Information ethics and islamic issues in the context of libraries in Malaysian universities

Abstract

With the advanced development of information technologies, the lack of an explicit statement of what information ethics rights are, and the current spurious dissemination practices of information carried out by professionals in academia, not to mention the invasions into personal privacy that are more intensive and extensive than any period before now, information ethics violations continue to challenge our traditional notion of ethics. The study's literature also highlighted the issue of limits to intellectual freedom, particularly from an Islamic perspective and analyzed the ethical doubts that PhD students of academic institutions have over information ethics. The study is based on the 400 questionnaires distributed to Ph.D students at 6 chosen Malaysian universities and the interviews of nine specialist academics in different fields, reassembling the related threads of the various aspects regarding IE in academia. The students were asked to answer 10 hypothetical scenarios representing cases of citing practices in research writing. The results indicate that students have various levels of understanding of the issues of information ethics. Hence, information ethics awareness still calls for more awareness in the institutions of higher learning. The Institutions, professors and libraries, have a responsibility to infuse spiritual values of moral honesty in their students. Certain actions were recommended in this research to improve the quality of the intellectual experience at the academic institutions, and to improve communication among university constituents by disseminating information on IE to a wider audience in the university community. This is of utmost significance particularly in academia, where information ethics forms the core and spirit of the various aspects of the inculcation and development of knowledge.