Teaching Information Ethics in Nigerian Library Schools and Some Tertiary Institutions: Overview, Challenges and Prospects

Transcription

1 Teaching Information Ethics in Nigerian Library Schools and Some Tertiary Institutions: Overview, Challenges and Prospects by Prof. Iyabo Mabawonku Department of Library, Archival and Information Studies University of Ibadan Nigeria. Introduction Ethics is concerned with the behaviour or conduct of individuals or groups in the society. In a profession, ethics often refers to principles, and rules that guide the conduct of members to ensure that the acceptable standards are maintained. Information ethics, according to Adam (2005), is the field that investigates ethical issues arriving from the development and application of information technology. According to Capurro (2009), Information Ethics (IE) evolved out of computer science, but also has roots in the library and information science field. Information ethics refers to the responsible creation and use of information in a variety of formats. IE is about the content of data or information and how it is to be used. Ethical considerations pervade the cycle of creation, generation, management, evaluation and dissemination of information by information professionals and indeed, the society at large. Information professionals have the responsibility in the society, to ensure that in the process of locating, retrieving, using and providing access to information, the moral implications of all activities are understood and considered. In IE, the moral worth of informational objects deserves to be respected. This is not only human but any object. IE determine what is morally right or wrong. The essence of ethical code is to resolve the conflict of interest that is bound to arise in the course of information provision and harmonize the interests of information providers with those of the 1

2 users and the society at large. As libraries facilitate and promote public access to information, LIS professionals need to be well familiar with ethical issues in information provision as well as the principles guiding freedom of access to information. In recent times, there has been global focus on ethical and legal aspects of information access and use. Information Ethics networks and professional societies have contributed to the development of information ethics as a professional research field together with courses in universities world-wide (Capurro 2009) Professional societies such as the INSEIT (Intl. Society for Ethics and Information Technology) as well as networks in Africa and all over the world have highlighted the need for teaching information ethics courses in universities. Library and information science (LIS) schools have the responsibility to train students so that as practitioners, they would be able to educate the government, policy makers and the society at large on value of maintaining ethics in accessing and using information in decision making and problem solution. The relevance of including ethical issues in the curriculum of library and information science (LIS) schools is now acknowledged world wide. Teaching of IE in Nigerian LIS schools It is expected in the 21 st century that information ethics would be treated as an important course in library school curriculum. It should be taught as either a required or compulsory course; but not as an elective course. This is imperative in order to produce LIS professionals that are well acquainted with the ethics of information provision. The question is: Are the Nigerian LIS schools and indeed, other relevant departments in the tertiary institutions doing this? This is what this study has set out to investigate. The data for this study was collected by mailing a questionnaire to Heads of LIS schools and some selected departments and tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The questionnaire was based on the conference theme: Teaching Information Ethics in Africa Current Status, Opportunities, and Challenges, as circulated to participants. The questionnaire was distributed electronically. Other methods of data collection were: interview of some Heads of Departments in person or on the phone and use of secondary data. In Nigeria, as at July 2010, there were 25 LIS institutions. All the 25 schools, as presented in table 1 have bachelors degree programmes, while some have masters and doctoral programmes. From the responses obtained from the questionnaire to Heads of LIS schools presented in table 2, only 11 indicated that IE was taught. But none of the respondents indicated that it was taught as a separate course. It was either mentioned or taught in a few lecture hours as part of a course or some courses taught. 2

3 Table 1: LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA PROGRAMMES S/N BLS MLIS/ M.Phil/ NAME OF INSTITUTIONS MLS/M.I nf Sc Ph.D 1. Abia State University, Uturu 2 African Regional Centre for Information Science * 3 Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 4 Ambrose Alli University 5 Babcock University 6 Benue State University 7 Bayero University 8 Delta State University 9 Enugu State University of Science & Technology 10 Federal University of Technology, Minna 11 Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida University 12 Imo State University 13 Kwara State University 14 Madonna University 15. Nnamdi Azikwe University 16 Osun State University 17 Tai-Solarin University of Education 18 University of Calabar 19 University of Ibadan 20 University of Ilorin 21 University of Maduguri 22 University of Nigeria 23 University of Uyo 24 University of Yola 25 Wukari Jubilee University, Wukari 3

4 Table 2: LIS Schools Teaching IE Integrated NAME OF INSTITUTION course(s) 1. Abia State University X 2. Africa Regional Centre for Information Science X (ARCIS) 3. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria X 4. Ambrose Alli University X 5. Babcock University (BU) X 6. Benue State University X 7. Bayero University X 8. Tai-Solarin University of Education X 9. University of Ibadan X 10. University of Ilorin X 11. University of Uyo X into Teaching IE in other Tertiary Institutions Some tertiary institutions and departments in universities were purposively selected and included in the study. They include The Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, The Nigerian Law School, which is a post qualification training school for all Nigerian lawyers, The Department of Language and Communication Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. They were selected because they were considered to be representatives of the Law School ( responsible for postgraduate training of lawyers in Nigeria and which is the leading school in teaching ethics of the law profession, a Faulty of Law in the premier university in Nigeria, the Department of Communication and Language Arts, because it teaches communication and it is the first to teach the course in Nigeria. According to the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board Unified Tertiary Matriculation Brochure 2010/2011, there are 68 polytechnics in Nigeria: 33 federal, 20 state and 15 privately owned. There are also 81 colleges of education: 20 federal, 41 state and 20 privately owned. There are 35 monotechnics. The polytechnics are expected to teach technical and technology application and not art or humanistic courses. The colleges of education are teacher training institutions for preparing teachers for pre-primary and primary 4

5 school levels. It was therefore decided not to focus too much on the curriculums of these institutions. One polytechnic, The Polytechnic, Ibadan and one college of education, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo were included in the study. They are some of the best and oldest of these categories of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. They have vey qualified teachers and usually attract the best students into the institutions. The respondent from the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, indicated that the department teaches IE integrated into some courses but not as a separate course. The Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan and the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, teach ethics of the law profession as a course but not IE. IE was also not integrated into any course. The Polytechnic and the College of Education surveyed indicated that IE was not a part of their curriculums, thus it was neither taught as a course, nor included in another course. Table 3: Teaching of IE in selected institutions Institution Not Taught Integrated into a course(s) A The Polytechnic, Ibadan X B. Adeyemi Colleges of Education X C.1 2. Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan Nigerian Law School X X Ethics of the legal profession is taught D. Department of Language and Communication Arts, University of Ibadan Included in some courses Methods of Teaching IE Some of the issues often considered in teaching IE are: the course content (what are the important issues to include?), time allocation, qualification of the lecturer, integrated or into what course or a separate course, compulsory, required or elective course, one course or more? The mode of teaching (like should there be practical aspects?) is also an important issue. No institution reported having a full and detailed course outline reflecting the major aspects of the IE discipline. Only some topics as chosen by the lecturers were taught. Similarly, not much time,(ie, like 2-3 hours per week for a semester), was devoted to teaching IE. Only a few hours were spent on teaching the selected topics. But most of the lecturers did not think that there was isufficient course content to justify making IE a stand alone course. They also 5

6 indicated that if it is to be taught in the future, it should not be a compulsory course but a required or elective course. The suggested mode of teaching were normal lectures, whether face to face or by distance teaching. Availability of competent staff with required qualifications was not considered as a deterrent to teaching IE in the library schools. Most of the Heads of Departments reported having qualified lecturers who could teach IE as a separate course. No respondent indicated that there was a practical aspect of teaching the course. Table 4: Methods of Teaching Information Ethics Library School Level of Course Stand Alone Course or Taught Combined Bayero University 400 Ethical Issues in Information Resource Management Systematically related to other subjects Qualification of Teacher Disciplin e of Teacher Full time/ Part time Core or Elective Yes Ph.D LIS Full-time Core Abia State University University of Ilorin University of Ibadan Tai Solarin University Upper Level Combined Yes Ph.D LIS Part-time Elective Undergraduate Undergraduate Postgraduate Combined with Introduction to the information profession Combined with other courses: 1. Computer Application 2. Health Records Management 3. Records Maintenance 4. Publishing and Copyright studies 5.IKS and Oral Archives Yes Ph.D LIS Full-time Core Yes Ph.D LIS Full-time Part of a course Undergraduate Combined Yes Ph.D LIS Full-time Elective ARCIS Postgraduate Combined with Designing and Marketing of Information Products Yes Ph.D Informatio n Science Full-time Elective From all indications, the LIS schools are the forerunners in the teaching of IE in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Six of the eleven institutions that indicated that they taught IE have provided details of how it is taught in table 4. LIS professionals who are full time lecturers in the universities teach IE as part of different courses. These include: Research Methods, Information Technology, Designing and Marketing of Information products, Health Records Management, Publishing Copyright Studies, Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Oral 6

7 Archives etc. Some LIS schools teach IE at the undergraduate level but only as part of computer applications; some teach IE at the postgraduate level and others at both levels. Issues in IE Teaching Literature on IE has often indicated that, based on the level of ICT use in African countries, some developing issues that deserve special focus should include: - Internet research ethics - Free and open source - Ethics of information on the internet - spam - Intellectual property rights. The lecturers were asked to indicate some of these and other issues they addressed in teaching IE in their LIS schools. A list of possible areas was provided. Most of the issues listed above were not captured in the teaching. But ethics of information on the internet was regarded as important by the lecturers, albeit to a limited extent. The response is presented in table 5. More respondents indicated that Information ownership and Intellectual property rights, Access to knowledge, Information privacy were addressed in the teaching of IE, even though all the issues were discussed in one way or the other. Table 5: Issues addressed in IE curriculums S/ No. Issues Responses of universities surveyed 1. Information ownership intellectual property right BU, Ilorin, Ibadan, Tai Solarin, ARCIS, BU 2. Digital divide and information poverty BU 3. Information Privacy BU, Ilorin, ARCIS, Ibadan 4. Access to knowledge BU. Abia e, Ilorin, Ibadan, Tai Solarin, 5. Open government BU, Ilorin, ARCIS 6. Regional and legal responsibilities and ARCIS Liabilities of information professional 7. Data Integrity BU 8. Ethical Principles of Decision making BU 9. Globalization and exchange across culture Tai Solarin. 7

8 Availability of and access to up-to-date information materials are invaluable to effective teaching and research, The respondents indicated that they were not aware of and did not have access to databases for teaching IE; all literature was sourced from the internet, text books and journals. The Challenges The present status is of unpreparedness, as the LIS schools and other institutions are concentrating on the traditional courses in their programmes. As shown in table 1, most of the LIS schools have only the bachelors programme. The courses taught are as approved by the universities and accrediting bodies. Many of the schools are also new with mostly young lecturers who have no doctorate degree and little or no experience of teaching at the university level. Therefore, apart from Babcock University, those schools that are currently running undergraduate programmes did not consider or propose teaching IE as a course or as part of a course. Some departments that have postgraduate programmes responded that IE could be taught as a course or combined with another course. The courses include: Research Methods, Information Technology, Health Records and Information management, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Oral archives. Some staff mentioned in table 3 did not consider teaching of IE to be their primary function and thus, it could not be included in their curriculums. An obvious challenge is the issue of human and other resources. Most of the LIS schools have lecturers who are still doctoral candidates and may not be very knowledgeable on Information and Communications Technology application in libraries and issues relating to ethics of information provision and use. Also, there is limited access to the Internet and other electronic information resources, especially where the institutions are not located in urban areas where access to the internet is unrestricted and fast. All the respondents in the study indicated that they did not have access to electronic databases. They used mostly printed books and journals for information. There have been very limited research efforts on IE by Nigerian scholars and tertiary institution lecturers. The responses from the questionnaire returned and from colleagues interviewed reveal that the exposure to the subject is limited. Some have indicated that they were not aware of databases and internet resources on this subject. They had only consulted books and journals on IE. Availability and access to up-to-date information materials are invaluable to effective teaching and research. However, there is the prospect that as they become more conscious of the global interest in IE, more lecturers will focus their research efforts in this direction. 8

9 Future prospects The future prospects are bright, especially with the increase in global awareness on the subject. The government, policy makers, management of the various institutions and stakeholders would have some roles to play in the advancement and propagating teaching of IE in tertiary institutions in Africa. This is because curriculums are approved and accredited by some of these bodies Once the awareness is created among all the stakeholders, there is the likelihood that more, if not all, tertiary institutions will initiate, or be involved in teaching IE as a course. The teaching efforts will ultimately encourage research and scholarly writing on IE by more lecturers in Nigerian tertiary institutions. References Adam, D Moore ed (2005) Information Ethics, Privacy, Property and Power, University of Washington Press. Capurro, Rafael (2009) Lecture at the Discussion of Information and Library Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University Borno, Czeck Republic Steinbeis Transfer Institute Information Ethics. http//sti-{e.de Accessed. June Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board Unified tertiary Matriculation Examination Brochure 2010/2011 Academic Session Accessed 17 August Ocholla, Denis (2009) Information Ethics Education in Africa. Where do we stand? TheInternational Information and Library Review 41 pp

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