Escaping Lenin's library: Library and Information Science education in independent Ukraine

Abstract

This article examines historical developments and current trends in Ukrainian library education. It gives a synthetic overview and comparison with US library education, based on a review of the Ukrainian literature, a survey of Library and Information Service (LIS) curricula and interviews with senior figures in Ukrainian LIS education. Ukraine became an independent state only in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Previous to independence, Ukraine's LIS education was integrated within the Soviet system. After independence the system evolved slowly, but with the recent Orange Revolution, reform efforts have increased pace. Ukrainian LIS education remains more vocational than in the US, with a two-year non-degree certificate as the most common training, and a four-year bachelor's degree offered by elite institutions. One emerging trend in LIS education stresses the new opportunities for librarians and information professionals opened by Internet technologies. Another is part of a more general shift, inspired by a new Ukrainian higher education law, stressing the country's independent culture and formalizing standards for different degrees. LIS education has now reached a turning point, as reformers grapple with the limited resources, power of inertia, and remnants of Soviet culture in their efforts to meet current challenges and prepare a new generation of information professionals.