This item is in: Chandos > Library management > Personal and staff development

Exploring Education For Digital Librarians: Meaning, modes and models

Susan Myburgh, Independent researcher, Australia and Italy and Anna Maria Tammaro, University of Parma, Italy

Chandos Information Professional Series

 - considers the ubiquitous misunderstanding that technology can replace libraries and librarians
 - provides a theoretical view of the field which can contribute awareness of dimensions of the dilemmas which the discipline/profession currently faces
 - presents a broad international perspective which provides a basis for a new model for LIS education
 - suggests a content model for both the knowledge base and the competencies that are presently needed

Exploring Education for Digital Librarians provides a refreshing perspective on the discipline and profession of Library and Information Science (LIS), with a focus on preparing students for careers as librarians who can deal with present and future digital information environments. A re-examination of the knowledge base of the field, combined with a proposed theoretical structure for LIS, provide the basis for this work, which also examines competencies for practice as well as some of the international changes in the nature of higher education. The authors finally suggest a model that could be used internationally to educate librarians for their new roles and social responsibilities in a digitised, networked world.

The twelve chapters of this book cover key issues in education for digital librarians, including: the necessity of regenerating the profession; current contexts; previous research on education for digital librarians; understanding the dimensions of the discipline and profession of librarianship, and the distinctions between them; the social purpose of librarianship as a profession and the theoretical framework which supports the practice of the profession; a brief analysis of curriculum design, pedagogies and teaching methods, and a glimpse of the proactive and important future role of librarianship in society.

Readership: This work is intended for anybody involved with education in the field of LIS, students in such programs and those who manage information enterprises.

£52.50 / US$90.00 / €65.00

An e-book version of this title is available to purchase as part of a Collection or Pick n Mix. Visit Chandos Publishing Online

About the authors

Susan Myburgh has recently retired from academia, having held positions at the University of Cape Town, the University of South Australia and the University of Parma. Her work has been diverse and inclusive, as she taught and conducted research in many areas of library and information science. This work represents something of a culmination of her examination of the field, where she adopts a philosophical approach to the possible future social responsibilities of information professionals.

Anna Maria Tammaro is currently Professor at the University of Parma, Italy. She is also Local Co-ordinator of the International Master’s in Digital Library Learning (DILL), Chair of IFLA Division IV, and an IFLA Governing Board member. Anna Maria has extensive experience in academic librarianship, having been the Librarian at the University of Florence and the University of Bologna, Italy.

Titles which may also be of interest:
Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Student Feedback in Engineering
Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Student Feedback in Social Sciences
Student Feedback
Active Learning Techniques for Librarians
Virtual Research Environments
Emerging Technologies for Knowledge Resource Management

Contents

Regeneration of the second oldest profession
 - Introduction
 - From books to ideas
 - DLs as socio-technical systems
 - Education for the information professions
 - What digital libraries can be
 - What digital librarians could do
 - Interpersonal activity
 - Decoders and interventionists
 - Digital knowledge creation and critical thinking
 - Interdisciplinarity
 - Conclusions
 - Notes

The influence of the current context
 - Context
 - Abbott and the professional context
 - What is a ‘profession’?
 - Context 1: the information society
 - Context 2: context of professions
 - Context 3: ICTs
 - Explaining ideologies
 - Conclusions
 - Notes

Previous research on education for DLs
 - The perplexed state of education for information work
 - Technology and education
 - DL courses currently offered
 - DL programmes in LIS and CS
 - Conclusions
 - Note

First things fourth
 - Unravelling long-standing ambiguities
 - What do librarians do?
 - Technical tasks
 - Purpose and processes
 - Hegemony
 - Selection
 - Access
 - Organisation of information resources
 - The social role of librarians and abstruse hegemony
 - Notes

Purposeful digital librarians
 - The activities of the digital librarian
 - LIS education and ideologies
 - Notes

No theory, no discipline = no profession
 - Notes towards solving these dilemmas
 - Theory and praxis
 - Distinction between theory and praxis
 - Disciplines
 - Neutrality of science
 - The information metacommunity
 - Multidisciplinary metacommunities and their metatheories
 - Developing an interdisciplinary metatheory
 - Digital library research and education is particularly interand multidisciplinary
 - Facilitating interdisciplinary work
 - Notes

Constructing a theoretical framework
 - The purpose of a theoretical framework
 - Steps of theory construction
 - Step 1: clarifi cation of the axiological position of the researcher(s)
 - Step 2: nomos, or ‘existing situation’
 - Step 3: existing theories examined and tested teleologically
 - Step 4: lexical register and conceptual identifi cation
 - Step 5: development of alternative conceptual models in an ontology
 - Step 6: taxonomy of information professions
 - Step 7: model tested against purpose/teleological assumptions
 - Conclusions
 - Notes

Designing curricula
 - Changes in LIS education
 - Didactics
 - Epistemological approaches to curriculum design
 - Creative industries
 - Cultural institutions
 - Interdisciplinarity

Aims and outcomes
 - Curriculum aims
 - Professional philosophy and phronesis
 - Results and effects of the curriculum
 - Competencies and skills
 - Graduate qualities
 - International equivalences
 - Internationalisation
 - Notes

Pedagogies and teaching methods
 - Teaching and learning
 - Use of ICTs in education
 - Social responsibilities of higher education
 - Epistemological frameworks for learning
 - Social constructivism
 - Social constructionism
 - Connectivism
 - Three common modes of teaching/learning
 - Critical pedagogy as heutagogical
 - The Socratic method
 - Online learning and heutagogy
 - Education, culture and internationalisation
 - Digital and critical literacy, critical thinking

Content and structure
 - Substance and speculation
 - Theoretical framework
 - Human information behaviour
 - Knowledge creation
 - Representation of information: language and linguistics
 - Evaluation of information: interpretation, meaning and critical information literacy
 - Evaluating information economically
 - Technology and other ‘stuff’
 - Level of programme
 - Structure
 - Metacommunity
 - Core
 - Notes

A bright future
 - The past and the future
 - Libraries and freedom of thought
 - Democracy and social role
 - Metacommunity and agreement
 - Changed service model
 - Evaluation of the social role of librarians
 - New profile
 - Research for the future