Convergence of education for information professionals in libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions in LIS schools in research and curriculum offerings.

Abstract

The half-day workshop explored ways iSchools can participate in research and education relevant to the employment of information professionals in libraries, archives, and museums to provide access to and preservation of the collections held by these institutions. Presently, the education of information professionals for each of these institutions has primarily separate and diverse tracks and traditions. While some schools educating librarians do offer courses that include discussion of the application of library and information science skills to archival and museum collections, few offer full specializations in this area. Archival education has traditionally been based on degrees in history, but as the archival collections have utilized more digitalization to provide preservation and expand access to the content of collections, the need for staff with more knowledge of skills related to the preservation and expansion of access to archival collections has been recognized. Similar recognition of the importance of information profession skills is being recognized in museum studies, an area that in the past has depended on specialized subject discipline education coupled with an internship/apprenticeship-based training. The discussion of the union of education of information professional in archives, museums, and libraries is beginning. This past year the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) established a working group to explore the convergence of education of information professionals for positions in archives, museums, and libraries. While evidence of such convergence was found in North America and in some other places internationally, clearly there is considerable additional research and discussion that is needed to determine the most effective way to proceed to realize a convergence in what is now a very divergent area of identifying educational goals and competencies in these three broad institutions that employ information professionals.