This time of year (and this year, especially) the pressure may be on at libraries to address patrons’ New Year’s Resolutions to get fit. With many libraries shut down and COVID-19 cases on the rise, more libraries might be tempted to offer virtual fitness programming using fitness tracking devices. In my Introduction to this series, I wrote that public libraries should pause before implementing fitness tracking programming for their patrons.

As part of my coursework for Ethical Decision Making in Information Practices at Rutgers University, I explored the ethical dilemma: should public libraries act as public health initiative sites to address the obesity epidemic? In examining this question, I focused on one responses found within public libraries: designing fitness programming using fitness tracking devices. For one example see Illinois Library 2019’s walkathon.  

Let’s take a look at a classical ethical framework’s response to this dilemma: Kantian ethics. Librarians using Kantian ethics should look for a categorical imperative and ask, “Do public libraries have a duty to intervene in a health crises, such as the obesity epidemic?”

Whether or not you think they do, many libraries appear to use the lenses of duty and responsibility to advocate for fitness programming in response to the obesity epidemic. The research on fitness initiatives at public libraries frequently notes that such initiatives address “sedentary behavior,” the “obesity crisis,” “shocking” statistics about physical fitness and obesity in young people (From: Belben, Cathy. 2002. “How Library Media Specialists Can Promote Physical Fitness.” Book Report 21 (3): 28–30.), and “the pandemic of physical inactivity” (Lenstra, 2018 quoting, Kohl et al. 2012, 294). These articles rest on the premise that there is a “responsibility” to address the obesity crisis (Belben, 2002).  

Patrons may also see the decision to take up a fitness tracking to lose weight in similar terms. The Illinois Public Library (2019) presents participating in their step-tracking walkathon as a duty to yourself and others, writing “REMEMBER…Do This for You! Do this to feel good and to be a better and healthier parent, spouse, friend, and co-worker…they all need you around and at your best.”  

Kantian ethics, like many classical ethical frameworks, can be a bit like an equation. There’s a right answer and it applies in all cases. According to these frameworks the details and context of decision-making are irrelevant. There is or isn’t a duty and it’s true in all cases.

But before we dismiss context as meaningless, we should take a beat to examine the context that created the so-called obesity epidemic and how this context influences our potential responses. In my next post in this series I will explore neoliberalism and the related concept of neutrality as they relate to the obesity epidemic.