Five Ethical Principles for Employees of Fictional University Library

While looking for a set of ethical principles that I might want to employ for my (fictional) organization, I found myself moved by the ACM's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, particularly as it addressed the ethical challenges related to information professionals and those who work with technology. The words and ideas below were largely culled from that document, which is available at http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics. In my adaptation, I strove to focus on brevity, core principles, and language that directly related to the work we do in our organization and the kind of work environment I myself would like to inhabit.

1. Avoid harm to others.
"Harm" means injury or negative consequences, such as undesirable loss of information, loss of property, property damage, or unwanted environmental impacts. This principle prohibits use of information technology in ways that result in harm to any of the following: users, the general public, employees, employers. Harmful actions include intentional destruction or modification of files and programs leading to serious loss of resources or unnecessary expenditure of human resources such as the time and effort required to purge systems of "computer viruses."

Well-intended actions, including those that accomplish assigned duties, may lead to harm unexpectedly. In such an event the responsible person or persons are obligated to undo or mitigate the negative consequences as much as possible. One way to avoid unintentional harm is to carefully consider potential impacts on all those affected by decisions made during design and implementation.

2. Be honest and trustworthy.
Honesty is an essential component of trust. Without trust an organization cannot function effectively. The honest employee will not make deliberately false or deceptive claims about a system or system design, but will instead provide full disclosure of all pertinent system limitations and problems.

3. Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
The values of equality, tolerance, respect for others, and the principles of equal justice govern this imperative. Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin, or other such factors is an explicit violation of Fictional University Library policy and will not be tolerated.

Inequities between different groups of people may result from the use or misuse of information and technology. In a fair society,all individuals would have equal opportunity to participate in, or benefit from, the use of computer resources regardless of race, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin or other such similar factors. However, these ideals do not justify unauthorized use of computer resources nor do they provide an adequate basis for violation of any other ethical imperatives of this code.

4. Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work. This includes articulating and supporting policies that protect the dignity of users and others affected by our organization.
Excellence is perhaps the most important obligation of a professional. Technology and information professionals must strive to achieve quality and to be cognizant of the serious negative consequences that may result from poor quality in a system.

5. Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.
Honoring one's commitments is a matter of integrity and honesty. For the computer professional this includes ensuring that system elements perform as intended. Also, when one contracts for work with another party, one has an obligation to keep that party properly informed about progress toward completing that work.

An information professional has a responsibility to request a change in any assignment that he or she feels cannot be completed as defined. Only after serious consideration and with full disclosure of risks and concerns to the employer or client, should one accept the assignment. The major underlying principle here is the obligation to accept personal accountability for professional work. On some occasions other ethical principles may take greater priority.