The Ethical Blogger

We're creating highly visible content, says Karen Schneider. Let's do it right.

by Karen Schneider (netConnect) -- netConnect, 4/15/2005

Blogging is turning information into a conversation, and contributing to this are hundreds of personal and organizational library blogs (what I call the "biblioblogosphere"), ranging from Mary Minow's practical-minded LibraryLaw to the geek-flavored musings of OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey to Jenny Levine's forward-thinking but highly conversational Shifted Librarian (for links, see below).

It's easy to set up a blog with simple, free, or low-cost tools such as Blogger and Typepad. But part of the problem with blogging—as well as much of its joy—is that this remains pioneer territory.

As I watch librarians blog, I hear warning bells in my head similar to the "filtering wars" of the 1990s, when librarians opened their libraries to Internet access without fully understanding this new technology. In some ways, the stakes are even higher, because we're creating highly visible, globally available content.

Every blog produced by librarians, no matter how casual, represents librarianship to the world. We are the standard-bearers for accurate, unbiased information. Blogs filled with half-baked "facts," misrepresentations, copyright violations, and other egregious and unprofessional problems do not represent us well.

No cop-outs, either. I despair of librarians who blog "information" gleaned from rumors or "he-said/she-saids," only to later brush it off with, "It's only a blog." That's up there with saying, "It's only a reference question."

Some bloggers have proposed ethical codes, similar to journalistic codes of ethics. Good guidelines have been produced by the online journalism watering hole Cyberjournalist.net, by Rebecca Blood (author of The Weblog Handbook), and by Michael Stephens, whose blog, Tame the Web, features "The Library Blogger's Personal Protocols." Read these codes, which boil down to five concepts: transparency, fairness, cite it, get it right, and if you broke it, fix it.

Practice transparency. As Steve Cohen of Library Stuff puts it, "Always be open with your audience, have them know your potential biases." Create a prominent "about" page. If a strong belief colors your approach to a topic, be forthright.

Still, even the most ardent commentary needs to respect the facts. One of the most subtle but effective forms of fact-based bias is to link only to the sources with which you agree, not to sources with which you disagree. That's not too far from finding books you agree with for library users but forcing them to do their own searches to locate the books you don't like.

Also, be fair in your interactions. One librarian I know sent an instant message to another librarian, which led to an exchange that included some jokes and frank opinions. A few hours later, verbatim quotes from that exchange showed up on the first librarian's blog. That was just plain wrong. Before the conversation begins, clarify if you plan to take a conversation on the record. Don't switch hats mid-conversation.

Linking to other blogs is interesting; stealing their content is plagiarism. The biblioblogosphere has done a good job self-policing itself on this issue, but there was a time when I could find library blogs that ripped off other blogs' content lock, stock, and barrel. Talk about missing the first day of Ethics 101!

Get it right the first time. Your fingers may be itching to post that juicy item you aren't too sure about, but, as a librarian, you know that words, once set in print, have a way of multiplying. You also know, from professional experience, that some people will read your post before you correct it, and then at least a few people will forever think that Roy Tennant has green hair. So put that post on hold and go put those excellent research skills to work. While you're at it, try to convey the idea that we really did go to grad school for our library degrees, and if you need to, become reacquainted with Mr. Comma, Ms. Apostrophe, and Dr. Capitalization. Trust me, they are your friends.

If you do get it wrong, own up to it, with a revision to the post that makes it clear where the error was and how it was addressed. Don't you hate it when a newspaper buries a corrections box on page C-34?

Go forth and blog. Be fun, be newsy, be the first to share, be opinionated, be edgy, be different. But present your words from the best ethical framework you can muster. From your first post, you are part of the long memory of recorded knowledge. Make your contributions to the biblioblogosphere something of which we can all be proud.