Development of the Library and Information Science Students’ Digital Competencies

Abstract

The article is devoted to the existing tasks in the field of improving the quality of higher library education in the digitalization era. The purpose of the article is to focus on challenges and possibilities concerning digital competence of students in library and information education. The librarians’ digital competence is growing importance in classrooms, now that digital resources and digital media are becoming important parts of librarians’ everyday practice. The starting point of the study is the need to identify the key components of students’ digital competence in terms of knowledge and skills necessary for successful professional implementation and increase competitiveness in the labor market. Predictive-analytical method, the conceptualization method and mental modeling method have been used in the key components of digital competencies study. The authors propose to supplement the set of competencies for Library and information science students taking into account features of the modern information environment development. The main digital competencies of library students and library professionals should be considered: the ability to work with digital information; ability to communicate in a digital media environment; ability to create and manage digital content; implement information security measures; ability to solve the problems of digital modernization, identify and analyze society’s information needs based on the study of trends in the digital media space. A librarian should have a combination of technological and librarianship competences. A new area in digital competence of librarians was revealed. Recommendations for librarians training in the areas of digital competence have been suggested.