Instruction Services: Professional Ethics

Professional Standards & Guidelines

ODU Library Instruction Services uses three sets of standards/guidelines from the Association of College and Research Libraries for planning, assessment, and evaluation of the Library's instruction program and instructional librarians within the parameters of the institution’s goals for the library:

• Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline (2003) 
• Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries (2003) – Note: As of June 2016 is now outdated. No revised edition yet available.
• Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators (2007)
• Standards for Distance Learning Library Services

Ethics in Instruction

In general, the professional behavior of ODU Library Instruction Services staff should reflect the professional ethics as outlined in the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.; The guiding principles of the ALA Code of Ethics promote high service quality, patron privacy and confidentiality, intellectual freedom, freedom of access, intellectual property rights, and a patron's right to pursue information. Particularly apropos to an instructional setting are intellectual property and academic integrity, and they are treated in more detail below.

Policy of Academic Integrity

Librarians are also obligated to hold to the highest ethics of academic integrity as defined by the University, and librarians help educate patrons in the ethical use of information resources based on principles from national and international guidelines and standards of the profession. .

As a result, librarians are dedicated to respecting & reflecting in their practice intellectual property rights, including copyright law & avoiding plagiarism.