Book review: Ethics for records and information management

Abstract

During the last 30 years, information technology has exploded; with that comes a host of issues that constantly need to be addressed, including how to treat the various and numerous records that have been created as a result of said information explosion. Records and information management (RIM) professionals need to adapt and adjust to the responsibilities that these changes entail. Mooradian’s book, Ethics for Records and Information Management, is essentially a manual to help RIM professionals, including librarians and archivists, develop and implement ethical organizational policies by using a principles-based approach to ethics to help the reader through the process. The author points out that RIM professionals have specific ethical responsibilities and that they will need to be equipped to establish policies, training, and systems “that are meant to manage information in a way that is fair and legitimate” (xxv–xxvi). Mooradian addresses topics that everyone working in information professions should be aware of, such as the structure of ethics, including outlining principles, moral rules, judgments, and exceptions; ethical reasoning; the ethical core of records and information management; important ethical concerns such as copyright and intellectual property, whistleblowing, information leaks, disclosure, and privacy; and the relationship between RIM ethics and information governance.