Libraries, Lawyers, and Ethics, Oh My!

Law libraries, not surprisingly given their ties to both libraries and law, are subject to a code of ethics. 

The American Association of Law Libraries (“AALL”) last rewrote the code of ethics in 1999.  Sections of the code include: Service, Business Relationships, and Professional Responsibilities (1).

The American Library Association (“ALA”) focuses on service, censorship, users’ privacy, intellectual property rights, employee welfare, fostering non-biased environments, and enhancing knowledge.  This code was first adopted in 1939, and last amended in 2008 (2).

The American Bar Association (“ABA”) literally has an entire book on Model Rules of Professional Conduct, having evolved past the 1908 Canons of Professional Ethics.  Needless to say, it is much more detailed than the codes available through AALL and ALA, covering everything from ethics with clients, other persons, the public, firms, counselors, etc. (3).

At this point, you’re probably wondering if I’m off my rocker and why I’m writing about ethics right now.  Honestly, I’m just curious.  I was thinking about how libraries and librarians work so hard to make information readily available for patrons.  That, in turn, led me to thinking about how attorneys have to do the exact opposite.  You can probably see where this path is headed…right to the intersection of “law” and “library”.

Of course, the ethics are different in some ways depending on the type of law library one ends up in.  I couldn’t help but think that if I were in a public law library, I would be actively working with patrons to give them access to legal information and direct them to legal help when necessary (because, as the AALL code of ethics points out, we’re not authorized to practice law). 

As a librarian in a private firm, though, my concerns lean more towards finding information efficiently, limiting the yield of searches due to time constraints, and maintaining vendor relationships with what sometimes feels like hundreds of thousands of vendors.  My ethics sometimes feel as though they are by necessity leaning more in the way of the ethics proposed by the ABA as opposed to the ALA.  That being said, the firm I work at strongly encourages me to enhance my knowledge and I frequently participate in webinars and training sessions, which seems to be a trait of both the ABA and ALA codes.

All of this ends with my query: how are ethics emphasized at different law libraries, and which code do they tend towards? (I know, I should be answering questions, not asking them...)