Ethical Considerations Revisited

In the past few years at digital library conferences, there have been more sessions and presentations devoted to librarians and technologists taking more critical approaches to their job responsibilities and activities. A shared understanding that the technology libraries use to present collections online is not neutral or passive and easily hides all the decisions that go into selection, digitization, and presenting collections online, has surfaced. Given that the presentation of cultural heritage content online inevitably displays bias, how to present it without being exploitative is a fine line and requires librarians to be arbiters of ethical considerations. Although this theme of ethical considerations has emerged as a focus in digital library conferences fairly recently, the theme of ethical considerations as part of the profession is not new as evidenced in library science literature, especially in the archives and preservation literature of the past 30 years. This paper will give a brief overview of the literature and examples of projects where digital librarians have considered the ethics surrounding access to and preservation of cultural heritage content.