New Preprint: “Learning Analytics and the Academic Library: Professional Ethics Commitments at a Crossroads”

The following article (preprint) was recently accepted for publication article in College & Research Libraries (C&RL). It is scheduled for final publication in the March 2018 issue.
Title
Learning Analytics and the Academic Library: Professional Ethics Commitments at a Crossroads
Authors
Kyle M. L. Jones
Indiana University–Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Dorothea Salo
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Source
via C&RL Website
Abstract

In this paper, the authors address learning analytics and the ways academic libraries are beginning to participate in wider institutional learning analytics initiatives. Since there are moral issues associated with learning analytics, the authors consider how data mining practices run counter to ethical principles in the American Library Association’s “Code of Ethics.”
Specifically, the authors address how learning analytics implicates professional commitments to promote intellectual freedom; protect patron privacy and confidentiality; and balance intellectual property interests between library users, their institution, and content creators and vendors.
The authors recommend that librarians should embed their ethical positions in technological designs, practices, and governance mechanisms.

Direct to Full Text Article (Preprint)
48 pages; PDF.

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