Education directions for new information professionals.

Education directions for new information professionals. Caveat: The views expressed in this paper are mine alone (exceptwhere cited), and do not represent those of the University of SouthAustralia South Australia,state (1991 pop. 1,236,623), 380,070 sq mi (984,381 sq km), S central Australia. It is bounded on the S by the Indian Ocean. Kangaroo Island and many smaller islands off the south coast are included in the state. . Information professionals and those who educate them face enormouschallenges. Increasingly easy access to communication media andinformation is altering perceptions of the very nature of informationwork, globally. There is no doubt that there are many challenges facingpresent and prospective information professionals too. These includeissues around internationalisation (programming) internationalisation - (i18n, globalisation, enabling, software enabling) The process and philosophy of making software portable to other locales.For successful localisation, products must be technically and culturally neutral. and accreditation; the level andstructure of programs for first professional qualifications andcompetition from neighbouring disciplines. This paper was presented at the 11th Information Online Conferenceand Exhibition of ALIA. Sydney, 21-23 January 2003 The major sponsor ofthe conference was Factiva, a Dow Jones Dow Jonesthe best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202]See : Finance and Reuters Company Introduction TRADITIONAL ROLES ARE BECOMING LESS FREQUENT IN THE ARRAY OFCAREERS now open to information professionals, and an assortment ofdifferent competencies, skills and graduate qualities is required tosuit such opportunities. The kind of work traditionally performed bythose dealing with groups of published documents such as journals andbooks (covered by national and international standardisation,legislation and bibliographic control mechanisms) is different in kindand degree from the work required in a hypertext hypertext,technique for organizing computer databases or documents to facilitate the nonsequential retrieval of information. Related pieces of information are connected by preestablished or user-created links that allow a user to follow associative trails across the , networked, digitalenvironment; the work required in a physical institution like a libraryis different from that required for managing virtual information flowsin intelligent, learning, networked organisations. Education for libraryand information science (LIS LIS - Langage Implementation Systeme.A predecessor of Ada developed by Ichbiah in 1973. It was influenced by Pascal's data structures and Sue's control structures. A type declaration can have a low-level implementation specification. ) is no longer only technical, but mustinclude consideration of new cognitive, social and situationalprocesses. Ultimately, it is actually information (the content of theartifact/document) that users want in order to satisfy their informationneeds. This paper argues that there needs to be a shift from a documentmanagement perspective, to an information management perspective, whichlocates users, technology and information professionals within asocially constructed, complex context. This model should not onlyprovide professionals with the necessary skills with which they can gainemployment upon graduation, but also the vision and understanding whichmight help them cope better with the rapidly changing world in which welive. In this paper, I argue that a fresh approach needs to be takenconcerning the education and development of the New InformationProfessional (NIP). Change in the information professions There are a number of reasons why the library and informationscience profession is undergoing change, and it is urgent that there isa suitable response from practitioners, the professional associationsand those who educate for the profession. We can note that the sourcesof change are multiple, and it will not be possible to address each ofthem in equal depth in this paper. * Social and cultural forces. We must become aware of the magnitudeof social flux occurring that changes the ways in which communicationtakes place and thus alters the nature and fabric of societies andorganisations, predicated as they are upon their information flows. * Recognition of the fact that the domain of information isever-expanding. * Increasing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT (1) (Information and Communications Technology) An umbrella term for the information technology field. See IT.(2) (International Computers and Tabulators) See ICL. 1. (testing) ICT - In Circuit Test. )and keeping up with its obsolescence provide challenges, especially asmost ICT already has more utility than we need, and we need to learn howto use properly what is already there. * ICT convergence changes the nature of information creation,storage and communication. Librarians have not been imaginative orinnovative in their exploitation of technology, largely through lack ofconfidence. * The issue of invasion of the territory by 'rival'information groups, often bedeviled by the phenomenon of re-invention ofthe wheel; as well as * Competition from other organisations, tools and services. * Emphasis on information as a commodity, and its strategic andcompetitive importance. * Dis-intermediation. * The changing nature of information work itself--especially tryingto stay on top of information. * Vacillating funding provisions. * The aging population of practising librarians and the need toattract more students into revitalised programs, particularly withopportunities now available. * Future of libraries--will libraries and librarianship willsurvive at all? If they do not survive, will the profession have lostanything? * Job differentials--even in a single traditional setting,graduates do vastly different jobs. Other disciplines are not immune to such changes in a generalsense, either. Robert Wright Robert Wright is the name of: Bob Wright (baseball) (1891), early 20th century baseball pitcher Robert Wright (politician) (1752–1826), early 19th century governor and congressman from Maryland , a Professor of Landscape Architecture,included the following points in an e-mail he sent to the LandscapeArchitecture Forum on 5 October 1993. These issues seem just asapplicable to LIS: * Static disciplinary boundaries and institutional frameworks arenow impediments to the development of critical knowledge and creativeapproaches needed to solve complex problems. * Theeducationalneedsandskillsetsofpractitionersarerapidlychangingdue to the increasing specialisation of knowledge and the subsequent fastpace of technological development. * Career paths of young practitioners are becoming increasinglyfragmented, long-term experience in a single job setting is becomingrare and opportunities for induction programs based on apprentice-mentortraining are diminishing. * There is an increased need to access extra-disciplinary knowledgeand to engage in meaningful trans-disciplinary activities. * There are increasing demands by social institutions onprofessional and applied disciplines to justify their existence andrelevance related to perceive social needs. * There is a diminishing amount of mutually beneficial Adj. 1. mutually beneficial - mutually dependentinterdependent, mutualistdependent - relying on or requiring a person or thing for support, supply, or what is needed; "dependent children"; "dependent on moisture" knowledgebeing exchanged between our educational institutions and professionalpractitioners. Survival of LIS will almost certainly not occur in its present formor paradigm, and perhaps the most dangerous threat to the profession iswhat I call the 'librarian mindset'. This is to be found inLIS educators, associations and practitioners. IFLA IFLA International Federation of Library Associations and InstitutionsIFLA International Federation of Landscape ArchitectsIFLA Instituto Forestal Latinoamericano (Venezuela)IFLA Israel Free Loan Association (2000) stated thattraditional LIS programs: ... have focused on developing physical collections of books and other materials in library buildings staffed by people who have learned to select, acquire, organise, retrieve and circulate these materials ... [but] today the emphasis is on the individual practitioner and the concentration is on information provision in a variety of contexts ... This summarises the kind of changes which have already takenplace--changes which are almost paradigmatic See paradigm. . We need to identify theboundaries and shape of this change, so that we can move forward in apositive way This Kuhnian change of paradigm is intermittently paid somelip service lip servicen.Verbal expression of agreement or allegiance, unsupported by real conviction or action; hypocritical respect: , but the responses to change that we have seen--in practiceand in education--have been modest and slight (for example, changes ofname). Van House and Sutton (1996) explain this in terms ofBourdieu's notion of 'habitus', which constructs a kindof invisible game, with rules and actions than only those who share thesame habitus habitus/hab��i��tus/ (hab��i-tus) [L.]1. attitude (2).2. physique.hab��i��tusn. pl. are able to understand. This results in a perpetuation ofthe game: A key concept in Bourdieu's analysis is that of habitus, a system of dispositions determined by past experience, particularly by one's class, education, and profession. Habitus functions as a matrix of perceptions, appreciations, and actions. Habitus is the means by which a field perpetuates itself through the voluntary actions of its members. It gives the appearance of rationality and internationality to behaviour that is less than fully conscious. How individuals interpret a situation and the actions that they consider possible are unconsciously constrained by their habitus. Action guided by habitus has the appearance of rationality but is based not so much on reason as on socially-constituted dispositions. (Author's emphasis). (Van House and Sutton, 1996). Amongst the characteristics of the LIS habitus are: * a focus on the library as the location of the profession, whichhas a physical presence, rather than on the skills and knowledge thatlibrarians bring to it; * a view of the profession which legitimises this stance, and in sodoing, places undue emphasis on the tasks performed within such a place,rather than on an overall view of information creation, evaluation,seeking and use functions; * a resulting emphasis amongst LIS educators (partly in order tomeet ALIA's accreditation rules) on programs that arelibrary-centred, tied to institutions and tools, rather than on abstractobservations and analysis of information work as a whole. The core assumption of the 'librarian mindset' is thatinformation exists independent of human action and that LIS'S valuelies in describing reality; information then develops its own order andorganisation. This is reinforced by Popper's description of World3, the world of documents which contain information. As Radford (1998)indicates, the library has long been taken as a metaphor for order andrationality, as it 'represents, in institutional form, the ultimaterealisation of a place where each item within it has a fixed place andstands in an a priori a prioriIn epistemology, knowledge that is independent of all particular experiences, as opposed to a posteriori (or empirical) knowledge, which derives from experience. relationship with every other item. Therationality of the library in many ways represents the description ofnature idealized i��de��al��ize?v. i��de��al��ized, i��de��al��iz��ing, i��de��al��iz��esv.tr.1. To regard as ideal.2. To make or envision as ideal.v.intr.1. by the institution of positivist pos��i��tiv��ism?n.1. Philosophya. A doctrine contending that sense perceptions are the only admissible basis of human knowledge and precise thought.b. science.' He reminds us of the inaccessible library in the Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. epic,The name of the rose, where access is only available via the librarian.The librarian-god becomes the guardian of rationality and knowledge. Thetendency to set the user aside can be explained within this paradigm, asthe librarian seeks to exercise rationality and control over thecollection and the user can be seen as a chaotic interrupter.Today's 'user-centredness' often is reduced to the natureof the user's relationship with the information system, rather thanthe user's engagement with the universe of knowledge creation andinformation behaviour. Challenges for educators An educator in LIS is engaged in preparing people for a career inthe field. This requires a concern with the wider social context withinwhich these careers will unfold over time. The unpredictability of thepresent environment makes both these tasks very difficult. Many factorsin the sophisticated and complex society in which we now find ourselveshave compelled a substantial reassessment ReassessmentThe process of re-determining the value of property or land for tax purposes.Notes:Property is usually reassessed on an annual basis. You may request a "reassessment" if you disagree with your assessment. of the educationalrequirements for careers in information management. These includechanging human information behaviours, education and work competencies,and the increase in the value of information as a strategic and economiccommodity. I am unable to address all of these within the scope of thispaper, but will select a few for further discussion. Some of these are: * lack of funding to universities in general, and to small LISteaching teams in particular; * the usurping of substantial parts of the discipline byothers--such as knowledge representation and management, informationretrieval information retrievalRecovery of information, especially in a database stored in a computer. Two main approaches are matching words in the query against the database index (keyword searching) and traversing the database using hypertext or hypermedia links. , information behaviour and so on; * the role of technology and how it fits into LIS; * growth of information industry employment, particularly inspecial libraries and in corporate or organisational positions; * erosion of boundaries between library and information science:and also the boundaries with business education, communications,journalism, media and computer science; * shift of LIS's position to become part of theentrepreneurial market economy, rather than remaining in the culturalbastion; * closure of several large library schools in North America North America,third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , andrenaming and refocussing of others--an example which might well befollowed here. In broad terms, we are facing a very different social, cultural,economic and technological environment from any that has ever existedpreviously: Such complexity is difficult to analyse; also, within thetenets of systems theory, there are ripple effects throughout whenever achange occurs. As we face such momentous and constant change, it is hardto predict all effects or suitable responses. Social responsibility A strong tradition in LIS is that of service--for the purpose ofeducation, enculturation enculturationthe process by which a person adapts to and assimilates the culture in which he lives.See also: SocietyNoun 1. enculturation , social uplift--as well as the notion of thedevelopment of social capital There is no doubt that information workerscarry a professional responsibility that is of utmost importance intoday's society, although I believe the scope of thisresponsibility is now much broader than previously. With the twineffects of global cultural imperialism Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting, distinguishing, separating, or artificially injecting the culture or language of one nation into another. It is usually the case that the former is a large, economically or militarily powerful nation and the latter is a smaller, conveyed through the media, andendemic information overload A symptom of the high-tech age, which is too much information for one human being to absorb in an expanding world of people and technology. It comes from all sources including TV, newspapers, magazines as well as wanted and unwanted regular mail, e-mail and faxes. that is simply too much for most to dealwith, information workers can play a role in reducing cultural andideological differences because of their influence over information. Wecan assist in understanding similarities and diversity, and encourageappreciation of the contribution all can make to the internationalcommunity. Because of the richness of the information with which we deal,librarians can balance the negative tendency of globalisation to reducecultures to superficial components, and instead emphasise the need toexpand communications strategies, adopt pluralist plu��ral��ist?n.1. An adherent of social or philosophical pluralism.2. Ecclesiastical A person who holds two or more offices, especially two or more benefices, at the same time.Noun 1. perspectives and learnhow others communicate and why These should be principles that areincorporated into educational programs, and which go beyond meredescriptions of the insulting notions of 'information rich'and 'information poor', which deny indigenous knowledgesystems, for example. Disjointed incrementalism in��cre��men��tal��ism?n.Social or political gradualism.incre��men There is no doubt that the situation that L1S now faces is complex,and many issues remain unexplained and therefore cannot be dealt with bythe present dominant paradigm. As a result, anomalies have accrued: ifknowledge is power, why don't librarians run the world? Most LIS educational programs both here and internationally havedealt with such anomalies in a piecemeal way, adding various coursessuch as web page design, records management, database construction andthe like in order to increase the job opportunities for graduates. In1963, David Braybrooke and Charles Lindblom (quoted by Neill, 1992)published a study of policy-making and concluded that the normal methodfor deciding on policies was that of 'disjointedincrementalism'. Policy change was incremental in that it was notrevolutionary or on the grand scale. Small, or relatively small,problems were involved, and the solutions were prepared and proposed byindividuals or by committees. Incremental change seems to be what people can handle mostcomfortably. Any large change is psychologically threatening, and in anycase, the necessary information to predict the consequences of actionsimply isn't available. This phrase describes very well thedevelopments in LIS education. I suggest that 'disjointedincrementalism' is what all LIS educators have suffered from forthe last twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. . The use of different titles and terms ineducation for LIS professionals is an example of 'disjointedincrementalism'. We are often overwhelmed by all this change, by the accretion ofchange, and by invasions from and developments elsewhere, but this is apoor excuse for avoiding or postponing a fresh and holistic look atwhere the profession is going. We cannot be like incremental policyanalysts, who 'often rule out of bounds the uninteresting (jargon) uninteresting - 1. Said of a problem that, although nontrivial, can be solved simply by throwing sufficient resources at it.2. Also said of problems for which a solution would neither advance the state of the art nor be fun to design and code. (tothem), the remote, the imponderable im��pon��der��a��ble?adj.That cannot undergo precise evaluation: imponderable problems.im��pon , the intangible and the poorlyunderstood, no matter how important (Neill, 1992, p126). If this is not addressed, Wilson's view (2000) is that whatwill happen is catastrophic change--a point when systems undergo suddenand rapid change. This does now seem to be happening in some areas, suchas the Universities of Washington, Michigan and Texas (although this wasplanned, rather than unexpected). In LIS, when this has happened, wehave mostly attempted to react only after the event, which is a frequentway of dealing with catastrophe. Collaboration, convergence and diversification are suggested byWilson as means of survival. He suggests that the way to overcome theproblems of sudden, discontinuous discontinuous/dis��con��tin��u��ous/ (dis?kon-tin��u-us)1. interrupted; intermittent; marked by breaks.2. discrete; separate.3. lacking logical order or coherence. change is carefully managed continuouschange. I would argue that this has not been a model that has served us,as information workers, or the profession, very well. We can say insteadperhaps that we have had continuous change, but it has not beencarefully managed. On the whole, there have been more setbacks thangains; those who teach LIS in Australia have become fewer and fewer, andALIA is battling to keep up membership figures. Libraries areincreasingly by-passed as clients access the internet. Internationalisation and globalisation Internationalisation is an issue in the education for NIPs becauseof their fluid and mobile lives, and the multi-national companies thatthey might work for. The whole world is interconnected on every level.NIPs need transportable and internationally recognised qualifications.This makes accreditation an issue, across the range of professionalassociations now accessible by information workers, and acrossinternational boundaries. We are not educating for a homogenous homogenous - homogeneous ,domestic market any more. This applies to universities in general, aswell as our profession. As well as this, a major feature of the so-called 'informationsociety' or 'information economy' is its global nature.Much 'globalisation' is a Western phenomenon-specificallyNorth American North Americannamed after North America.North American blastomycosissee North American blastomycosis.North American cattle ticksee boophilusannulatus. . However, the ideology of globalisation can be perceivedas a threat to basic human rights, in the information sphere if nowhereelse. It is also a threat to libraries as social institutions, ratherthan places. Kohutsky notes that 'An institution that allows theindividual to access information at no cost [is] viewed as a threat to... profits ... The library's role in keeping information in thepublic sphere The public sphere is a concept in continental philosophy and critical theory that contrasts with the private sphere, and is the part of life in which one is interacting with others and with society at large. is ... marginalised' (Koltutsky, 2001). This is achallenge that must be boldly and imaginatively faced, if we are tosucceed. Librarians are on a social mission to protect rights of access toinformation (not documents). The cultural and social location of theorigin of information needs to be taken into account: information is aproduct of its society. This is, of course, related to the issue ofsocial responsibility mentioned above. Information professionals can nolonger be neutral. Access to ICTs (which support globalisation) is not global ordemocratic. Theoretically ICTs can build a worldwide network that breaksdown the boundaries between countries and removes the cultural barriersbetween people from different cultures. In reality, this is not thecase: not while there are six billion people on the planet, and onlyabout one billion have regular access to the internet, and the rest arenot likely to in their lifetimes. Librarians have a role to play in thisthat poses a challenge to the profession: how is it to be done? Shouldinformation professionals from the English-language nations be able tospeak at least one other language? Globalisation ensures that masses of information are availableinternationally, but it also has the side issue of privatisation Noun 1. privatisation - changing something from state to private ownership or controldenationalisation, denationalization, privatizationsocial control - control exerted (actively or passively) by group action ofinformation access--increasingly this costs more. Information is anenabler, but globalisation is making it a purchasable good. This is whatcreates a digital divide. Herbert and Anita Schiller (1988) areconcerned about increasingly blocked access to information, and itscosts: Commercialisation and privatisation are means to institutionalise a process whereby information is restricted to those with the ability to pay. Governmental administrative measures assist the process when they are aimed at removing huge quantities of information from the public domain and transferring basic informational functions from the government to the private sector (Schiller, 1988) They are further of the opinion that growing privatisation ofinformation may cause libraries to he bypassed altogether--and this viewwas expressed in 1988, before the widespread use of the internet whichhas in fact emphasised this. Information as a strategic commodity This brings us to the value of information as an economic commodityA critical environmental change is the increase in the value ofinformation as a strategic commodity Information's role in creatingpower and wealth is attracting the attention of powerful newplayers--and new competition for LIS. Vincent Mosco has observed that'Commodification refers to the process of turning use values intoexchange values, of transforming products whose value is determined bytheir ability to meet individual and social needs into products whosevalue is set by what they can bring in the marketplace' (Mosco,1996). However, information must be viewed as a public good even while itmay also exist as a commodity with a dollar value. The commodification Commodification (or commoditization) is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, or, in other words, to assign value. As the word commodity has distinct meanings in business and in Marxist theory, commodification of information and knowledge not only has an impact on LIS, but profoundimplications for social values and the community at large--outcomeswhich information professionals, including librarians, need to beconsidering now. Multi--and inter-disciplinarity Hayek commented nearly half a century ago: 'There is scarcelyan individual phenomenon or event in society with which we can dealadequately without knowing a great deal of several disciplines ...'(Hayek, 1956, 464). Many LIS problems are interdisciplinary--but we showa reluctance to address such issues. Multi-disciplinarity leads to moreinterdisciplinary work. Most programs are too narrow to address theincreasing challenges of the profession, concentrating instead on theidentification of core. We must, equally importantly, examine where theboundaries of the profession lie. There is some growth: the infusion ofmulti-disciplinary perspectives results as LIS educators conductresearch with people from cognate fields, and when they offer jointprograms/courses with other academic departments (such as is done at theUniversity of South Australia). Such developments could encourage afresh examination of LIS, and an appreciation of the field as a kind ofmeta-discipline, dealing as it does with knowledge. Preparing graduates for a career I do not wish to diminish the wider social responsibilities of theinstitutions of education and organisations such as universities, butthere is no doubt that the modern student typically undertakes furthereducation primarily as a means of securing a job. Attracting the'right' type of student to LIS courses is a dilemma in and ofitself (do we really need more female arts graduates?); ensuring thatthey gain employment on graduation is critical. Several researchers haveundertaken studies which explore exactly what organisations are lookingfor, including Myburgh (2000, 2002), Willard and Mychalyn (1998) andFeret and Marcinek (1999). Willard and Mychalyn (1998) looked at the relationship betweenavailable jobs, qualifications of LIS graduates and the successfulapplicants. They arrived at the conclusion that such new jobs arediverse, and the link between necessary qualifications and the job wasnot obvious--suggesting that LIS graduates need to think carefully aboutwhat they know and how they can use such knowledge. Myburgh (2000, 2002) undertook a five year longitudinal study longitudinal studya chronological study in epidemiology which attempts to establish a relationship between an antecedent cause and a subsequent effect. See also cohort study. basedon job advertisements for information professionals, appearing in TheAustralian (a national newspaper in Australia); The Advertiser (a SouthAustralian newspaper) and announcements posted on ASIS-L, PACS-L,RECMGMT-L and RMAA-list--information-related listservs on the internet.A random sample [seventy-six advertisements] was taken for the purposeof this exercise. Specifically, the competencies demanded for each jobwere analysed and considered, rather than job titles (which were viewedas often misleading and uninformative un��in��for��ma��tive?adj.Providing little or no information; not informative.unin��for ). From them, phrases andterminology were drawn which described the characteristics andqualifications of the kind of staff they were looking for. The topdesirable characteristics were as follows--and it is worth emphasisingthat elements such as knowledge of AACR2 and other such 'core'knowledge were mentioned only once or twice: Feret and Marcinek (1999) rank their findings as follow. It can beseen that there is a congruence con��gru��ence?n.1. a. Agreement, harmony, conformity, or correspondence.b. An instance of this: "What an extraordinary congruence of genius and era" with the results given above: 1. Communication/training skills. 2. IT skills. 3. Managerial. 4. Commitment--including an entrepreneurial approach. 5. Subject knowledge/profiling. They add, when describing the librarian of 2005: ... his/her most important characteristics are very good interpersonal and communication skills, language proficiency, team-working skills, user friendliness and customer orientation. In order to fulfil at least the above expectations and to work with no hope of a reasonable salary, a candidate for the 2005 librarian needs to have a really good sense of humour. It is interesting to compare these studies with the work done byBrittain in 1995. He indicates that only twenty per cent of LISgraduates end up in the profession, and that seventy-five per cent ofthe potential employment market required skills, knowledge andexperience that was not provided in LIS schools. One can thereforeconclude that changes in curricula would enable students to have accessto a much wider variety of information jobs--or indeed, make thedifference between a career in information management or not. These studies and others like them need to be taken seriously bythe profession and its educators. A new paradigm New ParadigmIn the investing world, a totally new way of doing things that has a huge effect on business.Notes:The word "paradigm" is defined as a pattern or model, and it has been used in science to refer to a theoretical framework. for professional education Many of our problems are associated with our own lack of clarity inknowing exactly what our cultural niche actually is. We are not entirelysure of what game we are playing. What epistemological e��pis��te��mol��o��gy?n.The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.[Greek epist framework can weestablish which will guide the profession through times of low funding,virtuality, commodification, globalisation, diversification andmobilisation? What is the paradigmatic basis? We need a framework sothat we can understand how the roles and relationship within libraryinstitutions become constituted and the systems of power that theyinevitably serve (Radford and Budd, 1999). Much of this paper has dealtwith identifying challenges to the profession, and education, and now weneed to address how we may deal with them. Information professionals have shown, through the embodiment oftheir profession in collections of selected and managed documents, along-standing leitmotif leit��mo��tifalso leit��mo��tiv ?n.1. A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element.2. A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel. : the provision of access to information on asocially and institutionally co-operative and non-profit basis. Itshould therefore be no surprise that the skills that are used to achievethese goals in the analogue world should be used, for the same ends, inthe contemporary digital world--but we require a wider, theoreticalframework, not based only on a set of skills. A knowledge base is mostlikely to offer the most to a neophyte ne��o��phyte?n.1. A recent convert to a belief; a proselyte.2. A beginner or novice: a neophyte at politics.3. a. Roman Catholic Church A newly ordained priest. information worker than acollection of rapidly dated skills, as the graduate must be able torespond to new and uncharted problems during his/her career. Inaddition, as Sutton (1998) suggests, we may need to 'embrace theinevitable and deliberate obsolescence of extant ex��tant?adj.1. Still in existence; not destroyed, lost, or extinct: extant manuscripts.2. Archaic Standing out; projecting. professional knowledgeand skills'. One aspect is that such a paradigm will be inclusive. Even moresignificantly, such a paradigm should be reflective of a different worldview towards the processes of information management, and, as such,identify the core knowledge of the field (rather than cataloguing,seeing the broader issue of knowledge representation and organisationand its culturally determined roots). Additionally, such knowledge mustfocus on theory analysis and critique. Ostler and Dahlin (1995) notethat Dewey was not interested in the theoretical underpinnings of theprofession, but rather with its practice: this seems to have set thetone for much subsequent LIS education. As a result, as social andeconomic circumstances change, there is no unified body of theory toprovide a lens with which to view new problems and deal with them. For example, considering the work of modern philosophers such asFoucault might prove an interesting starting point Noun 1. starting point - earliest limiting pointterminus a quocommencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the . Radford and Budd(1999) note Michael Harris' interesting point that 'Foucault... [has made a] contribution to LIS in terms of a desire to overturnthe power of positivism positivism(pŏ`zĭtĭvĭzəm), philosophical doctrine that denies any validity to speculation or metaphysics. Sometimes associated with empiricism, positivism maintains that metaphysical questions are unanswerable and that the only in the social sciences and understand thepolitical economy of knowledge in new and innovative ways. Harris (1993)states that 'one can only wonder at the extent to whichFoucault's work has been ignored by such professions aslibrarianship and social work that would seem to be in a position tobenefit significantly from his insights'. There has recently beensome work in the area of postmodernist librarianship, by Radford (1998),Day (1996), Capurro (1985, 1996, 2000), and Frohmann (1994), which doesoffer fresh insights into the LIS role and ethics. As noted, we must learn to focus on information and knowledge, andnot its containers: The traditional focus of LIS has not been on information at all but rather on its containers--books, journals, maps, and so on. It acquires, describes, stores and disseminates them without much concern for haw their intellectual content is used. John Perry Barlow ... compared information to fine wine: 'We thought for many years that we were in the wine business. In fact, we were in the bottling business. And we don't know a damned thing about wine' (Van House and Sutton, 1996) It is the information itself with which information professionalsshould be concerned. Just what this information is, and how it can bemanaged, is clarified further below, as this is a pivotal point. Inpassing, it is worth noting that the future of libraries themselves (asstorehouses of physical objects) is incidental or even irrelevant to theprofession. Abbott (1998) suggests two ways of dealing with the 'new'problems mentioned above: reduction and abstraction. In the first, aproblem is seen as part of an area which is already disciplinarilydefined. In the second, new problems are related to underlying theorieswhich have already been developed in a discipline. In librarianship,there is a paradox in that we seek to describe the content of documentsin words that best express the content, without studying linguistics orsemiotics semioticsor semiology,discipline deriving from the American logician C. S. Peirce and the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. It has come to mean generally the study of any cultural product (e.g., a text) as a formal system of signs. , or understanding the social construction of knowledge, or thecontextual base for meaning. Thus, knowledge of the broader issue ofclassification theory assists more in organising hypertext documentsthan does knowledge of how to apply the Dewey Decimal System A numerical classification system of books employed by libraries.The Dewey Decimal System, created by Melvil Dewey, is a reference system that classifies all subjects by number. The numbers in a particular grouping all refer to a designated general topic. . Among the specifics of such a program, it is possible to note a fewareas: 1. There should not be too much focus on specific informationresources (1) The data and information assets of an organization, department or unit. See data administration.(2) Another name for the Information Systems (IS) or Information Technology (IT) department. See IT. and how to use them, but rather on how knowledge is createdand organised in different fields, where it comes from, how to assess itand finally the discipline-specific problems with accessing it. Studentsfrom a first professional degree cannot be expected to graduate with afull working knowledge of all information resources across the entirefield of knowledge. 2. It is also necessary to look at information management itself inmore detail, which involves a close analysis of what information is, asopposed to documents, and how information, data, documents, knowledgeand technology are each managed in quite different ways. Included hereshould be the uses to which information is put; how users assess qualityand relevance (especially, once again, across disciplines); whereinformation is used in different ways by different users; and issues ofprivacy, intellectual property and the like. 3. Social issues, such as access, information's contributionto social uplift, the role of information policies in organisations andcountries, and the relationship between society and technology is vitalfor a professional and international perspective. 4. There is no denying that today's graduates need to befluent in information systems and technologies of all kinds. Inparticular, they need to be aware that such technologies are not asurrogate for professional activities, but support and expand them. 5. The program should focus on more general practices andprinciples in a wider range of information environments and with alarger number of document formats. I believe Marfleet and Kelly (1999)put this very well: In order to avoid misunderstandings and provide good service, reformation professionals realised that what was needed was a better understanding of the cognitive, affective and social processes underlying information needs, searching, interpreting and problem-solving. The new model for the information professional is that of an INTER-MEDIA-RY: someone who analyses the customers' needs in a broad sense--the kinds of problem-solving they are doing, their goals, the social and organisational matrix of their activities, their knowledge states, their preferences for information search strategies and formats, etc. This customer knowledge is then put to use not to stockpile materials and 'dish them out' to passive clients, but rather to provide a customised gateway to widely-distributed resources--both people and 'things'--which can help the customer make non-random decisions and find the paths toward desired goals. 6. Lastly, the important interaction between information, societyand humans should be examined--as well as human interaction withinformation systems. Van House and Sutton strongly suggest that the professiondisassociate dis��as��so��ci��ate?tr.v. dis��as��so��ci��at��ed, dis��as��so��ci��at��ing, dis��as��so��ci��atesTo remove from association; dissociate.dis itself from libraries, a trend that we are already seeingin North American library schools. ... we suggest that LIS education needs to (further) decouple itself from libraries. Currently, much of the discussion around LIS education is less of an abstraction of its knowledge base than a simple extension of its core institutional focus, libraries. Arguing that new problem areas and institutions are much like libraries is not a powerful argument for domain in competition with professions that are larger, more flexible, have more public visibility and perhaps credibility, and are more competitive (Van House and Sutton, 1996). The educational ramifications ramificationsnpl → Auswirkungen plof these changes are considerable.There needs to be more orientation toward the corporate and informationindustry constituency; more emphasis on data and information structuringand the design of information systems; development of a moreentrepreneurial and market orientation; development of a moreinternational orientation; and the development of a core competency A core competency is something that a firm can do well and that meets the following three conditions specified by Hamel and Prahalad (1990): It provides customer benefits It is hard for competitors to imitate It can be leveraged widely to many products and markets. thatis general to information professions and not specific to librarianship,in recognition of the great employment mobility of informationprofessionals. Undergraduate vs postgraduate Undergraduate education undergraduate educationMedtalk In the US, a 4+ yr college or university education leading to a baccalaureate degree, the minimum education level required for medical school admission; undergraduate medical education refers to the 4 yrs of medical school. Cf CME. in L1S is a fairly recent phenomenon, andhas not been successful in most parts of the world where it has beentried. In Australia, RMIT RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is closing down its degree from 2003; theUniversity of South Australia will do so as soon as it can after that.Dropping numbers, and in general the poor quality of students have ledto these decisions. At most, LIS undergraduate courses have been offeredas electives to other degrees, notably education (where one can see adear link). In general, such individual courses have not been seen asoffering essential skills in the information society. In my experience, undergraduates (if they have come directly fromschool) typically do not have the life experience which is necessary tounderstand this complex and sophisticated blend of art and science thatforms the backbone of the profession. It is only after more experienceof human nature, individually and within organisations, that someappreciation of the role of information and knowledge (not reading ordocuments) can be fully understood. There is a need for more comprehensive initial training. I am ofthe view that a post-bachelor Master's degree should become thebasic pre-professional training. The Graduate Diploma A Graduate Diploma is generally a postgraduate qualification. AustraliaSee also: Postgraduate diplomas offered in Australia are typical of those offered in England, Wales, and Ireland. is not enough. Itis not possible to meet the needs of the profession within thisframework. We don't need more superficialists, who train within aone-year time frame, and have a smattering of bits and pieces ofknowledge across a discipline area that is too wide to capture withinone year. It should be noted that a Master's degree has become thefirst professional qualification internationally in LIS (and across manyother professions as well). The Graduate Diploma seems to survive onlyin Australia and South Africa--and it is being phased out in the lattercountry. Added to this, if the first professional degree is offered only ata post-graduate level, this means that the new graduate has more thanone string to his/her bow: they will already have some in-depthknowledge about some other discipline, and an understanding of howknowledge, theory and a literature base is created within such adiscipline. This can then be extrapolated upon to construct anunderstanding of dealing with the body of knowledge found in otherareas. To say the graduates will not earn salaries commensurate with thetime they take to study is to deny the central role that they should beassuming in modern society which is the raison d'etre rai��son d'����tre?n. pl. rai��sons d'��treReason or justification for existing.[French : raison, reason + de, of, for + ��tre, to be. of the field. Impediments to new era There are some immediate problems with such a proposal which cannotbe fully explored here, such as the tradition-bound university and theconflict between striving for graduate-level scholarship, encouragingstudents to pursue research which advances the profession, andsatisfying employers who pay most attention to skills-level details andcompetencies. Abbott (1988), however, states quite clearly that aprofession's strongest claim of jurisdiction over a problem is thatits knowledge system is effective in the task domain. However, this isnot the case with traditional LIS education; it is both why LISgraduates don't get jobs, and why so much information work is notperformed by those who are educated in this area. There are different career stages which require differenteducational outcomes, as well. At first, graduates might feel that theyrequire more practical skills; later on, there is more need formanagerial accomplishment; later, more theory and professional context;even later, the interaction between information and society, and themanner in which knowledge is created in a variety of fields, becomescentral to the professional view. Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of the new informationjobs, LIS education (and associations) no longer have a monopoly oncontrolling entry to the profession--or to the jobs. The education ofskilled information professionals must evolve to meet the many newchallenges that have resulted from the complex, knowledge-basedenvironment in which we live and work. In this model, there is anattempt to model professional education so that graduates are providedwith the necessary skills with which they can gain employment upongraduation, as well as the vision and understanding which might helpthem cope better with the rapidly changing world in which we live. We must be able to tie together the reality of the InformationSociety, and the work that must be done within it, and the education andtraining necessary for such pivotal roles.Desirable attributes, skills and understandings Frequency1 Social impact of information and 36 communication technologies. Effect of ICT on the development and conduct of scientific research. Role of information in national/international development. Effect of ICT on the development and conduct of scientific research.2 Knowledge of records management 23 principles and electronic record- keeping, records/information and business procedures. Understand the interplay between the information and business needs of large companies2 Assessment, implementation and 23 monitoring of new technological sys- tems. Technological expertise and understanding3 Knowledge of software and relational 21 databases; ability to create data structures which facilitate the indexing and retrieval of information. Textual contextual analysis4 Assessment of the needs and usage styles 18 of consumers of digital media5 Interpret and apply legislation and 14 regulation6 Understand and implement classification 14 and functionality systems; The definition, organization and design of information systems; indexing and thesaurus development Bibliography Abbott, Andrew Delay (1998) 'Professionalism and the future oflibrarianship.' Library trends 46 (3): 430-444. Abbott, Andrew Delay (1988) The system of professions: an essay onthe division of expert labor. 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Information technology and globalisation.[Online]. http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/cap01/laura/ithome.htm Marfleet, Jackie, Catherine Kelly (1999) 'Leading the field:the role of the information professional in the next century'.Electronic library 17 (6) 359-364. Mosco, Vincent (1996) The political economy of communication:rethinking and renewal. London: SAGE Publications This article or section needs sourcesorreferences that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. . Neill, SD (1992) Dilemmas in the study of information: exploringthe boundaries of information science. New York: Greenwood. Ostler, Larry J, Therrin C Dahlin. (1995) 'Library education:setting or rising sun?' American libraries 26:683. Radford, Gary P (1998) 'Flaubert, Foucault, and theBiliotheque fantastique: toward a postmodern epistemology for libraryscience'. 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Journal of education forlibrary and information science 37 (2):131-147. Willard, Patricia and Janette Mychalyn (1998) 'New informationmanagement work in a changing world: an Australian survey'.International journal of information management 18 (5): 315-327. Wilson, AM and Robert Hermanson (1998) 'Educating and traininglibrary practitioners: a comparative history with trends andrecommendations'. Library trends 46 (3): 467-505. Wilson, TD (2000) Curriculum and catastrophe: change inprofessional education. [Online].http://www.alise.org/conferences/conf00_Wilson--Curriculum.htm. Sue Myburgh is senior lecturer senior lecturern. Chiefly BritishA university teacher, especially one ranking next below a reader. and program director, Management andInternet Communication Strategies School of Communication, Informationand New Media Foundation Director, Centre for Internet Studies Internet studies is a field of academia dealing with the interaction between the Internet and modern society, and the sociological and technological implications on one another. University of South Australia, St Bernard's Road, Magill, SA 5072ph: 0B 8302 4421 fx 08 8302 4745 sue.myburgh@unisa.edu.au,http://www.unisa.edu.au