Library higher education system in the USA: traditions and innovations

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to describe the main evolution and current vectors stages of the higher library education development in the USA. Research methodology. The application of a set of theoretical and empirical methods of scientific knowledge made it possible to identify the main stages of the library higher education system’s evolution in the USA, the establishment of classical and innovative models of its modern development, transition to qualitatively new educational standards that marked the implementation of the competency approach, the dominance of cross-curricular learning goals over the formation of highly specialized knowledge, skills and abilities, the introduction instead of a disciplinary activity model of learning. The main approaches to scientific knowledge to achieve this goal were the systemic, historical, comparative, and modeling ones. The scientific novelty of the work is that on the basis of comparative and content analysis of the leading US Universities’ educational programs for Bachelors, Masters, and Doctors of Philosophy in “Library Science and Information Science” in their historical retrospective revealed the main development stages and modernization vectors of the country’s library higher education as the founder and leader of the specified educational direction. Conclusions. A study of the library schools’ genesis in American Universities, and content analysis of their educational training programs for various degrees allowed us to identify the main stages of the library higher education’s evolution in the USA: the stage of origin (the late 1880s – late 1930s); stage of intensive development (1950–1970s); stage of modernization changes (1980s – till present). The main vectors of modern transformations of higher library education are innovation, continuity, fundamentalization, digitalization, universality, and strengthening of the information component in the content of education. Key words: library higher education, the USA, history of library higher education, digitalization of education, diversification of library educational programs.