Question posed to The Ethicist (NYT):
[quote] In my research of a musician who died, I discovered that she dissembled about her age, making herself five years younger. Her secret was supported by her husband, who gave the false information to her obituary writer and had the wrong dates engraved on her gravestone. Now that the husband has passed, too, their papers were acquired by a major university, and the false birth date appears in the catalog.
[quote] As a librarian, I strongly believe that information in a library and other authoritative sources should be accurate, and for this reason I am considering forwarding the documentation I discovered to the university so that it can make the correction. It’s obvious to me, however, that neither the musician nor her husband would have ever wanted this secret to be revealed, and so my question is whether it is more ethical, in respect of their wishes, for me to just let it be.