“Demonstrate awareness of the ethics, values, and foundational principles of one of the information professions, and discuss the importance of those principles within that profession.”
Introduction
There are multiple information professions, including but not limited to public librarians, academic librarians, data managers, publishers, educators, museum directors, and archivists. All of these professions are involved in preserving information, verifying its authenticity, and making it accessible to people who need it. Each of these roles is important and has overlapping ethical responsibilities, but the one I will discuss here is the role of the archivist, because that is the one with which I identify most strongly. Archives are in many ways the core of the information professions. They provide access to information that is vital to the work of other information professionals. In addition, information professionals who are not considered professional archivists maintain their own archives within their organizations.
Values and Ethics of Archivists
The Society of American Archivists (SAA) outlines their core values and code of ethics on their website (SAA, 2020). They list eleven core values: access and use, accountability, advocacy, diversity, history and memory, preservation, responsible stewardship, selection, service, social responsibility, and sustainability. These values emphasize the power that archives hold by storing the public memory, and the responsibility archives have in maintaining public trust in their records. They point out that archivists need to collaborate with many different groups and accept records representing different types of people. They need to recognize their own biases and the biases of the creators of the records they hold. They must communicate with the people whose history they are preserving, be transparent about their policies and procedures, and listen to input from the communities they serve in order to maintain their trust. The goal is that the archives preserve authentic evidence of the past for all time. Their responsibility to present and future generations of researchers must be considered whenever decisions are made.
The Code of Ethics for Archivists lists four principles of archival ethics: professional relationships, judgment, authenticity, security and protection, access and use, privacy, and trust. These principles also emphasize the power that archives have in disseminating information, and the responsibility they have to maintain public trust. In order to build trust, archivists must first be people who are worthy of that trust. They must be transparent and authentic in their work with records and not manipulate or destroy records to promote a certain point of view. They must protect the records from untrustworthy people who may try to manipulate or destroy the records. They must protect the privacy of the people whose records they hold, so that people will trust them with their records rather than destroying them. Transparency and communication are key.
Importance of Values and Ethics in Archives
Archivists have the power to choose which records of our history are kept, and which ones are destroyed. They provide places for people and organizations to store their records. They provide interpretations of those records. Historians do not come up with interpretations of records by themselves, they are helped and highly influenced by the finding aids, reference archivists, and other resources that archives provide to help them interpret and find records for their research. Creators of records and artifacts depend on archivists to portray the materials they donate authentically. Researchers and the general public rely on archivists to be transparent about where records came from, who created them, how the archive obtained them, and whether or not they have been changed since they were originally created.
Historically, archives in various countries have violated this trust. For example, in the Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa, records and photographs were altered or destroyed to put the contemporary political leaders in a positive light (Jimerson, 2009). Archives in the past have served the interest of the elite, preserving their records and their interpretation of history, while destroying the records and histories of marginalized groups. Archivists today must work together with their communities to help right these past wrongs. They also must stand against the destruction and manipulation of records in the present day. The challenge is greater today than ever before, with digital records being more difficult than paper records to trace to their original source (Rogers, 2015), misinformation all over the internet, fake scholarly articles being produced in paper mills (Wittau & Seifert, 2024), and destruction of records by politicians (Broadwater, 2025; Wagner, 2021). These challenges mean that archivists must be even more vigilant in safeguarding the records in their care, and in speaking out against the manipulation of the public memory.
Items of Evidence
Evidence Item 1: Book Review: Archives Power: Memory, Accountability, and Social Justice
My first piece of evidence to demonstrate my understanding of Competency A is a book review I wrote for the course INFO 256, Archives and Manuscripts. The book is titled Archives Power: Memory, Accountability, and Social Justice, and was written by Randall C. Jimerson, chair of the Society of American Archivists, in 2009. In the review, I summarize the way Jimerson discusses archival ethics and why they are important. I bring up a critique of his work written by M. A. Greene in 2013, and analyze how his arguments fit and do not fit into the current political climate. This essay shows that I understand the complexities of archival ethics and how they apply to the modern world. It shows that I am willing to look at multiple sides of a problem and consider various opinions when making decisions about records. It also shows that I understand the position of power that I have as an archivist in either preserving or destroying the public memory, and the great responsibility that power brings.
Evidence Item 2: Archival Ethics Case Studies
My next piece of evidence is a discussion post I wrote for the course INFO 256, Archives and Manuscripts. The assignment was to analyze two ethics case studies from the Society of American Archivists’ website. I wrote out the post in short bullet-points so it would be easy for anyone to read. The first case study involved an archive that held photographs that were culturally sensitive to indigenous people. The other involved an online exhibit in which one group was represented more than another. I reference important writings on archival ethics such as Caswell and Cifor’s From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics and Greene’s A Critique of Social justice as an Archival Imperative.
This evidence shows my knowledge of writings on archival ethics and my ability to apply them in real-world situations. In both case studies, I discuss the need to communicate with all the parties involved and understand their position and their needs. I also emphasize the need for transparency, as well as protecting privacy, the difficulty in making these types of decisions, the need to admit bias and correct mistakes, and the need for empathy and care for the different groups represented in the archives.
Evidence Item 3: Decolonization of Archives and Genealogies Blog Post
Next on the list is my blog post I wrote for the course INFO 200, Information Communities. In it, I discuss the need for decolonization of archives in the context of cultural heritage and genealogical records. It shows my understanding of the need to communicate with and build trust with people of various communities, especially indigenous peoples who have been mistreated in the past by the archival profession.
Evidence Item 4: Oral History Ethics Discussion
This item is a discussion post I wrote for the course INFO 284, Oral History. It discusses what I would do in the situation of conducting oral history research, how I would protect the people I was interviewing (referred to as “narrators”), and considerations for publishing and copyright. This demonstrates how I would make ethical decisions in the specific context of an oral history interview, showing that I know how to apply ethics in real-life situations.
Conclusion
Whether I am employed as an archivist, a librarian, a data manager, or any other type of information professional, I will keep in mind my responsibility as a supplier of information and the need to make sure that information is authentic and not manipulated. Knowledge and skills I have obtained in my degree program covering various technologies will help me keep information both secure and accessible. Intercultural communication and diversity skills learned in my degree program will help me apply values of transparency and communication with the people I serve. I will keep current with publications produced by organizations like the Society of American Archivists and the American Library Association, who will help me stay informed on new technologies and events that affect the application of values and ethics in providing access to information.
References
Broadwater, L. (2025, March 27). Another problem with that Signal chat? The messages disappear. The New York Times. http://nytimes.com/2025/03/27/us/politics/signal-messages-disappear.html
Jimerson, R. C. (2009). Archives power: Memory, accountability, and social justice. The Society of American Archivists.
Rogers, C. (2015). Authenticity of digital records: A survey of professional practice / L’authenticité des documents numériques: Un survol des pratiques professionnelles. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 39(2), 97-113. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/590936
Society of American Archivists. (2020, August). SAA core values statement and code of ethics. https://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics?page=1
Wagner, A. J. (2021). Pandering, priority or political weapon: Presidencies, political parties & the Freedom of Information Act. Communication Law and Policy, 26(1), 53–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856603
Wittau, J. & Seifert, R. (2024, July 6). How to fight fake papers: a review on important information sources and steps towards solution of the problem. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology 397, 9281–9294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-024-03272-8