“It is crucial for us to take them seriously”. Public librarians’ views on personal encounter on the basis of general ethical and professional ethical perspectives

The aim of this master thesis is to study the relationship between general ethics and professional ethics, to attain an understanding of which values that are given priority in the profession of the librarian regarding personal encounter towards library users. The posed questions are: How can fundamental ethical principles be understood through the view of public librarians? How can policy documents regarding librarian ethics be understood through the view of public librarians? How can policy documents regarding librarian ethics be problematized in relation to fundamental ethical principles? We used four focus groups consisting of public librarians. Three theoretical frameworks create the base of the analysis; four fundamental ethical principles, ethical guidelines for Swedish librarians and recommendations for Swedish librarians in the reference service. Three main issues emerge in the study; equalistic personal encounter where the principle of justice is emphasized but also problematized, library users’ integrity which mainly coincide with the principle of autonomy and finally the librarian’s professional role which are being defined by librarian specific competence to refrain violation of the principle of injury avoidance. The study concludes that the understanding of policy documents deepens when they are being substantialized through general ethics. Through this junction a concretization of general ethics is achieved. Contradictions between different kinds of ethics are also being clarified. This merging clarifies which values that can be given priority in the profession of the librarian. The contradictions emphasize each librarian’s own reflection