phase 5 Research. Inc. (1998) Op. cit.

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Intranet page is increasing as more interlibrary loan requests aresubmitted electronically, more links to databases are used, and morefull-text journals and textbooks are accessed.The digital library requires the librarian not only to collect, organize,

and teach patrons about those resources in the local collection, but alsoto acquire access to the vast amount of aggregated information housedon computers throughout the world and to guide users to this informa-tion. The nature of the reference service that librarians provide is alsochanging. The reference desk no longer has to be a physical desk. E-mailcan be sent and answered without any physical interaction between thepatron and the librarian. ‘‘Ask-a-librarian’’ sites appear on many libraryhomepages.How can librarians ensure that they are providing the best informa-

tion to their clients? One way is to teach clients to apply critical thinkingand the standard evaluation tools developed for print resources to Inter-net resources. Standard evaluation criteria can be applied to electronicresources, but the ephemeral nature of the medium makes it hard toguarantee that the information that is evaluated today will be the sameinformation the client sees tomorrow. Web-sites are fraught with qualityproblems. For example, a study in 1999 indicated that ‘‘44% of 1999web-sites were no longer available in 1999 and that 45% of existing siteswere half-¢nished, meaningless or trivial’’.18 Following the code of ethicsfor librarians means at the very least that librarians must assume a senseof responsibility for the information, especially medical information,that they provide’ or for referrals that they make to users. Ongoing edu-cation programs stressing the means of locating, accessing, evaluating,organizing, and using specialized information as gathered through var-ious electronic and print sources are key to de¢ning librarians as indis-pensable providers of information. The globalization of information hasled to a lack of control of the quality of content. When it is so easy toput documents on-line, it is just as easy to toss the information away, tomove it, or to deny access to it. Electronic resources allow informationto be easily updated and revised, so that at times the entire gist of thepublication is changed without the user’s being aware of the changes.Worse, access can be removed or denied to those who cannot a¡ord topay for it.The Internet has forced librarians to take on the role of arbitrary

gatekeeper. Applying ¢lters and abiding by policies may con£ict withour duty to provide equal access to all of our users. We are often forcedinto the unpleasant role of the ‘‘Internet police’’ for the organization.

18Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (1999) Web statistics. Web Characterization Project, OCLC,July 1999. http://www.oclc.org/oclc/research/projects/webstats/

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Monitoring and reporting the use of the Internet violates the librarians’duty to protect the con¢dentiality of our users.According to JAMA, there are ‘‘at least 15000 World Wide Web sites

[that] carry health and medical information, and they have been sub-ject to little regulation’’.19 Many medical and health-related sites on theWeb provide reliable and accurate news about medical and scienti¢cbreakthroughs. Orick and Brackstone caution that ‘‘there are nofact-checkers assigned to the Web’’.20 Myriads of unscrupulous and un-ethical persons use the Internet to prey on the vulnerability and the des-peration of those who are sick. These persons need only a computer, theright software, and the desire to create a Web page that may look asauthoritative as theWeb page of the National Cancer Institute. It is veryeasy for electronic data to be deliberately designed or consciously al-lowed to mislead, and there is rampant proliferation of sites that bothintentionally and unintentionally spread fraudulent misinformation. Asa result of these practices, new organizations are developing and areforming web-sites: these include Health on the Net Foundation (HON).Internet Healthcare Coalition, and Health Internet Ethics (HI-Ethics).These organizations and their sites are dedicated to protecting personswho are looking for legitimate medical information resources on the In-ternet. Librarians are at the forefront, participating in, guiding, andsupporting these initiatives.Web-sites, especially on-line health web-sites,vary signi¢cantly in quality and ambition. Users must learn todetermine not only the quality of the information they are retrievingbut also the ulterior motives of the provider. Does the providerhave a genuine desire to help by providing information or a desire tomake a quick buck at the expense of the unsuspecting? Web designersare discovering what librarians already know: that although it is easyfor providers to gather information from outside sources and to proclaimthat they have created the most comprehensive information sources, it isanother matter entirely to successfully anticipate why persons mightcome to the site and to deliver the material these persons are seeking.Librarians trained in collection development understand this fact andwork to gather appropriate information resources to meet the needs oftheir patrons.Although technology presents the librarian with ethical challenges,

the librarian is ready for the role of information professional in the con-nected world. Information professionals have, out of necessity, acquired

19Marwick, C. (2000) Ensuring ethical Internet information. JAMA 283(13), p. 1677.20Orick, J., Brackstone, D. (2000) Locating and evaluating medical information of the WorldWide Web. In G. Steen & J. Mirro (Eds.) Childhood Cancer: A Handbook from St. Jude Children’s Re-search Hospital. Perseus. Cambridge. p. 566.

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skills that can contribute to success in their new roles. Duberman de-scribes four skills that information professionals already possess:they ‘‘know about changes, the problems, and the opportunities thenew technologies and new content can provide; [they are] used to learn-ing new things; [they have] negotiation skills; and [they possess a]deep knowledge of information systems and databases [that] really en-ables them to turn questions inside out and look beyond the obvious’’.21

Libraries have frequently been early adopters of new technology,and librarians continue to be at the forefront in learning and teach-ing new technologies. Librarians see the Internet and electronic infor-mation as tools that are used to provide information. Crawford writesthat the librarian must ‘‘recognize that technology o¡ers tools,that those tools interact in complex ways, and that tools aren’t ends inthemselves’’.22

Ferguson and Weckert contend that ‘‘although librarians have not asyet been targeted for liability for misinformation or negligence becauselibrarians are not the top earners in society and do not present an at-tractive target as other professionals’’,23 librarians still need a code ofethics that addresses accountability. They describe the current code as‘‘simply a wish list, sets of aspirations that we would like everyone inour group to share’’.24

As librarians claim to be professionals, they must also claim the re-sponsibilities that accompany professionalism, particularly with respectto trust. Librarians are accountable for the information they provide. Ifthey are not now doing so, they should take every precaution to avoidthe distribution of misinformation. The provision of false or misleadinginformation through carelessness breaches the trust the patron puts inthe librarian’s ethical duty to supply the highest level of service to li-brary patrons, no matter the format of that information. In the end,librarians know that ‘‘a good library is de¢ned by the principles oflibrarianship, the mission of the speci¢c library, and the persons andservices that make that mission a reality’’.25 Technology will continue tochange, and libraries and librarians will use the changing technologyto provide the best access and service to their patrons. Librarianshave seen technologies that will change the world come and go. The

21Duberman, J. (1999) Re£ections in a fun house mirror: Web trends and evolving roles for in-formation professionals. Searcher 7(2), pp. 31^32.22 Crawford, W. (2000) Op. cit. , p. 50.23 Ferguson, S.Wecket, J. (1998) The Librarian’s Duty of Care: Emerging Professionalism or can ofworms? (accountability of informationworkers for negligentmisinformation) LibraryQuarterly 365(1),p. 387.24 Ferguson, S. & Wecket, J. (1998) Op. cit. .25 Crawford, W. (2000) Op. cit. p. 52.

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collections and the quality of the information, not its format, are whatmatter. As professionals, librarians can o¡er stability in the constantlychanging waves of technology. When patrons enter a library or access alibrary electronically, they can rest assured that the information they¢nd is reliable. If they cannot ¢nd the information, they can alwaysask a librarian for assistance.