Interview Recap with a Law Library Director

My interview was with a director of a law library for a large county. We discussed how the ethical situations are different for different kinds of libraries. Such as in the law library setting you must be careful not to give legal advice in any form and we are asked everyday what they believe they should do.

Another issue that was brought up in another post was how they keep their patrons info confidential. However, at our library everyone must sign in and the sign in is left out all day. Also, we don’t really check any material out but when the lawyers do borrow something they write their info down on a piece of paper and just leave it on the desk. I feel like the list and leaving patron information out for people to see could be an ethical issue. Especially if someone is coming to get a protection order from someone and the spouse comes in and see that the other spouse has been there it could cause more harm.

The biggest ethical issue that she mentioned was how we must handle legal matters everyday from calling courts, to handling divorce paperwork, to child custody cases and we must help them find the paperwork but not tell them what to do and we are not even supposed to hit print for them on the computer they must do all of that.

The most important thing I found out was that ethics and the ethical situations vary greatly for the different kinds of libraries. Also, since we deal in people’s personal information (address, social security numbers, children names) we need to be extra vigilant about making sure that their paperwork is not left open on a computer. I find my self going through any time they are empty and making sure they are all closed.

Overall, I found this interview to be informative and learned a few things that I might bring up to the director about privacy issues.