Education for Information

Throughout the hundred years history of education for librarianship some issues have been discussed again and again without agreement being reached. A number of these are quite central to the problem of education for a profession: the desirability (or otherwise) of professional schools; the control of education by professional bodies; theory vs. practice; fieldwork; the 'core' curriculum.

Since librarianship is making available and exploiting information for the benefit of people, librarians must know about information resources, about people, and about systems for linking resources and people. They need (1) basic abilities – literacy and numeracy; (2) organizational qualities, including vision, a questioning approach, perspective, problem-solving and analytical skills (which are essential), communication and social skills, political and economic skills, a sense of service and an ability to accept uncertainty; (3) ‘professional’ knowledge relevant to librarianship; and (4) practical library skills. ‘Professional’ knowledge can be fairly easily learnt, and skills can and must be acquired in practice. Literacy and numeracy, which are more basic, should be acquired at school, but may need to be further developed. Organizational qualities cannot be taught; they need cultivation in a good environment. Full-time one-off education, for which ‘professional’ pretensions requiring a qualification are largely responsible, is unsuited to developing any of these requirements; continuous learning and development are necessary. A broader course in Communication Studies could provide a background for various jobs as well as librarianship. Meanwhile, library education could be improved by several measures, mostly involving greater integration with practice. Library practitioners must also change their attitudes and practices.

A number of recent criticisms relating to education for library and information work are discussed. These criticisms are interpreted as centring on the level of 'meaningfulness' of such education, in terms of deep critical understanding; relevance of content to working practice; and development of personal qualities additional to narrower ‘tradition’ academic abilities. The author argues that despite the need for strong programmes of post-qualification study, and improved interaction between teachers, researchers and practitioners, a high value must be placed on good quality initial full-time education.

This paper discusses future developments in education for library and information science and the ways in which library schools will have to adapt their programmes.

Reviews with 25 years' hindsight four key articles originally published in Volume 1 of Education for Information in 1983, and discusses the extent to which they remain relevant in 2007.

The paper considers technological advances in relation to information education over the 25 years of existence of the journal, Education for Information. Some key developments before 1980 such as the appearance of MARC and library co-operatives are mentioned along with key post-1980 developments including networking, the World Wide Web, and digital image capturing. The introduction of these developments into the National Library of Scotland is briefly described. Reference is made to publications on activities arising from the sponsorship of research in information studies by the (then) British Library Research and Development Department in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Relevant articles in Education for Information are mentioned and particular reference made to the thematic issue on the Internet published in 1995. It is suggested that the editors should consider creating thematic issues on digital libraries and future online catalogues.