Professional ethics for information specialists at the Internet age

Abstract

The study aims at defining the concept of ethics and professional ethics in general and then defining the professional ethics of information specialist and his new functions in the digitalenvironment and in the internet environment specifically, as well as the most famous violations in the cyberspace concerning information . The study also discussed the codes amendments adopted by professional associations including the American Library Associations (ALA) and International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) .The researchers used the descriptive method and translated the amended and updated codes of ethics which comply with the internet environment .most important results of thestudy are:1-There are many guides related to information community ethics and Internet professional ethics to which the information specialists comply with.2-There are regulations and rules which prevent information crimes and protect the intellectual property rights and privacy and control information flow and other regulations which control relations between information specialist and his colleaguesuses ,and the institution.2- Libraries and information are institutional profession and their employees do not work freely or in an isolation from rules and regulations which control their behaviors, therefore information specialists must comply with these rules and ethics3- Internet is an effective device to promote the performance of information specialist, but , on the other hand internet helped in spreading some electronic crimes such as violating intellectual property rights and individuals privacy and scientific robbery. Theinformation specialist must deal with that cautiously.