A skills refocus for digital libraries?

Linda Ashcroft

Liverpool John Moores University

UK

‘Is the education of digital libraries adequate?’Yan Quan Liu

• survey analysed course syllibi relating to education for digital libraries in North America, Europe, Asia

• drastic increase in such courses over past 4 years

• balance of theory and technology• ‘the Technocrats’• ‘the Librarians-as Guides’

E-learning

• not only course syllibi for digital libraries, but new ways of delivery – e-learning

• students becoming used to working in the electronic environment

• student perceptions (Gregory)• staff attitudes (Newton)• which will influence delivery and student

assimilation

E-access

• even on-campus students access learning tools and info electronically– eg WebCT, Blackboard, remote access to library collections

• public libraries also delivering material electronically, eg– North Lanarkshire– community learning hub

• eg e-books– Park Ridge Public Library Chicago, US– London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, UK

Users and e-materials?

e-journals• now full text databases appreciated by many users• but after initial problems resolved, requiring skills

for addressing– relevance of bundles

– ease of access

– licences

– archives

Users and e-materials?

e-books

• some initial difficulties similar to e-journal situation

• relevance of bundles

• ease of access

• licences

E-book use

• Manatee County library– 20,000 titles via netLibrary, but only 70 titles

used in first 3 months

• Texas A & M University– about 70% of netLibrary titles used

• NoWAL consortium– about 80% use of 25% of netLibrary titles

E-resources - Take up?

• Google v quality resources

• how many clicks?

• Athens?– (JMU change)

• skills to make it easy for users to access quality resources

Digital reference 24 hour reference and partnerships

• 24 hour reference services increasing– partnerships between countries increasing to provide

these services

• University of Technology Sydney (UTS)– expansion as part of a global network of digital

reference partners

• Answers Now– UK, USA & Australia

• Global Librarian– UK & Canada

Digital referencethe question point model (www.questionpoint.org)

• web-based communication

• collaboration at heart of system

• network for global participation

• digital skills required

• but communication and collaboration skills vital

LIS education

• library educators increasing focus on digital environment (Liu)

• concentration on technology• dismissal of areas that don’t fit with technology

(Gorman)• important skills being neglected

– eg cataloguing & classification– but demanded in context of semantic Web?

Professional bodies

• ALA• accredits courses based on schools own vision &

mission rather than national standards• CILIP• does not stipulate precise requirement for course

content• considers the wide range of skills now needed

Professional associations

• requirements will vary from country to country

• very different if variation within country

• if professional associations do not have specify the same core skills or are ‘flexible’ in their approach, how can quality curricula design be developed on international basis?

Curricula and library practice

• changing curricula re diversity of information work

• education programmes becoming increasingly generalised

• variation between countries and within countries

• mismatch between curricula and employers’ expectations?

Traditional core skills

• analysing, evaluating, cataloguing information

• enquiry work

• user education

• training and facilitating

• customer service

All applicable in the digital environment

Collaboration skills

Consortia purchase• e-journals• now e-books and other e-resources• increases purchasing power• expertise sharing• but increases the number of different parties to

work with• requires good collaboration skills

Collaboration skills

Working with faculty

• Kingston University VLE

• Sesl initiative

• librarians working with faculty to develop e-collection across a range of disciplines

• group work to construct e-learning activity to embed in a course

Negotiation skills

• provision suitable for users of all consortia members?

• finance groups

• IT personnnel

• faculty

• professionals from other libraries

• e-resource suppliers

Communicationthe skill you can’t download

• yes, have to communicate online

• but also have to communicate with more and more players involved in the digital library scenario

• full range of communication skills need to be built into the curriculum

Communication skills requirementschallenges

• staff training (CPD)– at different levels – different requirements

• users – some remote – different groups will have different needs

• all other collaborators in library provision– each with different interests and concerns

• so wide range of communication skills required

Conclusions

• technology skills needed by digital librarians

• traditional core skills also required

• skills requirements for accreditation purposes?

• communications skills are vital