Acquisitions Ethics: Questions for the Round Table

Query: A professor reaches out to the libraries, begging for help getting a highly specific book for her class. The campus bookstore was unable to get them the textbooks they need in time. We librarians look through our various sources and low and behold the book is no longer published nor purchasable except through third-party sellers that are charging a significant amount. However, in your search, you did find a full PDF of the book on a site. Legally, you as the librarian cannot share this with the faculty member. But what about ethically? Is it not the job of the librarians to provide information? This round table proposed will include professionals from a variety of library and publishing backgrounds to discuss the ethics of providing information and censorship. In this discussion, we will cover the ethical providing of information (and even the ethical removal of information). Are there times in which censorship would be the ethically correct path? At what point are the librarians truly the gate keepers of information? All the things we as information professionals need to be discussed.