Abstract

Moral dilemmas are a seemingly intractable part of librarianship. Although professional codes of ethics offer some guidance as to the nature of librarians’ professional obligations, they are generally silent when it comes to moral decision making at the point of service. This article will argue that librarians must augment their normative professional codes with a rational decision procedure when faced with a moral dilemma involving a library service. In particular, the ethical approach of principlism—the dominant ethical approach in medical ethics—is well-suited to librarianship. Pursuant to the principlist approach, this article will qualify the nature of moral dilemmas, establish the limits of professional codes of ethics, identify a candidate set of core principles of library service, and outline the core principlist concepts of specifying obligations and balancing principles.