New Directions for Library and Information Science Education

Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)

New Directions for Library and Information Science EducationAuthor(s): José-Marie GriffithsSource: Journal of Education for Librarianship, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Summer, 1983), pp. 48-52Published by: Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40322779 .

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Research Record

GERALD W. LUNDEEN, editor

The following column is written by José- Marie Griffiths of King Research Inc.

New Directions for Library and Infor- mation Science Education

Approximately one year ago King Research, Inc. was awarded a contract to identify, describe and validate both current and future competency requirements of information professionals. The project is concerned with information professionals working in a variety of different environments including libraries, information centers, clearinghouses, database pro- ducers, database distributers, mu- seums, archives, information analysis centers, brokers, jobbers, consultants and records management centers. One particular aspect of the project is to identify newly emerging working environments within which information professionals are found. For example, we have identified a trend, largely in scientific and technical information settings, for information professionals performing traditional reference-type functions to be distributed throughout the organization as members of scientific or technical project groups rather than to be affiliated with a central library or information service. Another trend within organizations is for sev- eral information-related functions,

such as those relating to the library, in-house documents, and internal records, to be coordinated within a single information management function.

In addition to the range of information professional environments, this project is concerned with all stages of career development for entry-level through senior administrative level. Thus, the project will address continuing education as well as formal entry level education. Furthermore, be- cause the entire project is oriented towards professional competencies required in the workplace, we will identify some competencies that are best acquired through training rather than education. Some of these competencies identified will be specific to the employ- ing organization and thus cannot be acquired prior to employment. There- fore, our final project report will dis- cuss the implications of our findings on both the education and training of information professionals.

A certain misunderstanding often arises whenever competency studies or competency-based education are dis- cussed. This misunderstanding results from some of the original concepts of competencies and their application to competency-based education which defined a set of basic or minimum edu- cational requirements. In this project we are not focussing on minimum competency requirements, but are in-

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Research Record

vestigating the competencies required by superior or outstanding per- formers.

Three basic components of com- petence have been identified for the purposes of this project. The are knowledges, skills and attitudes. Knowledges refer to what professionals need to know about, under- stand, or be aware of in order to per- form their professional jobs. Skills refer to the ability of the professionals to use their knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance. Attitudes refer to mental states, feel- ings and emotions toward a state or environment. Competencies can be defined as either specific or generic. The breakdown of competencies into specific or generic can be accomplished at multiple levels. For example, we can define competencies that are specific to functions performed in a type of organization (e.g., children's librarian in a public library) versus competencies that are generic across all functions in that type of organization. At another level we could define competencies that are specific to a particular type of organization versus those that are generic across organizations.

Through an extensive literature review and a series of in-depth inter- views, data relating to information professionals and their competencies have been gathered, as well as data con- cerning the environment within which these professionals are found. At the present time the data are being analy- zed from two perspectives. First, sets of competencies (knowledges, skills and attitudes) are being identified which are organized by professional level (measured in terms of years of professional experience), within major function performed, withinifype of organization. For example, a séTofTom^ petencies will be associated with an en-

try level cataloger working in a public library. At the next level of analysis competencies that are generic across professional levels, or functions, or type of organizations will be identified.

The second set of analyses will focus on the environments within which information professionals work and will provide useful background information on, for example, the mix of professionals and non-professionals in various environments, the level of sup- port given to professional development activities, career opportunities, and procedures and criteria for selec- tion and evaluation of information professionals. The project will run through March

1984. However, preliminary listings of competencies will be distributed for review and validation at the end of November/beginning of December 1983. The formal reports generated as part of this project will consist of three volumes. Volume I will be a background report describing the information profession, the environments within which information professionals operate, key trends influen- cing the profession and a perspective on future developments relating to the profession. Volume II will constitute the formal "project report" and will include the competencies identified and reviewed during the project, the methods used, and the secondary analyses that have been performed. This report will also include a dis- cussion of the implications of the project findings on the future education and training of information professionals. Volume III will be organized as a manual, or set of manuals, outlining how to review competency requirements and identify newly emerging requirements as well as sug- gestions for how the project findings can be used, etc. Finally, updates on

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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

project progress can be obtained from the project newsletter (published quar- terly) available from King Research, Inc., 6000 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852.

***** Besides columns by the column editor, readers

are encouraged to submit articles of 1 ,000 to 1 ,500 words on topics related to research to Gerald Lun- deen, Graduate School of Library Studies, Univer- sity of Hawaii, 2550 The Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822. The database of dissertations in progress can be accessed through the column editor also. Results of a computer search on specific topics or a book catalog of the entire data base (about 220-250 records) are available on request.

Doctoral Dissertation Proposals Accepted in Library and Information

Science Agumanu, Joan. "Continuing Library Edu-

cation Programs for Federal Librarians in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects." Cobimbia (May 1983). Major Adviser: R. Kathleen Molz.

Ayala, Marta. "A Bibliometric Study of Cross-National Information Flow Be- tween Spanish-Speaking Latin America and English-Speaking North America." Texas Woman's (1983). Major Adviser: Bernard S. Schlessinger.

Bellardo, Gertrude. "Ability Assessment of Online Search Intermediaries." Drexel (July 1983). Major Adviser: Belver Griffith.

Besser, Howard A. "Computer Literacy." Berkeley (June 1983). Major Adviser: Patrick G. Wilson.

Boals, David. "A Theory of Individual As- signment of Meaning to Sense Data Through the Ongoing Construction of Psychological Associations." Southern California (May 1982). Major Adviser: Roger Greer.

Chamis, Alice. "Online Database Search Strategy Models and Thesaural Relation- ship Models." Case Western Reserve (1982). Major Adviser: Phyllis A. Richmond.

Cohen, Dalia. "Bibliometric Techniques for the Evaluation of the Funding of Biblio- metric Research Programs." Case West- ern Reserve (1983). Major Adviser: Wil- liam Goff man.

Crowe, Jan D. "Study of the Feasibility of Indexing a Work's Orientation Towards Subject." Berkeley (July 1983). Major Ad- viser: Patrick G. Wilson.

Dewdney, Patricia. "User Satisfaction and the Public Library Reference Interview: an Experiment to the Effects of Training Librarians in Communication Skills." Western Ontario (September 1983). Major Adviser: Catherine L. Ross.

Diener, Richard. "On the Changing Infor- mational Value of Journal Article Titles and the Measurement of Information." Rutgers (October 1981). Major Adviser: Henry Voos.

Dunn, Kathleen. "Undergraduate Needs and Information Seeking Behavior." Southern California (December 1981). Major Adviser: Bruce Bennion.

Fuller, Shernlynne. Schema Theory and the Comparative Analysis of Discourse Patterns." Southern California (October 1982). Major Adviser: Edward Kazlauskas.

Gould, Donald. "Application of Elliott Jaques' General Theory of Bureaucracy to the Operation of Academic Libraries." Southern California (November 1982). Major Adviser: Roger Greer.

Grunberger, Michael. "Textual Analysis and the Assignment of Index Entries for Social Science and Humanities Mono- graphs." Rutgers (February 1983). Major Adviser: James Anderson.

Hawley, George. "The Referral Process: A Characterization and an Examination of Factors Affecting It." Rutgers (March 1983). Major Adviser: H.R. Kells.

Henderson, Mary Emma. "The Role of the Georgia Public Junior College in the Community." Florida State (December 1982). Major Adviser: Ronald Blazek.

Hutchins, Thelma Jean. "Faculty Status for Academic Librarians: Current Practices and Attitudes According to Chief Aca- demic Officers, Library Directors, and

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Research Record Professional Librarians in Selected Insti- tutions of Higher Education Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools." Florida State (October 1978). Major Adviser: John DePew.

Ivy, Barbara A. "Academic Library Admin- istration: Hiring and Promotion in a Fem- inized Profession." Pittsburgh (June 1983). Major Adviser: Ellen Detlefsen.

Jeong, Jun-Min. "Techniques for the Im- provement of Retrieval Procedures." Case Western Reserve (1983). Major Ad- viser: William Goffman.

Jones, Joy M. "A Comparative Study of the Career Development Patterns of Male and Female Library Administrators in Large Public Libraries." Florida State (September 1983). Major Adviser: Har- old Goldstein.

Kim, Hyun-Hee. "A Comparative Study of Two Indexing Systems Based on Citation Links and Probabilistic Model with Tra- ditional Subject/Indexing." Case Western Reserve (1983). Major Adviser: Miranda Pao.

Kirwin, Florence. "The Work Activities and Job Content of Information Managers in Five Organizational Settings: An Analysis of Similarities and Differences." South- ern Calfornia (January 1982). Major Ad- viser: Roger Greer.

Kishel, Deane A. "A Bibliometric Study of the Literature of Gravitational Wave Re- search." Case Western Reserve (1981). Major Adviser: William Goffman.

Kochoff, Stephen Thomas. "Public Library Friends Groups: Their Role, Their Im- pact, Their Achievements." Columbia (May 1983). Major Adviser: R. Kathleen Molz.

Latham, Helen. "Dominican Nuns and the Book Arts in Renaissance Florence: The Convent of San Jacopo Di Ripoli, 1224-1586." Texas Woman's (1983). Major Adviser: Bernard S. Schlessinger.

Lin, James. "Acquisition Programs in Community College Learning Resource Centers in the United States." Southern Illinois (February 1983). Major Adviser: Doris Dale.

Lowry, Glenn. "A Profile and Functional Job Analysis of Key Staff Positions Found in U.S. Online Database Production Or- ganizations." Rutgers (April 1982). Major Adviser: Susan Artandi.

McCain, Katherine W. "Structure and Sta- bility in Three Scientific Literatures: Au- thor Co-citation Analyses in the Social, Natural and Physical Sciences." Drexel (April 1983). Major Adviser: Howard D. White.

O'Connor, Brian C. "Surrogates for Moving Image Documents." Berkeley (July 1983). Major Adviser: Patrick G. Wilson.

Ochai, Adakole. "Management Develop- ment Needs of Lower and Middle Man- agers in University Libraries in Nigeria." Pittsburgh (June 1983). Major Adviser: Patrick Penland.

Paulsey, Barbara H. "Bibliometric Tech- niques for the Improvement of Retrieval in the Legal Literature." Case Western Reserve (1981). Major Adviser: William Goffman.

Peters, Stephen. "Characteristics of Sources Used by American Historians in Writing German History." Indiana (May 1983). Major Adviser: Judith Serebnick.

Pizani, Salvador Luiz Silva. "Information Requirements Definition Techniques: A Comparison and A Synthesis." Case Western Reserve (1981). Major Adviser: William Goffman.

Rapp, Barbara A. "Descriptor-Based Com- pared with Citation-Based Structures in Biomedicai Literature." Drexel (April 1983). Major Adviser: Belver Griffith.

Robert, Francis X. "A History of the Li- braries of the University of Buffalo, 1846-1962." Buffalo (September 1983). Major Adviser: Philip Altbach and George S. Bobinsky.

Robertson, Steven. "Development of a Tool for the Environmental Analysis of Non- print Media in Libraries." Southern Cal- ifornia (November 1982). Major Adviser: Edward Kazlauskas.

Schlessinger, Rashelle. "Unions and Public Librarians1 Attitudes Toward Union- ization and the Profession of Li-

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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

brarianship." Florida State (August 1983). Maior Adviser: Phvllis Van Orden.

Struminger, Leny. "A Proposal to Provide Factors for Evaluating Topically Related Databases Using Shared Entries." Rut- gers (February 1982). Major Adviser: Henry Voos.

Tenopir, Carol. "Retrieval Performance in a Full Text Journal Article Database." Il- linois (June 1983). Major Adviser: Linda Smith.

Tsai, Bor Sheng. "Identification of Stages in the Development of the Scientific Litera- ture." Case Western Reserve (1982).

Major Adviser: William Coffman. VanderWerff, Dennis. "The Influence of

Communication Structures and Social Arrangements on the Development of Intellectual Patterns in Library Science, 1925-1981." Southern California (March 1983). Major Adviser: Roger Greer.

Williams, Lauren S. "The Service Orient- ation of Government Documents Refer- ence Librarians in Academic Libraries of the Southeastern United States." Florida State (July 1982). Major Adviser: Ronald Blazek.

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