Year: 1994
Type: editorial
Abstract: Not so long ago, schools of library science or librarianship, as they were then called, had a widely perceived and understood mission -to educate students for professional posts in libraries of various kinds.Debate might take place about the detailed content of the curriculum (constructed around the tripartite themes of bibliographic control, organisation of information and management), but on its general thrust ruled a consensus.Jobs were plentiful and graduates from the schools entered them with the intention of a life-long career in librarianship.This simple picture began to change as the importance of information in decisionmaking became appreciated and information services were seen as something which could take place outside of libraries.This was accompanied by the introduction of computers to information storage, retrieval and dissemination.Initially these developments augered well for librarianship and the library schools which supplied their professional personnel.Technology was widely perceived as raising the status of librarians, and an "emerging market" for the information literate outside of libraries was identified.Graduates with information skills, it was argued, would be in demand for positions in the corporate environment where salaries and status would be higher than libraries could afford.Debate swirled around the precise definition of "emerging market" and its actual size in employment terms, but for many it seemed to offer exciting and profitable outlets for the students streaming from a growing number of library schools.The term "information" was rapidly included in the names of schools and their programs.Even during these days of optimism, warnings were sounded.Some queried the reality of this new market, at least as a significant increment to existing posts in academic, special and public libraries.Others warned that the lure of such posts, especially if linked to information technology, would attract marauders from other fields such as management and computer science.It was also pointed out that while technology in its early stages required expertise to control it, in the longer term technological developments might simplify tasks so that end users (another new term) could find information for themselves without the intervention of an information intermediary: "anyone can push a button".These concerns have proven justified.The emerging market for most schools has not emerged very fully.It seems probable that a majority of students graduating from programs in library and information science will find jobs in libraries.At the same time, competition for those jobs that have materialised in information management and information technology is coming from the products of management and compu-
Source: Education for Information
Author: Andrew Large
Language: English
Subfield: Library and Information Sciences
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4252327641