ABSTRACT
Information Ethics (IE) has developed over the years as a discipline in library and information science, but the information ethics field has evolved and embraced other disciplines. Information Ethics (IE) concerns all human related activity to information, that is, our relationship with information, how we generate or what we do with information, the process and how to distribute it in the procedure of new technologies and modernizations, which comprise a lot of processed information. It therefore, prescribes the dos and don’ts in an information society and also as a relatively new area of study comprised of several distinct yet interrelated disciplines including applied ethics, intellectual property, privacy, free speech, and societal control of information. The study sets out to investigate the adherence of information ethics in Special Libraries in Ghana using Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) library as a case study. The survey method was employed using the entire population of 165 staff comprising research scientists, technical staff and library staff.
The findings of the study showed that, an individual should be able to decide what personal information to hold private, who is responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of information and what retribution is due to those injured by erroneous data and the right or authority to obtain information. Some recommendations such as more awareness creation of information ethics issues (e.g. privacy, accuracy of information, property and accessibility to information), enforcement of rules and regulations, punishment and rewards, involvement of library committee, and access control were all highlighted. However, some punishments for offenders may be difficult to implement especially in this environment.
The study recommended that there must be awareness creation through seminars, training, workshops etc., strict enforcement of rules and regulations and the control of access to the intellectual outputs of the institution by the library staff.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
- Background
The word „ethics‟, according to Sembok, (2003) is commonly used to refer to the whole domain of morality and moral philosophy. This domain essentially deals with values, practices, virtues and principles that distinguish what is right from what is wrong. It is a normative field because it describes what one should do or abstain from doing. As Wojtzak, (2002) and Sembok, (2004) rightly put it, ethics seems to primarily focus on the norms and standards of behavior of individuals or groups within a society based on normative conduct and moral judgment: principles of wrong and right; “moral consequences of human action” and responsibility and accountability.
The concept of information ethics (IE), developed in the 1980s, sought to address the issues of values and traditions, desired by a given society such as CRIG. It attempted to create standard for judging behavior of an individual or a member of the community and classifying them as moral or not concerned (Ahn, 2006). Information as a commodity or a resource plays a vital role in all aspects of life but the misuse of information causes infringement on the rights of those who produced or created these large volumes of information (Isiakpona, 2004).
According to Stahl (2008), if human beings are truly living in the early stages of what has been termed the information society, then clearly ethical concerns with regard to information are of central importance. Thus, there has been growing interest in issues that dealt with information ethics.
Information ethics according to Adam (2005) is the field that investigates the ethical issues arising from the development and application of information technologies. It provides a critical framework for considering moral issues concerning information privacy, moral agency, new environmental issues (especially how agents should behave in the infosphere), and problems arising from the life-cycle (creation, collection, recording, distribution, processing, and others) of information, especially ownership and copyright in view of the digital divide. Babik (2006) also pointed out that, information ethics concerns all human related activity to information, that is, our relationship with information, how we generate or what we do with information, the process and how to distribute it in the procedure of new technologies and modernizations, which comprise a lot of processed information.
Most researchers or information users want to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely (Resnik, 2011). Information ethics can be interpreted as ethics in the using, accessing and disseminating the information. In this case, the information is used for the right things, the information accessed in the right way, and the information which is delivered correctly to the originator who has the rights (Ramadhan, Sensuse & Arymurthy, 2011).
Information professionals or the library staff plays an extremely vital role as participants in the information society, given that their mission includes gathering, processing, distributing and using information. This role is not different from what information professionals in special libraries have to play. According to Fallis (2003), information professionals in special libraries face ethical dilemmas with respect to copyright, patent and trade secrets etc. in carrying out their duties in an ethical manner.
Special Libraries
Special libraries are often restricted to certain user populations which are very often members of staff of that organization. According to Levine-Clark and Carter (2012), a special library is a library established, supported and administered by a business firm, private corporation, association, government agency, or other special interest group or agency to meet the information needs of its members or staff in pursuing the goals of the organization. The scope of the collections and services is limited to the subject interest of the host or parent organization. Examples of special libraries in Ghana are the Bank of Ghana Library, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Library, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana Library and others. Some specialized collections are open to the public; some are restricted to scholars while others are available only to the staff of the organization. Librarians in special libraries therefore walk in thin line between information access, serving specific users and preserving the information in their trust (Strife, 1994).
The main objectives of a special library are as follows:
- It serves the information needs of its parent body;
- It disseminates updated and significant information in the concerned field;
- It gives pinpointed information promptly;
- It provides desired information to its users on demand and mostly in anticipation;
- The users also get new ideas and inspiration to initiate new projects.
In trying to fulfill these objectives, some information professionals in special libraries face ethical dilemmas with regards to the provision of relevant and quality information to their users, equity of service, conflict of interest, confidentiality, personal ethics and professional code of ethics.
Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG)
It is one of the oldest research organizations in the country which was established at Tafo, Akim in 1938 as the Central Cocoa Research Station of the Gold Coast Department of Agriculture to investigate into the problems of diseases and pest, which had considerably reduced the production of cocoa in the Eastern Region. In 1944 it was changed to West African Cocoa Research Institute (WACRI) with a substation in Ibadan, Nigeria and some research activity in Sierra Leone and the Gambia. In 1962 after Ghana and Nigeria had attained independence, WACRI was dissolved and Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) were formed as separate bodies.
CRIG was then placed under the administration of the National Research Council, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAS) and later to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In 1973 it was brought under the management of Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (GCMB), and to the Ministry of Cocoa Affairs in 1976. This Ministry was dissolved and reverted to be under the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (now Ghana Cocoa Board).
The mission of CRIG is to be a centre of excellence for developing sustainable, demand driven, commercially oriented, cost-effective, socially and environmentally acceptable technologies which will enable stakeholders to realize the overall vision of the cocoa industry and that of the other mandated crops such as coffee, shea, cola, and cashew (CRIG Handbook, 2011). CRIG library provides information resources in the areas of cocoa, coffee, shea, cola and cashew to its users. Researchers a lot of the time like to access information in their own time and space. It is therefore important for the librarian and the library staff generally to monitor and ensure that information is accessed and used ethically.
