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Volume 22, No. 1
Revision of the AALL Code of Ethics
by Ralph Monoco
Rivkin Radler & Kremer
AALL President Judy Meadows appointed the Special
Committee on Ethics last year and gave it the following
charge
The AALL Special Committee on Ethics will review
the current AALL Code of Ethics and report to the
Executive Board by [the] Fall 1998 Board Meeting, its
recommendation for a revision or replacement with
Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The Commit-
tee is asked to take into special consideration both
the recommendations on ethical issues of the 1996
Report of the AALL Special Committee on the Re-
naissance of Law Librarianship in the Information Age
and the newly revised Code of Ethics of the American
Library Association.
The Special Committee will build on a history of ethics
revision activity in AALL as well as continuing the work of
two recent AALL task forces that also worked on revising
the Code of Ethics.
Role of an Ethics Code
One of the defining characteristics of a profession is
self-governance, and its code of ethics is its public disclosure
of the ethical principles by which it governs itself. A code of
ethics should include a means by which members of the
profession ensure compliance with the responsibilities they
profess. Codes of ethics have come to be used as a means
of gaining public recognition of an occupation's professional
status.
Professional codes justify legitimate professional actions
by pointing out their relationship with the needs, desires,
preference, values and interests they are supposed to
serve, and by defining and rejecting those professional
actions which are detrimental to the profession. A code of
ethics should embody the entire philosophy of the occupation
and capture and express the essence of the occupation.
The primary task of an association of professionals
ind others is to further the interests and ideals of their own
kmbers, and to monitor the rights, privileges and career
revelopment of their membership. As a starting point, the
ole of a profession and professionals in society can be
partly defined by the needs they are presumed to satisfy,
and by the interests they are supposed to promote.
Professionals of all descriptions have a firm obligation to
satisfy the needs, to promote the interests and to respect
the values of their clientele, as the fulfillment of this duty
constitutes the basis of their position in society. All those
who want to become members of a given professional
group must learn the skills required in the profession's
work, and the established membership have a duty to keep
step with the developments in their chosen field. Although
no code of ethics can provide absolutes for every situation,
the librarians' code can perform two valuable functions.
First, its very existence informs the profession itself, and
those its serves, of the core values of its practitioners.
Second, it favors certain values that must be consciously
overcome if library policy is made to the contrary.
THE AALL PROFESSIONAL CODE SHOULD MAKE
A STATEMENT ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP TO OUR
SOCIETY AS A WHOLE, OUR MISSION AND VALUES
AND SHOULD REFLECT A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
TOWARDS NEW CHALLENGES FACING ONE'S
PROFESSION
Drawing therefore from the AALL Special Committee
Toward a Renaissance in Law Librarianship. any revised
code of ethics we adopt should incorporate what the Com-
mittee defined as law librarianship's professional mission
and value as well as its professional traits and attitudes.
The foundation of our profession is its mission. In
its broadest sense, that mission can perhaps be
characterized simply as one of serving the information
needs of the legal profession and the legal information
needs of the public. All functions of acquiring,
continued on page 6
In This Issue
President's Message .................... 10
Charts and Surveys of Interest .......................... 14
Building the Virtual Intranet Education Meeting .... 16
A Report on LLAGNY's Winter Meeting............. 18
The Flood ............................ 20
1
January/February 1998
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