Do we all really know our professional liability and legal obligations? As a recent graduate and after reading this book, I was surprised by a number of factors I take lightly in my everyday job and have no clue or ramifications of legal repercussions that might arise in case of a dispute or an allegation as a result of my professional duty. Well it is a worrying factor and thank you Paul for writing this book.
Essential Law for Information Professionals is well laid out, easy to read and understand. The book will be of no doubt interest to Librarians and Information Professionals. It covers how this industry increasingly engages in activities that bring its professionals into contact with varied and complex aspects of law. Although this book is written from UK perspective and is based upon the laws of the UK, readers or users from countries that practice within the common law jurisdiction will find the law can be applicable in many instances.
I found this book quite stimulating and provocative. Not only does the author raise legal awareness and risks, that information professionals encounter, he also gives an understanding of how to minimise these risks, particularly with regard to key ethical and policy issues. However the author also warns that his book does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon in that way.
The problematic areas that the author has covered are:
general law and background (UK);
copyrights;
data protection;
the information commissioner;
freedom of information;
defamation;
breach of confidence and privacy;
professional liability;
contracts and licensing agreements;
internet and electronic commerce law;
computer misuse;
disability discrimination.
The copyright chapter, particularly interesting to me as a law librarian, covers the application of copyright law in the electronic environment, the exceptions or permitted acts such as fair dealing and library privilege, licensing issues, and a number of ethical and professionals issues. There are suggestions as to how we go about minimising our risk of being liable to breach this act, such as how to word the declaration forms to be signed by users when we provide them with information. There are a lot of discrepancies; uncertainties, conflicts and grey areas were the law does not stipulate what's required, e.g. areas of hyperlinking and deep linking. Paul said: “Library and information service professionals find themselves in a difficult situation playing the role of “piggy in the middle”, acting as guardians of intellectual property whilst at the same time being committed to supporting their user's needs to gain access to copyright works and the ideas that they contain”.
The chapter on professional liability maintains that librarians could be held liable for their work under the law of contract or the law of tort. This includes copyright infringements and electronic information we use. I never thought I could be liable for retrieving incorrect information from a database! Paul clearly examined the strategies on how to minimize these legal liabilities as well as the role of professional indemnity insurance.
General principles and the implications of data protection are considered in chapter three. A topic I see relevant to library and information services as we process data as part of our daily operations, examples include circulation records, staff records, user personal details, management statistics, etc. Compliance with the code of professional ethics, which applies professional principles to the management of personal data, is required.
Other chapters are just as stimulating and interesting. This book has successfully raised my awareness on information professionals legal liability.
Paul Pedley has gone the extra mile to provide the reader with details of the sources he has used, he also gives you, details for further research and contacts (with addresses, telephone numbers, Web sites and fax numbers). Each chapter has an introduction body and summary. Where appropriate the author has used individual cases to illustrate legal principles that underlie practice. Acts and statutes are used through out the book to illustrate legal principles and conceptualise specific regulations. This is an essential textbook for information studies students, librarians and information professionals providing them with information on the legal implications of their profession.
