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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Line, Maurice B.
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ792999
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author Line, Maurice B.
author_facet Line, Maurice B.
Line, Maurice B.
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Requirements for Library and Information Work and the Role of Library Education Line, Maurice B. Librarians Employment Qualifications Higher Education Information Scientists Job Skills Library Education Library Schools Library Science 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. [To mark the 25th Anniversary edition of "Education for Information", editors re-visited articles published in the inaugural issue "to look again at them through the telescopic lens of a quarter century and to ponder how much has changed and how much has remained constant in educational issues relating to information studies." This article is a reprint of EJ314105.]
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ792999
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2007
record_format eric
spellingShingle Requirements for Library and Information Work and the Role of Library Education
Line, Maurice B.
Librarians
Employment Qualifications
Higher Education
Information Scientists
Job Skills
Library Education
Library Schools
Library Science
Requirements for Library and Information Work and the Role of Library Education Line, Maurice B. Librarians Employment Qualifications Higher Education Information Scientists Job Skills Library Education Library Schools Library Science 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. [To mark the 25th Anniversary edition of "Education for Information", editors re-visited articles published in the inaugural issue "to look again at them through the telescopic lens of a quarter century and to ponder how much has changed and how much has remained constant in educational issues relating to information studies." This article is a reprint of EJ314105.]
title Requirements for Library and Information Work and the Role of Library Education
topic Librarians
Employment Qualifications
Higher Education
Information Scientists
Job Skills
Library Education
Library Schools
Library Science
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ792999