Health sciences librarians' awareness and assessment of the Medical Library Association Code of Ethics for Health Sciences Librarianship: the results of a membership survey

Abstract

Comments provided by respondents who disagreed with the majority views suggest that the MLA code could usefully include a supplementary guide with practical advice on how to reason through a number of ethically challenging situations that are typically encountered by health sciences librarians.

Emphasis on ethical awareness: why ethics? why now

“…Periodically emphasizing MLA's code is warranted, as the survey results mentioned above indicated that 13.5% of the respondents did not know the code even exists [12]. Health sciences librarians continue to be confronted with the same kinds of ethical situations that we have always faced, in addition to some new ones related to technology and research.…”

“…Task force survey results reported in this issue of the JMLA indicate that some respondents would like to see examples of how the code can be applied to specific situa tions [12]. Task force survey results reported in this issue of the JMLA indicate that some respondents would like to see examples of how the code can be applied to specific situa tions [12].…”

Negotiating concepts of evidence‐based practice in the provision of good service for nursing and allied health professionals

“…Many of these framing practices fall within the Medical Library Association (MLA) and Canadian Health Library Association (CHLA) code of ethics where librarians are asked to ensure ‘that the best available information is provided to the client’, a principle that is not further explained by MLA or CHLA *. In a recent survey about MLA members’ knowledge of the MLA code of ethics, Byrd, Devine and Corcoran discussed how 46.6 per cent of the survey respondents thought that the MLA code about ‘best available information’ was ‘more important’ than others, but some also responded that this code was ‘particularly challenging to follow in their professional activities’. In the present study, participants also were conflicted about what constituted the best evidence, as some relied heavily on narrow, evidence‐based notions of evidence quality (i.e.…”

A comparative analysis of moral principles and behavioral norms in eight ethical codes relevant to health sciences librarianship, medical informatics, and the health professions

“…With twice as many statements as the average in the other 7 codes (20 vs. 9.7), the AMIA code specifies a larger number of all the norms in our framework (14), and it specifies the largest number of behavioral norms with 2 or more statements (7). However, the ML A and ALA codes also specify a proportionately large number of behavioral norms (13 and 12, respectively).…”

“…One study focused on librarians working in health care or research settings [6], and another focused on member perceptions of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Code of Ethics for Health Sciences Librarianship [7]. Although the values specified in these studies were based on the particular context of each profession, the biomedical framework of Beauchamp and Childress's principles and norms still held up well.…”