School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

INLS 105, Information Ethics
Fall 2003

Access to Information; Censorship/Freedom of Speech

Key Readings on Access to Information

Blanke, H. T. (1998). Librarianship and public culture in the age of information capitalism. In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.). Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 184-199. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

Hauptman, R. (1998). Professionalism or culpability? An experiment in ethics. In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.). Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 291-295. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

Information bill of rights and responsibilities: I. Communication rights and responsibilities. In Firestone, C. M., & Schement, J. R. (Eds.). (1995). Toward an Information Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute, 7-18. [Davis - HE7781 .T683 1995]

Kester, G. H. (1998). Access denied: information policy and the limits of liberalism. In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.). Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 207-230. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

McCabe, R. B. (2001). Civic Librarianship: Renewing the Social Mission of the Public Library. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. [SILS - Z716.4 .M38 2001]

Stichler, R. N. (1998). Ethics in the information market. In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.). Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 169-183. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

Key Readings on Censorship/Freedom of Speech

Beeson, A., Hansen, C., & Steinhardt, B. (1997). Fahrenheit 451.2: Is cyberspace burning? How rating and blocking proposals may torch free speech on the internet. American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom Network. http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/burning.html.

Greenawalt, K. (1995). Rationales for freedom of speech. In Johnson, D. G. & Nissenbaum, H. (Eds.), Computers, Ethics, and Social Values. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 664-678. [Davis - QA76.9 .A25 C6665 1995]

O'Neil, R. M. (1997). Free Speech in the College Community. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Davis, Law - LC72.2 .O54 1997]

Rezmierski, V. (1998). Computers, pornography, and conflicting rights. In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.). Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 255-258. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

Rosenberg, R. S. (2001). Controlling access to the internet: the role of filtering. Ethics and Information Technology, 3(1), 35-54. [Online via UNC libraries]

Schweinsburg, J. D. (1995). Professional awareness of the ethics of selection. Journal of Information Ethics, 4(2), 33-42. [SILS]

Shiffrin, S. H. (2001). First Amendment: Cases, Comments, Questions. 3rd ed. St. Paul, MN: West Pub. Co. [SILS - KF4770.A7 S48 2001]

Taylor, J. K. (1997). Protecting minors from free speech. Journal of Information Ethics, 6(2), 67-74. [SILS]

Werby, E. (n.d.). The cyber-library: legal and policy issues facing public libraries in the high-tech era. NCAC on the Issues. National Coalition Against Censorship. http://ncac.org/issues/cyberlibrary.html

Additional References

Abrams, K., Carnochan, W. B., Gates, H. L., Jr., & O'Neil, R. M. The Limits of Expression in American Intellectual Life. (1993). ACLS Occasional Paper, No. 22. New York: American Council of Learned Societies. [Davis - AS36 .N5 A3 no.22]

Alfino, M., & Pierce, L. (2001). The social nature of information. Library Trends, 49(3), 471-485. [SILS]

Banks, M. A. (1998). Filtering the net in libraries: the case (mostly) in favor. Computers in Libraries, 18(3), 50-52,54. [SILS]

Bishop, A. P., Tidline, T. U., Shoemaker, S., & Salela, P. (1999). Public libraries and networked information services in low-income communities. Library & Information Science Research, 21(3), 361-390. [Online via UNC libraries]

Buchanan, E. A. (1999). An overview of information ethics issues in a world-wide context. Ethics and Information Technology, 1, 193-201. [Online via UNC libraries]

Cline, E. (1995). Here comes a chopper to chop off your head: freedom of expression vs. censorship in America. Journal of Information Ethics, 4(2), 18-32. [SILS]

Cox, P (1997). The conceits of law and the transmission of the indecent, obscene, and ugly. Journal of Information Ethics, 6(2), 23-34. [SILS]

Fogelman, M. (1994). Freedom and censorship in the emerging electronic environment. The Information Society, 10(4), 295-303. [SILS]

Froehlich, T. (1997). Survey and Analysis of the Major Ethical and Legal Issues Facing Library and Information Services. München: Saur. [SILS - Z665 .F783 1997]

Gosseries, A. (2003). A case for restricted access. Journal of Information Ethics, 12(1), 56-66. [SILS]

Heins, M. (2001). Filtering fever. In Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth. New York: Hill & Wang, 180-200. [SILS, Davis - Z658 .U5 H42 2001]

Hill, M. (1999). Information ethics: expectations and rights. In The Impact of Information on Society: An Examination of Its Nature, Value, and Usage. London: Bowker-Saur, 111-132. [SILS - HM221 .H55 1999]

Holman, J. (1997). An Information Commons: Protection for Free Expression in the New Information Environment. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University. [SILS - KF4774 .H656 1997a]

Jenner & Block. (2000). Internet filtering in libraries. Memorandum to the American Library Association. http://www.ftrf.org/internetfilteringmemo.pdf

Jensen, E. (1995). An electronic soapbox: computer bulletin boards and the First Amendment. In Johnson, D. G. & Nissenbaum, H. (Eds.), Computers, Ethics, and Social Values. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 678-693. [Davis - QA76.9 .A25 C6665 1995]

Leahy, P. (1998). The Freedom of Information Act: public access in the computer age. In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.). Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 203-206. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

Liu, A. (1995). Should we link to the Unabomber? An essay on practical Web ethics. http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/research/whyuna.htm.

Morrison, S. F. (1991). The ethics of access: towards an equal slice of the pie. In Lancaster, F. W. (Ed.), Ethics and the Librarian. Allerton Park Institute No. 31. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 93-100. [SILS - Z682.35 .P75 E74 1991]

O'Neil, R. M. (1998). Free speech in cyberspace. Journal of Information Ethics, 7(1), 15-23. [SILS]

Peace, A. G. (1997). Academia, censorship and the Internet. Journal of Information Ethics, 6(2), 35-47. [SILS]

Piccininni, J. (1997). Information access: a right or privilege? [Current issues.] Journal of Information Ethics, 6(1), 5-7. [SILS]

Relyea, H. C. (1996). Freedom of information revisited. In Hernon, P., McClure, C. R., & Relyea, H. C. (Eds.), Federal Information Policies in the 1990s: Views and Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 183-210. [Davis, SILS - JK468 .S4 F43 1996]

Weckert, J. (2000). What is so bad about internet content regulation? Ethics and Information Technology, 2(2), 105-111. [Online via UNC libraries]

??Weckert, J., & Adeney, D. (1997). Computer and Information Ethics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. [SILS - QA76.9 .M65 W43 1997]

Willems, H. (1998). Filtering the net in libraries: the case (mostly) against. Computers in Libraries, 18(3), 5555-56,58. [SILS]

Web Sites of Interest

ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. (1999). American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/oif.html.

The Freedom to Read Foundation Home Page. (1999). American Library Association. http://www.ftrf.org/.

National Coalition Against Censorship. (2002). http://ncac.org/index.html

Open Government. (1999, April 15.) Electronic Privacy Information Center. http://www.epic.org/open_gov/.

Scenarios of Ethical Decisions

Geiszler, R. W. (1998). Patron behavior policies in the public library: Kreimer v. Morristown revisited. Journal of Information Ethics, 7(1), 54-67. [SILS]

LaRue, J. (1992). About face: an opinion on the firing of Will Manley. Journal of Information Ethics, 1, 42-44. [SILS]

Oz, E. (1994). Ethics in higher education. In Ethics for the Information Age: Cases. Dubuque, IA: Business & Educational Technologies, 27-28. [SILS - T58.5 .O9 1994 c.2]

Scenario 1: Explicit photos on a university network. (1994). In Denning, D. S., & Lin, H. S. Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 56-60. [Davis - TK5105.5 .R54 1994; online at http://books.nap.edu/books/0309050901/html/index.html]

Scenario 2: Negative comments harm a third party. (1994). In Denning, D. S., & Lin, H. S. Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 60-66. [Davis - TK5105.5 .R54 1994; online at http://books.nap.edu/books/0309050901/html/index.html]

Schweinsburg, J. D. (1997). Family friendly libraries vs. the American Library Association. Journal of Information Ethics, 6(2), 75-87. [SILS]

Shuman, B. A. (1993). Rules, ethics, and the homeless in libraries -- two views. Journal of Information Ethics, 2(2), 71-82. [SILS]

Spinello, R. A. (1997). Case 9.3, Censorship at New England University. In Case Studies in Information and Computer Ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 251-254. [Davis - QA76.9 .M65 S65 1997]

Spinello, R. A. (2000). The librarian's dilemma (hypothetical). In Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 66-67. [SILS, Davis - TK5105.875 .I57 S68 2000]

Spinello, R. A. (2000). Spam or free speech at Intel? In Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 66-67. [SILS, Davis - TK5105.875 .I57 S68 2000]

Swan, J. C. (1998). Untruth or consequences? In Stichler, R. N., & Hauptman, R. (Eds.), Ethics, Information, and Technology: Readings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 64-75. [Davis - P94 .E795 1998]

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© Barbara M. Wildemuth, 2003. All rights reserved.