Peering into the mist and struggling through it – the education and training of the future information professional

Abstract

Guest-editorialPeering into the mist and struggling through it -the education and training of the future information professional A recent guest-editorial comment in 'Education for Information' challenged its readers to ask themselves whether they were producing students with up to date and relevant knowledge and skills [1]. Read over lunch in the office during what is laughably described as the Summer Vacation, it provoked an immediate reaction. Clearly, however, the response is one which needs to be addressed, not to the educators, but to practitioners. Hence its appearance in this joumaP, perhaps a fitting conclusion to my five year term on its Editorial Board.What I am not going to try to do is to discuss some of the changes affecting the profession. Everyone is well aware of the changes in the place of information in society; in the availability and sophistication of information technology; indeed, in the nature of the information and communication industry; and the added complexities these have brought to the task of maintaining and developing information services.What I would like to do is to outline some of the responses to these changes which are being made by the Schools of Information and Library Studies, particularly the Schools which I know best, in terms of: how we have been updating our curricula and courses to develop the technical competencies which are changing rapidly and increasingly important; -what we are doing or what we are about to do to meet the growing need for management and leadership skills; -what we still need to do, and -how practitioners will have to help us if they expect us to produce the kind of professional they would like to employ.

The changing educational needs of subject librarians: A survey of UK practitioner opinions and course content

“…CILIP [43] and the ALA [44] emphasise the importance of human and financial management skills for information professionals. With library budgets generally decreasing, Johnson stresses the increased need for academic library staff to have commercial awareness and marketing skills [29].…”

“…The growing popularity of the Web as a resource means students have access to information not formally approved by the library as reliable and suitable [2,29]. In addition, increased accessibility via technology has meant increased complexity of information retrieval [31,32].…”

“…Technology has led to students' changing expectations of the service they want and expect from the library [29][30]. Students increasingly want to be self-sufficient with their research, often without having to go to the library [9,30].…”

“…ALCTS claims that library courses should not focus on specific library tasks and the skills of the job, but should prepare students for a process of lifelong learning throughout their career, that is, continuing professional development (CPD) [41]. CPD is considered important because the fast-changing nature of academic librarianship means that skills constantly need to be updated [11,12,20,29,42]. CILIP [36] and the ALA [37] emphasise that undertaking CPD is a key part of the information profession, and for course accreditation they require evidence that this is promoted to students.…”

Educating the academic librarian as a blended professional: a review and case study

“…Although practitioners frequently claim that library educators are out of touch with the profession, many academics are keen to collaborate (notably through engaging practitioners as visiting lecturers/adjunct professors) and some education programmes are actually led and delivered by practitioners, typically via continuing/extended education departments (Heery, 1999;Johnson, 1997;Lynch, 2008). Heery (1999) describes the successful MSc established by UK practitioners in the south-west of England, while Lynch (2008) reports similar initiatives in the US.…”