Abstract
Library and information science undergraduate programs’ adequacy to prepare new information professionals has become the topic of an ongoing debate, with opposing arguments about curricular structure and focus. Within this context, this study, forming part of ongoing doctoral research, analyzes students’ opinions on how to enhance library school curricula to effectively respond to academic librarians’ new roles and functions. By repositioning the lens on the practical and experience-driven student perspective, away from standard educational practices, the researchers pilot-tested a library science student survey. The mix-methods, student codeveloped, survey instrument was tested with a small self-selection sample of future information professionals in Spain and Greece. The study’s goal was to contribute to the limited body of research concerning students´ perceptions and awareness about library science education. Survey participants were provided the opportunity to critically evaluate their library school undergraduate programs’ responsiveness to the changing academic librarianship landscape. Responses, analyzed by using descriptive statistical and inductive thematic techniques, revealed a limited academic librarianship related content in library and information science curricula. Furthermore, results highlighted a reserved optimism with respect to the library’s prospects of upgrading its role in the university, an ambivalence towards librarian’s future roles, and a diffuse skepticism around the system’s potential to grasp the opportunities that the new information and communication technologies offer. The merit of the study resides in both the diversity of participants’ insightful comments and the use of a student validated survey instrument making them active contributors to the library school program’s assessment process. Dissimilar to stereotypical research projects, this initiative opens a different perspective to program evaluation and its subsequent alignment with academic library stakeholders’ needs.
Highlights
While science and philosophy are signaling a paradigm shift in higher education today, academic librarians are still grappling with their emerging role of bridging teaching and self-oriented study spaces (Tevaniemi, Poutanen, & Lähdemäki, 2015)
The more challenging innovation becomes in the academic library, the more administrators agree upon the urgency to ensure a pipeline of adaptable new information professionals, able to think more like educators than service providers, to rethink existing organizational structures and priorities, to appreciate strategic value planning, and to adopt proactive intervention strategies (Bennett, 2009; Ewell & Wellman, 2007; Germano & Stretch-Stephenson, 2012; Jantz, 2016; Myburgh, 2005)
These new librarian missions are associated with the student-centered library model, which accommodates all the information and information technology services necessary to support learning and research in a university, and which is calling into question the initial training of library professionals (Beagle, 2004; Blin, 2009; Red de Bibliotecas Universitarias Españolas, 2003)
Summary
While science and philosophy are signaling a paradigm shift in higher education today, academic librarians are still grappling with their emerging role of bridging teaching and self-oriented study spaces (Tevaniemi, Poutanen, & Lähdemäki, 2015). In the overarching intention to explore stakeholder viewpoints on the degree to which library school curricula support the new academic librarian profile, it was decided to adopt a process that would enable library science students in Greece and Spain to contribute to the assessment of their programs (Montague & Steadly, 2005) To this end, a survey instrument was co-developed with the help of Greek library science department junior students, which was later piloted with a self-selected sample of Greek and Spanish public university senior students and recent graduates. The survey instrument co-developed with students targeted senior undergraduates and new information professionals and sought to identify: (a) whether their studies are preparing them to meet the changing needs of academic libraries; (b) whether the academic librarianship topic is adequately addressed within existing curricula, and (c) whether library schools are effectively equipping library professionals with the necessary skills to overcome innovation-related operationalization challenges and to serve as liaisons within the institution and beyond. The pilot survey provided the opportunity to detect possible logistical, technical and content issues prior to conducting a larger sample size data collection
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