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Introduction

Widad Mustafa El Hadi, José Augusto Chaves Guimarães, Daniel Martínez-Ávila et Richard P. Smiraglia
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Introduction [fr]

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1The history of the professional and scholarly literature of Information Ethics (IE) in its first 20 years are increasingly linked to library ethics; information systems ethics; computer ethics; cyberethics; journalism, communication and media ethics; Internet ethics; and Web ethics. Each of these areas shares origins and relationships with others and with a wide variety of more emerging fields, including engineering ethics (Didier 2008) and business ethics. It is however crucial to distinguish the research pertaining to IE from the broad field of KO ethics and its ever-growing literature. The concept of ethics covers many dimensions in Library and Information Science. Some of them are related to the transfer to a largely digital information environment. It is more related to the explosion of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) and the Internet access. In this respect it is important to highlight Floridi’s Infosphere concept which embraces these different information ecologies.

2The term Infosphere is a neologism coined by (Floridi 1999) on the basis of ‘biosphere,’ a term referring to that limited region on our planet that supports life. He added, Minimally, it denotes the whole informational environment constituted by all informational entities (thus including information agents as well), their properties, interactions, processes, and mutual relations. It is an environment comparable to, but different from, cyberspace, which is only one of its sub-regions, as it were, since it also includes offline and analogue spaces of information.” He distinguishes information as something (e.g., a structure), for something (e.g., an algorithm), and about something (e.g., a piece of news) (Floridi 2011; 2013). We can mention, for instance, the use of computerized issuing systems or the availability of many resources in digital forms. In this respect, the main areas of concern within information ethics, as Floridi (2013) pointed out, include the contradiction between censorship and intellectual freedom; privacy, confidentiality and data protection; ownership of information and the possible commercial use of public information; universal access, information poverty and the digital divide; respect for intellectual property combined with fair use; and issues of balance and bias in information provision, collection development and metadata creation. In relation to library and information science, these ethical issues have been identified and typically grouped by Floridi under the term of “information ethics.” This concept has been initially developed in the study of the activities of librarians and information specialists to cover a wider concern for information in society as a whole, for which information specialists obviously feel a particular responsibility.

3These concerns are accounted for by laws such as copyright and censorship rules and regulations, while others are covered by professional codes of conduct. Another dimension, which will be at the core of this special issue concerns the ethics of knowledge organization in different information stances such as archives, libraries, museums and documentation centers. Regarding KO, it is a process in which ethic dimensions are intimately linked to language and culture. We therefore invited proposals examining ethics within its cultural, linguistic and social frames. ISKO communities’ interest for ethics in KO is rooted in the early criticisms of classification systems (Olson 1999; 2002). A major part of the criticism was focused on the fact that these systems do not offer a representation of language and that their structure alters our interpretation of language in a way that is superfluous or false. For this reason, we must consider the weight of cultures and languages in the design of KOS as suggested by Tennis (2013). Ethical issues have been addressed by libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions, corporations, non-profit institutions, academia, government agencies at all levels, information science research, and in media. Increasingly, scholars from the discipline of Information Science are asking questions more specifically related to information and its life cycle. Library ethics focuses more specifically on issues of privacy, censorship, access to information, intellectual freedom and social responsibility. It addresses copyright, fair use, and best practices for collection development. In information science, ethics is framed by the philosophy of information, a domain which investigates the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its ethical consequences e.g., the ethical impact of ICTs on human life and society (Floridi 2011).

4Experience showed that authors who write on information ethics deal mainly with the impact of ICTs and of the Internet on information flows with only some studies devoted to the cultural, social and linguistic dimensions of ethics in information and knowledge organization. It is no surprise that this aspect has been for decades taken care of by the ISKO community who considers ethics as a component of knowledge organization research activities. Researchers from ISKO Community (Beghtol, Olson, Fox, Tennis, Guimarães, Pinho, Smiraglia, Mai, Bolfarini Tognoli, Martínez-Ávila, among many others) have been extremely active in the research on KO ethics. Many conferences were organized by the School of Information Studies at University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Knowledge Organization Research Group, led by Richard Smiraglia and Hope Olson (2009, 2012 and 2015). Special issues of Knowledge Organization, journal and conference proceedings were devoted to ethics. Some were published in “Knowledge Organization” – Proceedings of the 3rd Milwaukee Conference on Ethics in Knowledge Organization, May 28–29, 2015, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, Knowledge Organization, 5, 2015; Special Issue: Subject Ontogeny and Knowledge Organization System Change, Knowledge Organization, 8, 2016; Special Issue: A Festschrift for Hope Olson, Knowledge Organization, 5, 2016.

5Hope Olson showed through her publications that the fundamental principles of western classifications reflect a particular culture may negate other cultural identities. Olson’s work on marginalization and exclusion of specific topics and groups of people in large library classifications has inspired many authors such as Fox (2016); Mai (2016). Other researchers have followed Olson’s approach to ethics, e.g., the Brazilian Team at São Paulo State University (UNESP) at Marilia or, at the University of Lille, the Axe 4 Geriico Research Team that holds a seminar on Ethics of Information and KO since 2018. In June 2021, the sub-team founded “The International Thematic Network on Ethics in Human and Social Sciences”. Ethics was also the main theme for ISKO-UK last biannual conference: “The Human Position in an Artificial World: Creativity, Ethics, and AI in KO”, London July (see Haynes and Vernau 2019 for the proceedings).

6In Archival Science, for instance, the ethical dilemmas revolve mainly two issues: privacy and access to information. Both aspects are closely related to Knowledge Organization as privacy issues, to a great extent, involve the representation of individuals dictated by standards and guidelines, and information access and retrieval is an indivisible part of knowledge organization. These connections have been widely, although never enough, explored in libraries and other information units but are sometimes overlooked in archives. The KO community should explore the theoretical possibilities and practical challenges that this specific type of information unit poses.

Aims, scope and main topics

7KO special issue published 10 articles (see below) and the SFSIC journal 9 articles. The objective is to renew research in the Ethics of Information & Knowledge Organization and broaden its scope to Social and Human Sciences (SHS). Ethics in SHS is a challenging issue and in line with the era of a society mediated by information and communication technology, and where we started living with technology, not only using it. In the field of Humanities, for instance, the notion of ethics is quite relevant to our stance. It is considered in as many different ways as the humanities are: we can deal with ethical questions in literature or philosophy by approaching criticism of texts production, in cultural history with the analysis of images regarding the misappropriation of images for example, and so on. What seems interesting to focus on, is that all the sciences –experimental or human - share questions, interrogations, and ethical issues which, of course, converge or, at the very least, resonate one with the other. Rather than assuming an ethical dimension specific to each science, it seems that the ethical questions are addressed in a more global way, and that all of them participate in the ethics of science in general.

8KO special issue focuses on the theoretical characteristics and approaches that can build a methodological and efficient model for examining Ethics and to highlight the various recurring issues related to the ethical dimensions of Information processing and organization. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this special issue aims to bring together researchers and teachers from different SHS disciplines working on Ethics: computer science, archives, artificial intelligence, business and engineering, humanities (literature, linguistics, archeology, museology, theology…) etc. The special issue is split in two parts and the authors and papers deal with the following topics:

9Bagatini and Guimaraes, based on the international scientific literature, discuss the algorithmic discriminations and their ethical consequences to the knowledge organization processes, tools and products, especially in terms of discriminatory biases related to issues on gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, religion, age, social class, socioeconomic profile, physical appearance, and political positioning.

10San Segundo, Martínez-Ávila and Frías Montoya discuss some ethical issues and challenges of the use of algorithms on the web from the perspective of user-based approaches to knowledge organization, especially in terms of the problems they pose to the user, the technologies that have been developed to counter these problems and the initiatives from the knowledge organization field. The authors conclude with the necessity of adopting a critical and ethical stance towards the use of algorithms on the web and the need for an education in knowledge organization that addresses these issues.

11Brito proposes a multidisciplinary reflection on the subject of ethics, based on philosophical approaches, using Spinozas work, Ethics, as a foundation, especially in the context of an information society characterized by an abundance of data and a diversity of perspectives. The author concludes that artificial intelligence in KOS offers the potential for processing complex questions through the formal modeling of concepts in ethical discourse and the adoption of complexity analysis as a mechanism for understanding problems and empowering solutions.

12Tran examines the integration of born-digital and digitized content into an outdated classification system within the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin under the perspective of infrastructure studies as a way to scrutinize the representation of diverse viewpoints and voices within the museums collections. For this, an exploration of the case of category 74 is presented and analyzed as a way to illustrate the complexities of replacing pre-existing systems due to their intricate integration into the socio-technical components of the museums information infrastructure. The paper reflects on how resource-constrained cultural institutions can take a proactive and ethical approach to knowledge management, re-evaluating their knowledge infrastructure to promote inclusion and ensure adaptability.

13Mustafa El Hadi, Elbeely and Abdelwahab introduce epistemicide as an emerging theoretical framework for critical library and information studies alongside the well-known ones extensively covered in the literature of our field. This phenomenon is examined through the lens of the ethics of information and knowledge organization (KO), based on the case of Nubia and Kushite kingdoms along the river Nile whose conditions led to racism, marginalization, and discrimination of the civilization of the Nile Valley in Sudan and its tangible cultural heritage. The paper concludes with an appeal to information scholars and professionals to address epistemicide as an ethical and crucial issue for information professionals responsible for the credibility and accuracy of the information they handle in every field of knowledge.

14Martínez-Ávila, Pinho, Nascimento and Smiraglia discuss the ethical challenges and risks for groups at the social margins such as the LGBTIQ+ communities based on self-identifying nomenclature from social media websites such as Grindr, XVideos, TikTok, and Scruf, in order to identify the act of defining and organizing the knowledge about the identity of the group based on what is desirable both in themselves and in others pertaining to the same. The resulting terms can be grouped into three classes: sexual desires/orientation desire, physical characteristics, and sexual roles or performances.

15Fraisse and Timimi offer a broad overview of multilingualism and multiculturalism embedding into Digital Libraries (DL) and the attempt of LIS to ensure and sustain knowledge diversity as a driver for development. By means of a study on databases such as Science Direct, Google Scholars, Taylor and Francis, and Emerald Insight the authors have identified five research themes: (i) studies describing Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) in Digital Libraires, (ii) studies describing building, enriching and using multilingual resources in digital libraries (iii) studies focusing on multilingual digital libraries initiatives, (iv) studies on collaboration, minority languages and ethics issues in digital libraries, and (v) studies on multilingual user needs.

16Campbell and Nord examine how structure data in knowledge organization can help us understand human rights violations in a way that engenders both rational comprehension and emotional empathy. The authors present a set of four possible effects: a) structured data allows for more accurate statistics; b) structured data provides links from one isolated incident to other similar incidents; c) structured data lends itself to regularity and consistency of display, thereby appealing to rational comprehension, but on a more direct emotional level; and structured data lends itself to memorial devices that rely on discovery and chance encounters, rather than through memorial installations that people approach purposefully.

17Sundström analyzes the decolonial practices adopted by The Swedish National Museums of World Culture (Världskulturmuseet) related to its indigenous collection. When migrating its collection to a new platform, the museum needs to review its knowledge organization system, since some problems related to classification and terminology were identified in the current database called Carlotta. The conclusions point out the inappropriateness and obsolescence of the used to describe some of the objects and the importance of considering indigenous self-determination in cultural institutions as a guide of ethical issues related to the creation of a knowledge organization system in a museum.

18Casenave and Kane discuss some ethical issues in archival processing. They adopt a holistic approach and present a conceptual model that embraces all the facets intertwined in the archivist’s decision-making process, including the professional framework governing the archivist’s conduct and the subjective factors that influence his or her choices. The authors conclude with the necessity of examining how ethical considerations vary, influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors within the profession, and with the importance of understanding the mechanisms that hamper ethical practice.

19The special issue of Communication, technologies et développement on the Ethics of Information & Knowledge Organization selected the following contributions.

20Fox, provides from her keynote address an informal summary of the first three conferences on the ethics of information knowledge organization, identifying themes that have been put into practice. She underlines the ethical challenges that knowledge organization continues to face, and new challenges that have emerged, demonstrating that a “caring” catalog is still a work in progress.

21Heyens examines the recent development of metaverse use, which has raised concerns about the risks incurred by users. These include fraud, identity theft, loss of privacy and online abuse. In examining the ethical issues, the author explores appropriate means of regulation.Baujard examines the profound changes museums have undergone over the past twenty years: diminution of public funding is forcing them to develop new resources to diversify the participatory dimension with national and international visitors. Heritage exhibitions encourage new territorial logics that raise questions about the role of cultural mediation in heritage accessibility. The question she raises is: how can museum ethics encourage cultural democratization among visitors?

22Koren examines the question of the researchers ethical commitment and ethical values such as the good, the just, ethical rectitude and responsibility which give rise to cognitive value judgments involving a different, but equally crucial, regime of rationality. The theoretical framework constructed to justify her point of view will serve as a guarantee for two emblematic case studies.

23Mahmoudis analysis of institutional discourse (1998-2019) is based on a research stance focused on an ethical questioning. The aim of her contribution is to question the discourse analysts stance with regard to his/her research object, which involves him/her in the professional field. This research, based on her doctoral thesis, aims to shed light on the self-evident force of the formula “critical mind” and the ideological schemes that underpin its use in institutional discourse. By tracing the stages of her research, she raises ethical questions inherent in the stance of “practitioner-researcher”. Between the claim of descriptive neutrality as a guarantee of scientificity and the critical stance of the practitioner involved, the question she raises is: what is the ethical posture of the discourse analyst?

24Rusquart presents the ontogeny of the subject as an approach to the ethical evaluation of classification systems. Indeed, today, the concept of mental health in our organizational systems. The subject chosen concerns mental health. Today, the concept of mental health in our knowledge organization systems is challenging, whether it is part of the classification in which a new paradigm of mental health itself emerges and takes shape, or terminology such as the term “schizophrenia” producing a stigmatizing image, the resulting consequences of which are debated and calls for a revision through a participatory approach by the various actors, such as patients, psychiatrists, health establishments, associations and families. These phenomena lead this empirical study in the historical description of the subject and its context, as well as in the exploration of two types of classification: the DDC and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) among many others.

25Schopfel & Otman, offer a comprehensive review of the ethical considerations surrounding the management of research information within an organization. Particular attention is paid to ethical standards relative to data quality, data models and data formats, which are essential factors in the organization of research knowledge. As open science gains momentum , research ethics - such as integrity, openness and transparency - become increasingly crucial.

26Abiding by these open science principles will play a key role in determining future research funding.

27Toursel, Labour and Scoyez present a study based on a descriptive approach to information justice. As part of their interdisciplinary team, they have developed a methodology for analyzing the issues associated with organizational justice and ethics in relation to the circulation, processing and organization of information, in a context of heightened interest in employee well-being and the use of digital technology. A first contribution of the study is to put into perspective several dimensions of ethics that emerge from what is experienced as fair or unfair by actors in the field. A second contribution is the conceptualization of organizational justice as a form of mediation that enables the link to be established between

28Boudjema, discusses our museum experiences in Australia in terms of ethics and protocols when exhibiting Aboriginal art. He highlights two museum experiences and illustrates the protocols used through an exhibition we co-curated in 2010, Authentic, which brought together seven urban Aboriginal artists at the Fairifield City Museum and Gallery.

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Bibliographie

Beghtol, Clare. 2002. “Universal Concepts, Cultural Warrant and Cultural Hospitality.” In M. López-Huertas (ed.). Advances in Knowledge Organization: vol. 8, Ergon-Verlag.

Casenave, J., Mustafa El Hadi, W. (2019). Developments in Ethics of Knowledge Organization: From Critical Approaches to Classifications to Controlled Digital Communication Practices. In D. Haynes, J. Vernau (eds.). The Human Position in an Artificial World: Creativity, Ethics and AI in Knowledge Organization (114–127). Baden-Baden : Ergon Verlag.

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Widad Mustafa El Hadi, José Augusto Chaves Guimarães, Daniel Martínez-Ávila et Richard P. Smiraglia, « Introduction »Communication, technologies et développement [En ligne], 14 | 2023, mis en ligne le 26 décembre 2023, consulté le 16 mai 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ctd/10059 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ctd.10059

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Auteurs

Widad Mustafa El Hadi

Widad Mustafa El Hadi, is Professor of Information Science, Department of Information & Document, iSchool of the University of Lille SHS https://www.ischools.org/members where she is in charge of International Relations and of the Master Diploma program. Her main areas of interest are: theoretical approaches to knowledge organization; language & culture and their impact on knowledge organization; social epistemologies, knowledge organization systems and their evaluation; cross-language and cross-cultural information retrieval, and more recently, digital Humanities and the ethics of information & knowledge organization. She founded in June 2021 the “International Thematic Network on the Ethics in SHS” https://reseau-international-ethique-shs.univ-lille.fr/. She is a member of a total of seven international journal editorial boards and one of the editors of ISKO encyclopedia https://www.isko.org/cyclo/

José Augusto Chaves Guimarães

São Paulo State University (Brazil)

Daniel Martínez-Ávila

Universidad de León (Spain)

Richard P. Smiraglia

Institute for Knowledge Organization and Structure, Inc. Lake Oswego OR (USA)

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