1. Serve Humanity
2. Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated
3. Use technology intelligently to enhance service
4. Protect free access to knowledge
5. Honor the past and create the future

These rules of conduct are a framework within which the LMC can survive and progress at Shoreline. They provide a tool enabling us to think about LMC services and programs clearly and rationally. In the narrative that follows we document the philosophy under which we implement the five rules of conduct at Shoreline Community College.

Rule 1: We Serve Humanity:
Our dominant ethic is service. We exist to serve the individual, the community and society as a whole. "Service" connotes individual acts of help as well as the furtherance of the goals and aspirations of the people and the institution we serve. "Service" implies attention to quality, a desire to surpass the expectations of library clients. These rules remind us why we exist and urge us to consider any program or innovation in the light of service. The question "how will this change improve the service that we give?" is an effective analytical tool. The urge to serve is at the root of the successful practice of our work at Shoreline and the Ray W. Howard Library/Media Center.

Another aspect of these rules of conduct is their emphasis on humanity by which we mean the individual and humankind as a whole. We do not exist as a library staff to serve exclusivist groups. Our true mission is to the wider goals and aspirations of the culture and people of Shoreline Community College.

Rule 2: We Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated:
There are myths and realities surrounding the "death of the book," the "paperless society," and other "dreams and nightmares." [2] We at Shoreline respect all forms of communication for the strengths that each brings. In our corporate future, we will continue to use all kinds of carriers of knowledge and information. Typically, each new means of communication enhances and supplements the strengths of all previous means. [3] This means that we will not advocate replacing print-on-paper when new technology is less effective, more costly or has other disadvantages. This is a utilitarian approach but one meant to enhance the Shoreline universe of knowledge rather than narrowing and destroying choices.

Rule 3: We use technology intelligently to enhance service:
We have successfully integrated new technologies and new means of communication into existing programs and services. We have welcomed innovation and have been, at times, overeager in embracing new technology. The intelligent use of technology involves:

• Seeking answers to problems rather than seeking applications of interesting new technology.
• Weighing the cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and, the impact on service of any proposed innovation.
• Rethinking the program, service, or workflow that is being automated rather than automating what one has.

The relative roles of digitized and electronic communication,[4] and print communication are:

• Electronic methods are best for housekeeping and for giving access to data and small, discrete packets of textual, numeric and visual information such as those found in many reference works.
• Print-on-paper will remain for some time the preeminent medium for the communication of cumulative knowledge.

Rule 4: We protect free access to knowledge: Two professional values are stewardship and democratic values. The value of stewardship calls us to take responsibility for the library as an institution. "The library and its fruits must exist 50 years from now, indeed a thousand years from now, for us to have fulfilled our mission".[5] "We are concerned with searching out and assuring the safe passage onward in time of that part of the "social transcript" that is worthy of standing as part of the library. If we do not do this, the culture of the present and past will be lost..."[6]

People of the future will know only that which we preserve. Allowing the records of the past to disappear is a kind of censorship. This important role must be at the forefront of any consideration of technological change.

The LMC as part of the greater network of library systems is a key to intellectual freedom and a good education for our clients. We preserve supporting all aspects of an education at Shoreline and make those records available to all.

Rule 5: Honor the Past and Create the Future:
We do not cling to old things because they are old. We do not discard old things because they are old. We want to be the library of tomorrow that retains not only the best of the past but also a sense of the history of our institutional surroundings. If we become purely reactive and a thing of the moment, we will be sometimes useful and sometimes not but never central to Shoreline College or its environment. With a sense of history and the knowledge of enduring values and the continuity of our mission, the library can never be destroyed. We must accept the challenges of innovation. We need to combine the past and the future in a rational, clear-headed, unsentimental manner.

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