[Library and Information Science] Library and Information Science Trends and Research Volume 2 || Chapter 3 Keeping Current: The Evolution of Postgraduate Library and Information Studies

Chapter 3

Keeping Current: The Evolution of

Postgraduate Library and Information

Studies Education in New Zealand

Brenda Chawner and Gillian Oliver

Abstract

New Zealand postgraduate library and information studies qualifica-tions have undergone a process of continual revision since the firsttraining school for librarians was established in 1946. This chapterbegins with an overview of the history of postgraduate library studiesqualifications in New Zealand. It continues with a discussion of theestablishment of qualifications for record keepers (archivists andrecords managers), followed by a description of the most recentdevelopments, which established a generic Master of InformationStudies qualification, and the associated Postgraduate Certificate andDiploma of Information Studies. It concludes with a discussion of thevarious drivers for these changes, and the ways in which therelationships between the various professional associations andinterest groups and the education providers have evolved.

3.1. Introduction

‘The profession of librarianship is undergoing changes and developmentsquite as dramatic as those in other professions’ (New Zealand WorkingParty on Education of Librarianship, 1969, p. 10). This statement, made

Library and Information Science Trends and Research: Asia-Oceania

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48 Brenda Chawner and Gillian Oliver

over 40 years ago, could be applied equally well to library education in NewZealand in 2010. Graduates of the first postgraduate librarianshipprogramme, which was set up as part of the Country Library Service in1946, would have found it hard to foresee the situation in 2010, withprogrammes delivered through Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP)-basedaudio conferencing to students throughout New Zealand and, in some cases,around the globe. In addition, as the management of organisational recordsbecame more formalised, with associated implications for long-term archivalstorage and preservation, the scope of the qualifications broadened toincorporate records and archives management.

New Zealand is an island nation, located in the Pacific Oceanapproximately 2000 kilometres south-west of Australia. Its land area isslightly larger than the United Kingdom, spread over two main islands lyingalong a north-north-east axis. The country was first settled by Maoriroughly 1000 years ago; European settlers, predominately from the UnitedKingdom, arrived starting in the early 1800s. By 2010 the population hadreached over 4.3 million people, with English the main language. In its earlyyears, New Zealand was a crown colony of the British Empire, becomingself-governing in 1856. It retained close ties to the United Kingdom formany years.

New Zealand’s geographic isolation and its population distribution, aswell as its history, mean that formal qualifications in library andinformation management started relatively late in comparison with othercountries such as Great Britain and the United States. Ronnie (1996)presented a detailed history of the development of library, recordkeepingand archives education in New Zealand from its beginnings at the firstLibraries Association of New Zealand (LANZ) conference in 1910 throughto the Barron report in 1994. The following sections begin with a discussionof the development of postgraduate library qualifications, followed by asimilar overview of qualifications for records managers and archivists. Thisis followed by a description of the most recent changes, which created threepostgraduate information studies qualifications, with optional specialisa-tions in library science and/or archives and records management.

3.2. Librarianship

3.2.1. Librarianship: The Early Years

Ronnie noted that issues relating to practical training and professionaleducation were discussed at the first three LANZ meetings, which were heldin 1910, 1911 and 1926, but that no training was available locally until the

Postgraduate Library and Information Studies Education in New Zealand 49

late 1930s (1996, pp. 3–6). Before this, the only options available toNew Zealand librarians seeking a formal qualification was to travel over-seas, or to take the examinations set by the Library Association in Londonas a correspondence student. In 1934, Ralph Munn, director of the CarnegieLibrary in Pittsburgh, and John Barr, chief librarian of the Auckland PublicLibraries, conducted a review of libraries in New Zealand. This review wassponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, at the request ofLANZ, which had realised that ‘library development in New Zealand hasnot kept pace with that in Great Britain, the United States, and other partsof the world’ (Munn & Barr, 1934, p. iii). In addition to reviewing all typesof libraries, Munn and Barr also discussed library education, saying that‘[m]eans must be devised to raise the general and professional educationalstandards of librarians and assistant librarians’ (1934, p. 66). They recom-mended that public libraries in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch setup a local apprenticeship scheme for ‘country librarians’.

In addition, they endorsed the practice of relying on overseasqualifications, suggesting that salary increases be dependent on ‘satisfactoryprogress towards fuller training’ (p. 66). In 1937, the New Zealand LibraryAssociation (NZLA, a renamed LANZ) established a training committee,which concluded that the limited employment opportunities for profession-ally qualified librarians in New Zealand did not justify setting up a libraryschool (Ronnie, 1996, p. 6). It instead recommended that training courses berun in the four main centres, which were Auckland, Wellington,Christchurch and Dunedin (McEldowney, 1962, p. 45). The intendedaudience for these courses was students just starting their careers, and thosewho completed the full programme would receive an NZLA certificate. Thisprogramme began in 1942 and was taught primarily by correspondence(New Zealand Working Party on the Education of Librarianship, 1969,p. 14).

Although this initiative did provide a means to train library assistants, itdid not address the need for a postgraduate qualification that would preparegraduates for senior positions. The initial plans for the NZLA certificatealso included an option that would allow its graduates to progress throughto a Diploma (McEldowney, 1962, p. 47). However, this was never offered,partly because there were few qualified librarians available to teach a moreadvanced programme, and partly because the New Zealand Library Schoolwas established as a division of the Country Library Service in 1946(Ronnie, 1996, p. 14).

In 1944 the NZLA training committee approached the New Zealandgovernment with the suggestion that an ‘intensive training’ facility be set upin Wellington, under the direction of Miss M. P. Parsons, to offer a graduatequalification in librarianship. This change in attitude was brought about inpart by serendipity — Miss Parsons was the new Director of the United


States Information Service in Wellington, and she had previously taught inCanada, France and the United States (Ronnie, 1996, p. 29). The membersof the training committee saw this as an opportunity to make a case for anew qualification in librarianship, and approached the government forfunding to set up a library school. Their approach was successful, with thefirst students starting the Diploma programme in 1946. Applicants wererequired to hold a university degree, in contrast to the NZLA certificate,which was intended for students who had completed secondary school. Formany years the NZLA Certificate and the NZLS Diploma were the mainqualifications available for New Zealand library staff who wanted toimprove their career prospects.

During the 1950s and 1960s the New Zealand Library School continuedto be based in the Country Library Service. By 1956, 189 graduates heldsenior positions in public, university and special libraries (Ronnie, 1996,p. 32). However, even at that time the staff of the school were criticised fornot undertaking advanced research (Alley, quoted in Ronnie, 1996, p. 32),which may have been one of the reasons delegates to the NZLA’s 1960conference proposed that the Diploma programme move to a university(McEldowney, 1962, p. 59). McEldowney noted that this proposal wasnarrowly defeated, but suggested that such a shift would be in the long-terminterests of the profession (1962, p. 59). He also reported that discussionsabout the desirability of transferring the graduate programme to auniversity [specifically Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)] continuedthrough the 1960s, culminating in the establishment of the New ZealandWorking Party on Education for Librarianship in 1969 (Ronnie, 1996,p. 37). Its purpose was to ‘report to the Minister on the present facilitiesemployed in education for librarianship and on any changes deemednecessary for fully effective provision of the library needs of New Zealandhaving regard for available resources and the cost of alternative measures’(New Zealand Working Party on Education for Librarianship, 1969, p. 7).

The Working Party’s report recommended that the government create anautonomous New Zealand College of Librarianship, possibly located in thenew National Library complex. It also suggested that the programmesavailable to New Zealand library staff be extended from the existingCertificate and Diploma. This would initially involve adding an advancedcourse, taught in association with a university, which built on the Diplomato take its graduates to a full Master’s qualification, complemented byadding a new programme for school librarians. The Working Party alsorecognised the need for continuing education by suggesting that a dedicatedCollege of Librarianship would be able to run a more extensive programmeof short courses and seminars than currently available (New ZealandWorking Party on Education for Librarianship, 1969, p. 45). Ronniedescribed the Working Party’s report as a ‘landmark document’, even


though its major recommendations were never implemented (1996, p. 41).By outlining the history and development of the two existing qualifications,describing the types of positions currently filled by qualified librarians,identifying projected future needs for qualified library staff, and presentingrecommendations for course content, the report provided a sound basis forthe subsequent discussions that took place in the following decade.

3.2.2. Librarianship: The 1970s

In 1970, VUW began working on a proposal to set up a Department ofLibrarianship (Ronnie, 1996, p. 43). Although this first proposal failed togain government funding, discussions between various interested parties(National Library of New Zealand, NZLA, VUW, and various governmentrepresentatives) continued through the 1970s. As a result of thesediscussions, the Minister of Education announced in 1978 that a newDepartment of Librarianship would be established at VUW, with the firststudents accepted in 1980 (Ronnie, 1996, pp. 54–55). This marked the end ofthe first stage of New Zealand postgraduate library education. The Diplomawas by then well-established as the minimum requirement for senior librarymanagers, moved from a practitioner-driven environment to a moreacademic one. One of the drivers for this change was a desire to raise thequantity and quality of library-related research undertaken in New Zealand,which was clearly identified in the Working Party’s report (1969, p. 35).


In its first year, the VUW Department of Librarianship offered a singlequalification, the postgraduate Diploma in Librarianship (DipLibr).Initially all students were expected to complete the qualification in a singleacademic year (i.e., two trimesters). The first part-time students wereaccepted in 1984, with two years to complete the qualification (Ronnie,1996, p. 58). At the same time, the NZLA set up a working group toconsider whether the DipLibr should be offered by distance, to allow peoplewho were unable to move to Wellington to undertake the programme.Although this first initiative was unsuccessful, acknowledging the need fordistance options meant that the topic continued to be discussed.

In 1981, a Master of Arts in Librarianship and a PhD were introduced.These research-based qualifications were initially designed for graduateswith some professional experience, with the intention of promoting researchgrounded in practice (Ronnie, 1996, p. 59). Unlike the DipLibr, these


students were allowed to enrol as distance students, rather than being basedin Wellington.

The NZLA continued to have a connection with the new programmesthrough its representative on the Department’s advisory committee and theJoint Advisory Committee on Librarianship (JACL). JACL was a stand-alone committee set up to oversee both levels of library education in NewZealand, with members representing NZLA, the National Library, the twolibrary schools,1 and the wider profession (Ronnie, 1996, p. 57). JACLplayed a significant role in the next step in the DipLibr’s evolution, when itarranged for Wilfred Saunders, an eminent British library educator, to visitNew Zealand in order to ‘carry out an evaluation of the University’sDepartment of Librarianship and of the Teachers’ College School of LibraryStudies’ (Saunders, 1987, p. 1).

The Saunders Report, as it is usually termed, assessed the NZLSCertificate, the DipLibr, and the MA in Librarianship, covering all aspectsof the programmes, including:

� Programme structure and length� Course content� Delivery mode(s)� Assessment� Staffing

Saunders found that the DipLibr was ‘firmly established as the basicprofessional qualification for librarianship’ (1987, p. 9). While some ofSaunders’ recommendations were easy to implement, such as changing thename of the department from ‘librarianship’, which implied a limited scope,to the broader ‘library and information studies’, others were morecontroversial. His suggestion that a two-year programme was ideal wasfelt to be impractical for the New Zealand context, but his recommendationto increase the length of the study year was implemented in the 1989academic year (Ronnie, 1996, p. 63). By 1992 a revised curriculum based onthe Saunders report was in place; this included a compulsory course onResearch Methods, and an elective course giving an introduction to archivesmanagement.

However, the recommendation that had the most impact on the way inwhich the DipLibr was delivered was that ‘the principle of offering libraryand information education in its various forms by the Extramural/Distance

1. The NZLA Certificate programme had also undergone changes. In 1980 it moved from the

New Zealand. Library School to the Wellington Teachers’ College, meaning that there were

now two institutions providing library education in New Zealand.


learning route be accepted and that steps be taken as quickly as possible tobring about its implementation’ (Saunders, 1987, p. 51). Saunders noted thatthis topic was raised by many of the people he interviewed as part of hisreview, and suggested that an option to study for the DipLibr by distancewould be well-supported. His view was confirmed by the NZLA’s submissionto JACL on the Saunders Report, which says ‘There was very vigoroussupport for the ability to study the Diploma extra murally’ (1987, p. 5).


Setting up a distance education programme requires an investment ofconsiderable time and resources, and it took several years before there wassignificant progress towards offering a distance option for the DipLibr. In1990, Alan Richardson, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Library andInformation Studies, undertook a study of distance education initiatives inCanada and the United Kingdom. While his report did not make a definitiverecommendation to proceed with a distance option, he did say ‘we would beoffering education to people who would not otherwise get it’ (1990, p. 15).The Department subsequently investigated various options for deliveringthe course by distance, and in 1992 chose to offer a distance option basedon the University of Otago’s model. This involved providing distancestudents with course books that included lecture notes and readings,complemented by three-hour weekly tutorial sessions (Ronnie, 1996, p. 69).In the first years of the distance programme, students attended the tutorialsessions at regional University of Otago teleconference sites. When theUniversity of Otago discontinued this service, the Department changed to ateleconferencing system offered by Telecom, New Zealand’s main providerof telephone services.

In 1993, the Department of Library and Information Studies, incooperation with the United States Information Agency, commissionedDr Dan Barron, then a professor at the University of South Carolina, toevaluate the new distance programme (Ronnie, 1996, p. 72). The subsequentBarron report made a number of recommendations for the distanceprogramme and the DipLibr. His overall assessment was positive, saying‘the DLIS has accomplished all that it set out to do with its distanceeducation programme’ (1994, p. 15). However, Barron also had a number ofsuggestions for improvement; beginning with the recommendation thedepartment implement a taught Master’s degree as soon as possible, to bemore comparable with overseas qualifications.

The department acted on this recommendation swiftly — in 1996, it phasedout the 120-point DipLibr, replacing it with a 180-point MLIS (Master ofLibrary and Information Studies) (Richardson & Oliver, 2000, p. 26). This


new qualification could be completed in three trimesters (one academic year),or in up to three years on a part-time basis. Its curriculum was closer to thestandard North American Master’s qualification, in order to providegraduates with more flexibility in their subsequent careers (Richardson &Oliver, 2000, p. 27). It extended the previous DipLibr programme byincluding a compulsory 30-point research project, and an additional twocourses. Previous graduates who held the DipLibr could upgrade theirqualification to an MLIS by completing an additional 60 points, whichinvolved two courses and a research project.

The initial version of the MLIS programme required students to takenine compulsory courses, covering all aspects of librarianship, includinginformation and society, cataloguing, reference, management, researchmethods, and applications of information technology. Students chose oneelective to complete their programme, from courses that included the art ofthe book, law librarianship, health information, children’s literature, recordsmanagement, archives management, and New Zealand information sources.Increasing specialisation in library positions advertised in New Zealand ledto requests from students to have more flexibility in choosing their electives.This led to the first significant change to the MLIS programme structure. In1999, a proposal to reduce the number of compulsory courses to six, andmake the cataloguing, advanced reference, and library management courseselectives was developed. The most controversial aspect of the change relatedto cataloguing, which some practitioners felt should be part of all librarians’professional education. However, metadata and information retrieval werestill compulsory, and since all students had the opportunity to take thecataloguing elective, the proposal was approved, with the new structureimplemented in the academic year beginning in March 2000.


Once the MLIS was established as the main postgraduate qualification forlibrarianship, the rate of change to qualifications slowed, and there was agradual lessening of interest in the research MA degree. This qualification isstill offered, but numbers have markedly declined. In the four-year periodfor 1994–1997, 12 students completed an MA thesis, with just a further eightfrom 2000–2010. In contrast, 41 students graduated from the MLIS in 2010alone. This period has also seen an increasing emphasis on ensuring that themodes used to deliver the programme matched the needs of the increasinglydiverse student body.

In late 1999, the staff of the programme had realised that a significantproportion (roughly 30%) of the distance students were based in Auckland.The distance programme structure was therefore amended to take advantage


of this. An ‘Auckland’ mode was established for the six core courses in theMLIS, initially based at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT)(Millen, 2010, p. 207). Rather than using audio conferencing for theirclasses, students from the greater Auckland region met on a weekly basis forsynchronous classes facilitated by an Auckland-based tutor, with lecturerstravelling to Auckland twice each term for extended face-to-face classes.After several years, the venue for the Auckland classes changed to the OpenPolytechnic’s Auckland facilities, and later to the Auckland City Libraries’training facilities at the Auckland Central Library.

The MLIS was an early adopter of the Blackboard Web-based learningsystem when it was implemented at VUW in 2003. Each course in the MLISprogramme had a Blackboard site, used to supplement the hard copy coursenotes and readings. These included discussion forums, Web links, andassignment submission facilities. This allowed teaching staff to have a singleenvironment to communicate with both distance and internal students, andalso extended students’ abilities to communicate with each other. Over time,the available options were extended to include student journals and wikis,which were used in some courses to give students experience with these newWeb-based tools.

In 2003, due to a change in the pricing structure for teleconferencing thatwould have significantly increased the cost of the teleconferencing sessions,the School of Information Management (the department’s successor as aresult of a reorganisation at VUW) adopted a VoIP system that allowedstudents to study from any Internet-connected personal computer. Oneother technology-related change took place in 2006, when the paper coursebooks were replaced with CD-ROMs containing course notes and readings.

In 2004, the School of Information Management became a foundingmember of the WISE (Web-based Information Science Education)Consortium (http://wiseeducation.org/). This was set up to providecollaborative distance education to member institutions’ students, and onebenefit to the MLIS programme was access to a greater range of electives fortheir students. Although the number of elective courses offered hadgradually been extended, including courses on electronic publishing,preservation management, and digital libraries, among others, the size ofthe programme and its relatively small number of academic staff (8.5 FTE)meant that some topics, such as music librarianship, could not be offered.By joining the WISE Consortium, MLIS students had access to a muchwider range of courses, and the increasing sophistication of Web-basedcourse delivery platforms meant that New Zealand’s geographic isolationwas no longer a barrier for student participation in these courses.

Part of VUW’s standard programme evaluation process involves anexternal review, generally held every seven years. The 2004 MLIS externalreview made a number of recommendations to improve the programme. The

http://wiseeducation.org/


most significant of these was the need for a formal curriculum review, sincethe overall MLIS programme structure had changed little since the firstversion. However, this was delayed until the details of LIANZA’s professionregistration were finalised, since part of this scheme involved defining a‘body of professional knowledge’ that LIANZA considered to be aprerequisite for registration. If the MLIS curriculum had been revisedwithout a good understanding of LIANZA’s expectations, there was a riskthat a subsequent revision would be needed.

In any case, in 2007, LIANZA pre-empted this review by arranging anindependent assessment of how well the existing MLIS curriculum coveredthe new body of knowledge. This assessment, carried out by Ian Loveseyand Marion Huckle of CILIP (Council of Library and InformationProfessionals, the renamed British Library Association), showed that mostof the body of knowledge was covered in the MLIS, with only a few gaps.Unlike the previous Saunders and Barron reports, the Lovesey and Hucklereport was unpublished, although staff of the MLIS programme had anopportunity to comment on their findings before the final report wassubmitted to LIANZA.

Following on from this review, staff of the MLIS programme met for aformal curriculum review in late 2008. The outcome of this review isdiscussed in Section 3.5.

3.3. Records and Archives Management Education

Education for records and archives management in New Zealand has had apatchy and chequered history in comparison with education for librarian-ship. This is reflected in the reviews undertaken of this sector by overseasexperts in each of the final three decades of the twentieth century, discussedin more detail in the following sections. Mary Ronnie attributed this latestart to the fact that records managers and archivists were not representedby a special interest group until the 1970s (Ronnie, 1996, p. 141).

3.3.1. Records and Archives Management: The 1970s

In 1978 the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (ARANZ)commissioned the first of these reviews, which resulted in a report onarchives in New Zealand from Dr Wilfred Smith, the Dominion Archivist atthe Public Archives of Canada (W. Smith, 1978). The scope of the reportwas much broader than just education, but it did include importantrecommendations that were related to education. At the time of Dr Smith’svisit, and for some years afterwards, there were no educational opportunities


locally for archivists. Consequently those individuals desiring a formalqualification had to study overseas. The two options were UniversityCollege London (UCL) and the University of New South Wales. RosemaryCollier described her experiences at UCL, noting that some componentswere just not relevant to the New Zealand context (Collier, 1974). Similarly,the University of New South Wales course required significant backgroundin Australian history (Hoare, 1978, p. 40), which was also not especiallyrelevant to New Zealand archivists.

Wilfred Smith noted the lack of consensus amongst the New Zealandarchives community as regards preferences for an education programme forarchivists. His final recommendation was for a six week course to beestablished by VUW. Students were envisaged as those already inemployment, as it was indicated that employers should provide leave withpay to support attendance. The recommendation also specified that thegovernment should support an annual scholarship for a single archivist toattend the University of New South Wales diploma course, that shortercourses should be developed by ARANZ and finally that consideration begiven to ‘an eventual postgraduate course in archives at a New Zealanduniversity’ (W. Smith, 1978, p. 31).

At this early stage, key factors influencing recommendations werepotential student numbers and viability. The New Zealand postgraduatequalification was therefore perceived as being a long-term goal because therewere few employment opportunities and therefore limited incentives forenrolment. Likewise the University of New South Wales course wasrecommended partly due to the perceived need to increase its viability(W. Smith, 1978, pp. 30–31). No similar formal requirements were specifiedfor records management, however, as this was perceived as an area wheretraining, rather than education was necessary. W. Smith identified thatcourses were essential in order to ensure uniformity of practice, andrecommended that these courses should be offered by the national archivalauthority in conjunction with the State Services Commission (SSC) ‘with acertificate for successful completion’ (W. Smith, 1978, p. 31). Following thepresentation of the Smith report, ARANZ held a seminar in Wellington todiscuss its findings and recommendations, involving about 100 attendees(Patterson, 1978). Perspectives from records managers presented at thisseminar are particularly relevant to this consideration of education andtraining.

In New Zealand, records management had traditionally been viewed as agovernment activity, with training carried out from at least the 1960s by twoofficers at the then National Archives. Responsibility for training thenpassed to the SSC, and the Smith recommendation for a collaborativeapproach to training on the part of these two agencies was not viewed withfavour by the Ministry of Defence records manager, Ken Tall (1978).


Another view was presented by Ian Matheson, representing local govern-ment records management (1978). Discussion following these two papers isnoteworthy as it foreshadowed the current theoretical divergence betweenlife-cycle and continuum perspectives to recordkeeping. One faction wasintent on promoting records management as a profession in its own right,and in so doing emphasising the need for separation from archivalinfluences. The other recognised the need for a single, unified system ofmanagement, as ‘[f]iles only died gradually’ (Discussion, 1978, p. 29).

Thus even at this early stage, a key inhibiting factor for the development ofrecords and archives education is apparent. Trying to raise the status ofrecords management, and arguing for its acceptance as a ‘separate profession’must have had a detrimental impact on those all important student numbers,and therefore the viability of any proposed course. These tensions persisted,with the split between the two endorsed by the later recommendations of thefinal overseas expert engaged to review the New Zealand situation, GeraldHam (1993). His report is discussed more fully below.


A decade after the Smith report, Ray Grover suggested that the only viableoption for New Zealand was a professional education programme whichcovered archives management, records management, computerisation andspecial librarianship. He argued convincingly for the need to produceprofessionals able to manage both current and archival records, given NewZealand’s small population and limited employment opportunities (Grover,1987). The later years of this decade saw another report, this time solelyfocused on records management. In 1986, the SSC, in co-operation with theNational Archives, sponsored a review of records management in the publicsector by a review team led by Patricia Acton, a Canadian consultant.

Acton described records management education as being primarily aquestion of learning on the job, supplemented by a few seminars (ActonInformation Resources Management Ltd, 1986). Two typical seminars tookplace the following year, sponsored by a combination of the archival authority,ARANZ and Victoria University (Records Management Courses, 1986).Numbers of attendees were not given, but it was noted that the seminars wereoversubscribed, and that some applicants had to be turned away.

The major finding of the Acton Report relating to education was that

records staff are inadequately trained, under-utilised, andtheir importance to effective and efficient records managementis generally not recognised. (Marr, 1987, p. 11)


with corresponding recommendations that

The importance of the role of qualified records staff berecognised, that comprehensive training courses be developed,and that a records career be established by reviewing staffgrades. (Marr, 1987, p. 12)

Alan Smith provided insight into the fate of the report, which was badlytimed in terms of wider government restructuring and shifting responsibilitiesfor records management oversight (A. Smith, 1991). The report however mayhave helped in the establishment of the two records management coursesnoted by our next overseas expert at theAuckland Institute of Technology andthe College of Accelerated Learning in Wellington (Ham, 1993, p. 7).

The review of library education carried out by Wilfred Saunders one yearlater was not favourable for records and archives education. From 1984,VUW offered an archives elective on an intermittent basis when studentnumbers were sufficient (Anonymous, 1987). Saunders’ recommendationswere that this option should continue to be offered as an elective in theDipLibr if resources permitted, implying that records management trainingwas more appropriate for the lower level certificate course (Saunders, 1987,p. 55). Not surprisingly these recommendations were not received withfavour by the recordkeeping community:

Archives and records management are not poor cousins to betagged on to library courses ‘if resources permit’. They areseparate disciplines, requiring specialist professional training.They are proper components of an information managementcourse, not some obscure branch of librarianship to be dealtwith in a minor option (Anonymous, 1987). In 1987, ARANZplanned a further review of archives education. A steeringcommittee was assembled, and a chair (Professor Colin Davisof Massey University) was appointed. However, this reviewwas cancelled as a result of ‘a disagreement with NationalArchives over the nature of its participation and the short timeavailable for the completion of the review’. (Strachan, 1987)


By the 1990s, the level of activity in terms of education was such that StuartStrachan commented that ‘[e]ducational opportunism has become rife’(Strachan, 1994, p. 3). He was referring to a seeming proliferation ofcourses — a Certificate in Archives Management at Wairarapa Community


Polytechnic, the archives elective that was part of Victoria University’spostgraduate Diploma in Librarianship, and Auckland Institute ofTechnology’s Certificate in Records Management. However, Strachan alsonoted that New Zealand lagged behind Australia, Europe and NorthAmerica in that the country was still without locally appropriate ‘highquality professional education’ (Strachan, 1994, p. 6).

The occasion for Stuart Strachan’s comments was a seminar todiscuss recommendations made by New Zealand’s final visiting expert:Dr F. Gerald Ham, Wisconsin State Archivist. His visit was sponsored byARANZ. Ham’s principle recommendations were for a postgraduatequalification for archives management, and an undergraduate levelcertificate for records management. He specifically argued against acertificate level course for archivists, which Strachan concurred with:

While the NZLA Certificate and its successors may well havetheir place in New Zealand librarianship, they also have theirdifficulties which archivists simply cannot afford to replicatein their much smaller profession. (Strachan, 1994, p. 9)

Given this lack of support from the archives establishment for under-graduate education, the Wairarapa Polytechnic certificate was probablydoomed from the outset, and it did in fact only run from 1991 to 1994 (Collier,1999). It is noteworthy that the head of Victoria University’s library studiesprogramme had emphasised the lesser nature of their archives elective incomparison to theWairarapa qualification (Richardson, 1991). Nevertheless,it seems that archives education at postgraduate level was perceived by theNew Zealand archival community as the only acceptable option.


It was not until 2004 that New Zealand had two postgraduate qualificationoptions in recordkeeping. VUW introduced both a Certificate and aDiploma in Archives and Records Management (PGCertArcRec andPGDipArcRec). Both qualifications could be studied full or part time, oncampus or by distance (Lilburn, 2003). Between 2005 and 2010, 27 studentscompleted the PGCertArcRec, and 17 the PGDipArcRec. The enrolmentnumbers were steady and ensured that these programmes were ongoing, butthey did not suggest that a dedicated master’s programme would be viable.The courses that comprised these qualifications were also available to MLISstudents as electives, and many MLIS graduates chose one or both of thearchives and records management courses as electives, which gave them thebackground to work in wither recordkeeping or library positions.


3.4. Collaboration in Curriculum Design

A recurrent theme apparent in the discussion of recordkeeping education inNew Zealand centred on the advantages and disadvantages of linkages withlibrary education. In 1991, Alan Richardson, speaking to the archivalcommunity, emphasised the significance of the change in name (to Libraryand Information Studies) for Victoria University’s Department of Librar-ianship, saying that it represented ‘a real change in direction and emphasis’(1991, p. 61). He also indicated that the Department intended to move intoarchives and records education. Richardson also explained the nature andpurpose of the archives elective in the DipLibr, and perhaps inadvertentlyunderlined its marginal nature and relevance by stating

I do not expect the option to be amongst the more popularofferings (indeed I would wonder why if many students wishedto do this course) (Richardson, 1991, p. 62).

Commentary on the Diploma in Information Management ArchivesAdministration qualification offered by the University of New South Waleshighlighted concerns about embedding archives education into a predomi-nately library focused programme. Archives students questioned therelevance of core courses, which were perceived as being aimed mainly atlibrarians (Nelson, 1985). A few years later, the academic responsible forarchives education at the University of New South Wales voiced similarconcerns (Orlovich, 1994). Fears of the loss of status and/or specialistknowledge are very apparent in this paper, perhaps influenced by theminority position of any archives educator:

ymy own experience since 1973 should alert the members ofthe archives profession in New Zealand to the dangers to beapprehended from the exercise of control over the design ofcurricula and the delivery of professional records and archivesmanagement training programmes by those who advocate anintegrated approach to the training of ‘information profes-sionals’ and who are not themselves, by virtue of theirprofessional and scholarly background, professional archivistsand records managers of the highest academic standing.(Orlovich, 1994, p. 20)

Ten years later, however, two highly respected Australian archivaleducators presented a very different perspective in which they acknowledgedthe dilemma educators faced between producing graduates with a goodbroad understanding but limited specialised knowledge, or with extensive


specialised knowledge and limited understanding as to how to applythat knowledge in the broader information environment (Upward &McKemmish, 2006). Their approach was to consciously adopt an approachto curriculum design that acknowledges the need for specialist skills within abroad understanding of the wider information environment. This expositionof a records continuum approach to recordkeeping education has becomethe main influence underpinning the current teaching of records andarchives subjects at VUW.

3.5. Recent Developments

In late 2008, staff of the programme met for a day to consider whatrevisions, if any, should be made to the MLIS based not only on theLIANZA review but also on the changes to staffing requirements forgovernment recordkeeping that were happening as a result of the PublicRecords Act (2005). Government agencies were increasingly seeking staffwith Master’s level qualifications in recordkeeping, none of which werecurrently available from New Zealand universities. This review also neededto consider constraints imposed by cuts in financing university programmes,since the staff felt it was unlikely that the Victoria University Council wouldapprove a new programme, particularly if it was broadly similar to anexisting one.

The outcome of this review was a proposal for a revised qualification, tobe called a Master of Information Studies (MIS), with two specialisations:library science and archives and records management. This was based on theexisting MLIS, but with a smaller core of four courses, plus a researchproject:

� INFO 520 Information and Society;� INFO 521 Management in Information Services;� INFO 527 Representing and Organising Information in Context; and� INFO528ResearchMethods for InformationManagementEnvironments.

Each specialisation required two additional courses: ‘library science’(LIBR) required INFO 523 Information Resources and Client Services andINFO 525 Digital Technologies for Information Professionals, while‘archives and recordkeeping’ (ARCR) required INFO 534 Archival Systemsand INFO 535 Managing Current Records.

Two lower-level qualifications, also with LIBR and ARCR specialisations,were also part of this proposal. A 60-point Postgraduate Certificate inInformation Studies, requiring INFO 520 and three other courses, and a120-point Postgraduate Diploma in Information Studies, requiring INFO 520,INFO521 and INFO527, were established, in part to provide students who did


not wish to commit to a full Master’s programme with a suitable qualification.As part of the changes, the existing MLIS and PGCertArcRec andPGDipArcRec were to be withdrawn, keeping the total number of qualifica-tions offered by the school the same. In 2009, the proposals for the revised andrenamed qualifications were approved within VUW, and subsequently by theNew Zealand vice-chancellors’ committee on University Academic Pro-grammes. The first students entered the programmes in 2010, and the firstMIS, PGCertIS and PGDipIS qualifications were awarded in December 2010.

3.6. Discussion

Table 3.1 lists the postgraduate library and information studies qualificationsoffered in New Zealand between 1946 and 2010. It shows thatthe qualifications offered in New Zealand have become establishedas part of the formal tertiary education system, although they wereinitially offered by a separate unit thatwas part of the country’s library service.

Over time the scope of the qualifications has broadened, with the newMIS and associated Postgraduate Diploma and Certificate in Information

Table 3.1: Summary of postgraduate LIS qualifications offered in NewZealand.

Year Qualification Provider

1946–1979 NZLS Diploma New Zealand Library School, initiallypart of the Country Library Service,and subsequently a division of theNational Library of New Zealand

1980–1996 DipLibr Department of Library and InformationStudies (initially Department ofLibrarianship, Victoria University ofWellington)

1981– MA in Libraryand InformationStudies (formerlyLibrarianship)

School of Information Management(Formerly Department of Library andInformation Studies and Departmentof Librarianship, Victoria Universityof Wellington)

1996–2010 MLIS School of Information Management2004–2010 PGCertArcRec School of Information Management2004–2010 PGDiptArcRec School of Information Management2010– MIS School of Information Management2010– PGCertIS School of Information Management2010– PGDiptIS School of Information Management


Studies offering students more flexibility in tailoring their programmes totheir individual interests. The preceding discussion of the variousqualifications offered and the way they evolved shows the critical roleplayed by the various professional associations, particularly in the initialestablishment of the NZLS Diploma. The smaller size of the archivesprofession in New Zealand, the lack of agreement about its relationshipwith records management meant that programmes covering this aspect ofinformation studies took longer to establish, despite the evident level ofinterest.

The relationship between the various professional associations and theeducation provider has also changed as the postgraduate qualifications havebecome better established. Initially, the JACL acted as a review board andtook the initiative in establishing the Saunders review of the DipLibr. OnceJACL was disbanded in the early 1990s, the Department of Library andInformation Studies established its own advisory committee for theDipLibr, which included representatives of the NZLA and ARANZ(Ronnie, 1996, p. 153). This committee has continued to the present day,although its membership has broadened to include representatives of therecords management community as well.

The most significant indicator of the change in the relationship betweenthe professional associations and the School of Information Managementis shown by the curriculum review LIANZA commissioned in 2008. Thiswas an indication that LIANZA now saw itself as an external stakeholderin the MLIS, with the right to set guidelines for the topics it expected aprofessional qualification to cover. This approach is similar to that takenby the Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia(RIM Professionals Australasia, formerly the Records ManagementAssociation of Australasia or RMAA). RIM Professionals Australasiaprovides records management education providers with a check list oftopics that must be covered. All records qualifications offered by theSchool of Information Management have been accredited by this body,indicated that content is up-to-date, relevant, and effectively delivered.More recently, ARANZ has established a working group to investigate thedesirability and feasibility of recognising professional qualifications ofmembers, a move that indicates probable future interest in accreditationtype activities.

3.7. Conclusion

Developing a professional education programme in a small and geographi-cally isolated country such as New Zealand presents challenges, shownclearly by the differences in the evolution of its library studies and


recordkeeping postgraduate qualifications. In both cases the professionalassociations took the lead in establishing the need for formal programmes,but a lack of consensus between records managers and archivists meant thatit took longer for programmes in this area to be established. In addition, thelimited demand for qualifications in this area meant that early initiatives,based at polytechnics, failed to attract enough students, and were thereforediscontinued. In contrast, a postgraduate programme for librarians wasestablished early, and is now solidly placed in the tertiary education system.Over time this qualification has broadened its scope to include recordkeep-ing, and the new MIS qualification, with specialisations for either libraryscience or archives and records management, is well-placed to cater to theneeds of both groups. It builds on the continuum approach to curriculumdesign first developed at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, andalso positions the VUW Information Studies programme as an iSchool,interested in the interactions of people, information and technologyirrespective of disciplinary boundaries.

The changes in the way that the postgraduate programme is deliveredalso highlight the increasing importance of computers and telecommunica-tions as platforms for course delivery. In less than 20 years, the postgraduateprogramme has moved from offering a single traditional face-to-face optionto a more flexible combination of face-to-face and distance courses, takingadvantage of changes in technology.

Finally, the development of postgraduate library and recordkeepingqualifications in New Zealand highlights the changing relationship betweeneducational programmes, and professional associations.While the professionallibrary association took the initial steps to establishing the first qualification, itsrole shifted from oversight, in the form of JACL representation, to advisory,with a representative on the programme’s advisory committee. LIANZA’sestablishment of a registration board for members of the profession and itsassociated development of a body of professional knowledge show that its viewof its role has matured. Similar developments in professional associationsassociated with recordkeeping, such as RIM Professionals Australasia andARANZ, suggest that this trend will continue.

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Documents

[Library and Information Science] Library and Information Science Trends and Research Volume 2 || Chapter 3 Keeping Current: The Evolution of Postgraduate Library and Information Studies