Core Topics in Digital Library Education

Abstract

This chapter introduces the effort of developing a digital library (DL) curriculum by an interdisciplinary team from Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It presents the foundations of the curriculum building, the DL curriculum framework, the DL educational module template, a list of draft modules that are currently developed and evaluated by multiple experts in the area, and more details about the resources used in the draft modules and DL-related workshop topics mapped to the DL curriculum framework. The use of information systems such as DLs is increasing in education and businesses. To better-support their users, DLs must include both a well-organized underlying architecture and a set of services designed to address their potential users’ information needs. For this vision of the future to come to fruition, information professionals need to be educated to establish and manage digital libraries. The proposed curriculum framework provides a firm foundation for these important educational activities.