CILIP's Ethical Framework

Our ethics, skills and knowledge are crucial to establishing and maintaining trust in us as ethical information professionals. The people and organisations that use and rely on our services need to know that they can trust us to behave ethically. Every CILIP member makes a commitment to our Ethical Framework, which sit at the centre of the Professional Knowledge and Skills Base – our skills map for information professionals.

The new Ethical Framework includes seven Ethical Principles and a Code of Professional Conduct for members. A new section of the Code of Professional Conduct outlines the commitments that CILIP has made to support members and the profession. The Ethical Framework has been developed following extensive consultation with the profession.

The Ethical Principles

As an ethical Information Professional I make a commitment to uphold, promote and defend:

• Human rights, equalities and diversity, and the equitable treatment of users and colleagues
• The public benefit and the advancement of the wider good of our profession to society
• Preservation and continuity of access to knowledge
• Intellectual freedom, including freedom from censorship
• Impartiality and the avoidance of inappropriate bias
• The confidentiality of information provided by clients or users and the right of all individuals to privacy
• The development of information skills and information literacy

The full text of the Ethical Framework

Resources to support the Principles and Code

Clarifying notes

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