The UMass Amherst Libraries will host “Ethics Day: Engaging Librarians in the Responsible Conduct of Research,” a professional development program for New England area librarians, on Friday, October 8, 2010, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on Floor 26, Du Bois Library, UMass Amherst. For more information and to register for the free program by October 1, visit http://guides.library.umass.edu/ethicsday. Lunch and other refreshments will be provided.
The Ethics Day program will include morning sessions, which will introduce research ethics and the responsible conduct of research, and afternoon sessions, which will explore some of the ethical concerns in the field of librarianship.
The keynote speaker, Sheila Bonde, is professor of art, architecture, and archeology at Brown University. Bonde will give a talk, “Ethical Awareness in International Collaborations: A Contextual Approach.” Bonde is currently a Fellow at the Cogut Center for the Humanities. Formerly dean of the Brown graduate school, she led ethics training for graduate students for many years. Her research and teaching on ethics in international collaborations is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Elizabeth Buchanan, Ph.D., director of the Center for Information Policy Research and associate professor in the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, will give a talk, “On the Internet, No One Knows You’re a Researcher.” Buchanan teaches and researches in the areas of information and research ethics, in particular internet research ethics. She is currently working on two National Science Foundation projects on research ethics 2.0, as well as studying the ethical issues involved in social science data banking. Buchanan is the chair of the Association of Internet Researchers Ethics Working Group and co-director of the International Society of Ethics and Information Technology.
John DeSantis, cataloging and metadata services librarian at Dartmouth College Library since 1988, will be speaking on professional ethics in librarianship. His previous experience includes work as a catalog librarian at Amherst College. He served as a member of the American Library Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics from 2007 to 2009, and as a Councilor-at-Large from 2004 to 2010.
Jennifer Donais, associate director, Office of Grant & Contract Administration, UMass Amherst, will give a talk about funder requirements for ethics training.
Nancy Harger and Judy Norberg, education and clinical services librarians at Lamar Soutter Library, UMass Medical School, will give a talk, “Embedded in the IRB.” Harger and Norberg will discuss their experience serving on the UMass Medical School’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and describe how their roles have evolved over the years. They will give an overview of the IRB process and discuss their responsibilities in support of the reviewers.
Athanasia (Nancy) Pontika, adjunct faculty and doctoral student, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College; assistant editor, Open Access Directory; will speak on the ethics of open access and library publishing. Pontika’s thesis, “Ethics, its codes and their application in Librarianship and Information Science,” was presented at the 14th Panhellenic Conference on Academic Libraries.
Hongjie Wang, head of Information and Education Services Department, Lyman Maynard Stowe Medical Library, University of Connecticut Health Center, will give a talk, “Mentoring Rocks!…..if done appropriately.” Wang is assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care at the UConn Health Center. He is also a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.
Ethics Day is sponsored by the Science, Technology & Society Initiative, the UMass Amherst Libraries, the National Center for Digital Government, and the Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse beta site. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation.
For more information, contact Jessica Adamick, Ethics Clearinghouse Librarian, 413-545-6898, jadamick@library.umass.edu.