LIS Education and Quality Assurance System in Asia-Pacific: Taiwan

Abstract

The development of education of librarianship in Taiwan has been through more than half of a century since 1954. After decades of efforts, there are 9 LIS education institutes with 19 programs from undergraduate to Ph.D. level in Taiwan. Quality assurance and quality assurance in education are defined at first and then, goals and objectives of various levels of LIS education and their requirement are stated as description of quality assurance in the profession. Stages and practices of quality assurance mechanism are discussed. The roles of authority such as the Ministry of Education, Library Association, and newly established nationwide evaluation agency—Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan and involvement of these evaluation units have reshaped the higher education in Taiwan as well the LIS education. The conclusion states the importance of synthesizing of Library, Museum, Information, Communication, Archival Studies, Content Curatorship (Gallery). It also suggests the expansion of partnership with WIPO, ISO, IPA, IFLA for further development of standards building and accreditation system.