Confidentiality … and the Librarians’ Code of Ethics

“The closer and more confidential our relationship with someone, the less we are entitled to ask about what we are not voluntarily told.” -- Louis Kronenberger (American Writer, 1904-1980)

Confidentiality is a key component of the librarians’ code of ethics. People need to know that they can access library services without fear of a third party looking over their shoulder.

In public libraries, it is a question of preserving personal privacy. In academic libraries, it is a question of preserving academic freedom. In corporate libraries, the issue is a bit more nuanced.

As manager of one corporate library, I was asked why it was important to protect the privacy of anyone using any corporate resource, including the library services funded by the corporation. My answer … if someone wants to pursue a line of inquiry which he feels will benefit not only the corporation, but also his career, he may well want to keep that pursuit to himself until he chooses to reveal it.

If he cannot depend on the librarian for confidentiality he probably will not use the library’s services … which negates the purpose of maintaining a library in the first place. If everyone in the corporation has the same concern, management faces the prospect of the balkanization of information resources. In other words, the enterprise ends up spending 10 times as much money on information resources as it needs to.

Here’s the point … if your organization supports a library, use its resources to your advantage. Get to know the librarian, to assure yourself that he or she takes seriously the confidentiality part of the librarians’ code of ethics. Over time, you will establish a comfort zone that will enable you to maximize your effectiveness.

And then you will be able to pursue the lines of inquiry suggested by an article like the one below …
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Fuel Processing Technology
doi:10.1016/j.fuproc.2010.11.019
On the potential of absorption and reactive adsorption for desulfurization of ultra low-sulfur commercial diesel in the liquid phase in the presence of fuel additive and bio-diesel
J.A.Z. Pieterse, a, , S. van Eijka, H.A.J. van Dijka and R.W. van den Brinka
a Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands
Received 19 August 2010; revised 18 November 2010; accepted 19 November 2010. Available online 18 December 2010.
Abstract
Sorption of sulfur components in the liquid phase was used to desulfurize ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) to below 1 ppmw S. Several concepts of sorption were considered by using both physisorption and chemisorption materials and conditions. Adsorption assisted by reaction with Ni sorbent was found to be most successful. Using a pre-commercial diesel representing a mature diesel on all aspects except for the absence of fuel stabilizers and bio-diesel, a sulfur breakthrough capacity of 2 mg S/g could be achieved using a Ni-sorbent at an acceptable LHSV of 0.7 h− 1 on average. However, successive experiments indicated that the desulfurization capacity depended strongly on the presence of fuel-additive and bio-diesel in commercial ULSD. The presence of the cetane improver 2-ethylhexylnitrate (2­EHN) was shown to decrease the sulfur capacity by roughly 50%. The presence of bio-diesel (fatty acid methyl ester, abbreviated to FAME) was shown to completely disable the desulfurization process. This was confirmed by comparing BP Ultimate diesel with FAME (obtained in 2008) and without FAME (obtained in 2006). From this evaluation it turned out that the targeted breakthrough capacity of 1 mg S/g sorbent was within reach for commercial ULSD until late 2006 when adding bio-diesel to ULSD became common practice in Europe. Several attempts to remove the additives prior to desulfurization by using copper loaded zeolites, active carbon and silica gel proved unsuccessful to bring the sulfur adsorption capacity for current diesel to the level observed for 2­EHN and FAME-free diesel. It is concluded that sorption in the liquid phase does not yet represent a viable desulfurization technology for ultra-low sulfur diesel.
Keywords: Low-sulfur diesel; Sorption; Desulfurization; Bio-diesel; 2-Ethylhexylnitrate
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The Desulfurization Blog (http://www.desulf.blogspot.com/) is produced by Jean Steinhardt, who invites YOU to invite HIM to join your LinkedIn network. View his LinkedIn Profile at: www.linkedin.com/in/jeansteinhardtresearch