Dear All,
I am quite interested in this discussion and would like to make an input. Last year, I completed my doctorate degree in library and information studies at McGill University's School of Information Studies. My PhD thesis focused specifically on the "chasm" or "gap" question between library practitioners and LIS educators. I invite those interested to read my thesis to gain insight to my approach to answering the question. Below is the abstract of my research.
..................................................................................................................................
ABSTRACT
Library and Information Science (LIS) education must equip its graduates with the
level of competence commensurate with the demands of entry-level positions
available in the field. This is more so in the area of information technology (IT) that
is widely acknowledged to be rapidly evolving thereby offering unique job
specifications and or positions in LIS. This exploratory research investigates the
extent of alignment between the level of competence proposed in learning objectives
by LIS educators, and the level of competence required from LIS graduates by
practitioners in the field.
The study focuses specifically on cognitive competence, and in the domain of
database management (DBM) within LIS education in US and Canada. The
Taxonomy Table (TT) designed by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) was used as a
conceptual framework, to analyze learning objectives obtained from DBM educators
and practitioners to determine the levels of competence proposed by educator and
practitioners in DBM. The levels of competence derived from educators and
practitioners were then compared to determine the extent of alignment between the
levels of competence offered by LIS educators, and the levels of competence
expectations of LIS practitioners from graduates in DBM.
Content analysis was applied to original learning objectives obtained from both
groups of respondents. A modified database life circle (MDBLC) designed in this
study provided 5 DBM work processes namely: Database planning; Database design;
Database implementation; Database operation; and Database maintenance. The level
of competence expectations of LIS educators and practitioners were compared within
the work processes, as well as in DBM overall.
Findings from this study show that although the most emphasized competence level
in DBM by educators and practitioners are Understand/Procedural Knowledge, and
Understand/Conceptual Knowledge, respectively, there is no significant difference in
the levels of competence proposed by educators and expected of LIS graduates at
xiv
entry-level positions by practitioners. The study concluded that there is alignment
between LIS education and practitioner expectation of LIS graduates in DBM. It
therefore recommended that for LIS education to be relevant to practitioner
expectations of LIS graduates, educators must ensure that their learning objectives
reflect the levels of competence expected from LIS graduates by employers. The
framework presented in this study for the analysis of learning will be helpful in the
alignment of educational objectives, particularly in LIS, to job requirements. A
statistically significant difference was recorded between educators and practitioners
in the competence levels obtained in one of the work processes in DBM - Database
Planning. In this work process, educators emphasize Understand in their learning
objectives, while practitioners emphasize Analyze. LIS DBM educators should review
their learning objectives in this area to meet the competence level expectation of
practitioners which is at the Analyze level.
Dr. Emeka Nwakanma
Montreal, Canada.
--- On Mon, 1/11/10, Williams,Delmus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Williams,Delmus <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: 2010 Forum on Library Education
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, January 11, 2010, 10:04 AM
Unlike some, I have enjoyed this conversation and would like to make a short comment in my last few weeks as a working librarian. Of course there is a chasm, and there should be, in that libraries
have often relied on the LIS schools to build a theoretical base to what is developing in practice in the field. I have long come to believe that ours is not a theory driven profession but one that builds theory based on observable practice, and the melding
of the two threads is critical to the health of our profession. Librarianship has debated long and hard whether the aim of an LIS program is to be able to work as a fully turned out librarian in a one person library or to attract and prepare for a career
in which they can grow into professionals capable of running large multifaceted systems, and the result has been that neither camp has ever been fully satisfied. But the real test, at the end of the day, to my mind is can LIS or iSchool programs produce graduates
who are better suited to serve my clients and develop than bright scholars with degrees in other disciplines who come to libraries off the street. My concern with this debate is that I am not always sure that every program is concerned with meeting that test.
What is the "value added" that makes a graduate of a library school more an asset two years into the field than an English major if both undergo the same kind of on the job training programs in the model Myburgh, Seavey and others propose? Isn't that the
real question?
Del Williams
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 7:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 2010 Forum on Library Education
Since Bill Crowley directed his response to
"All and Bernie in Particular", I thought I should probably reply.
I've grown very weary of the "Is there a chasm between LIS education and professional practice?" question. Seeing the question once again, posed in the context of yet another ALA Forum on Library
Education, pushed me to the tipping point. In the process of replying I blurred the distinction between two issues:
1. Is there a "chasm" or "gap" between library practitioners and LIS educators? Well, yeah, there's often a gap between educators and practitioners, in many fields. There are those who "teach" and
those who "do", and never the twain shall meet (this is a slight exaggeration for the sake of example). Some library practitioners today complain that many LIS educators don't really know much about libraries, which is a valid point. But 35 years ago, when
I was getting my MLS, my fellow students and I had similar complaints. The faculty may have had library backgrounds, but they hadn't actually been practicising librarians in quite a while. I'm willing to accept that there is some sort of gap
--- On Sat, 1/9/10, Crowley, Bill <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Crowley, Bill <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: 2010 Forum on Library Education
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010, 1:27 PM
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Greetings All and Bernie in Particular:
My “information” friends—and I DO have information friends—often respond to the “Is there a chasm between LIS education and professional practice?”
question with a variant of the “No, it’s all information science. End of discussion” argument. This is only to be expected since there are certain questions whose answers cannot be ascertained through quantitative surveys. If you want a simple answer I would
suggest determining whether or not “library” and “information” practitioners and those “academic practitioners” who often teach in and administer —without library experience—LIS programs share the same professional cultures. The short answer is many do not.
Culture and co-cultures, the foundations of both science and practice, can be learned from e-books but are really learned through living it. I go into this issue more in both Spanning the Theory-practice Divide in Library and Information
Science (2005) and Renewing Professional Librarianship(2008).
If you want to go the longer route of “scientifically” determining the existence of a chasm—or lack of one—here is what you do. You get millions and millions
of dollars to hire a lot of cultural anthropologists, many “Chicago School” sociologists (if you can find them), and a lot of folklore scholars. They you have them read a lot of issues of
Library Journal, School Library Journal, VOOYA, American Libraries, and the equivalent information and knowledge management practitioner journals. Then you send them to every LIS school, give them every course syllabi, and let them “sit in” on
weeks of F2F and online LIS classes to determine if the syllabus and classroom activities match the instruction needed and required professional learning. Then you send them out to do more such participant –observation and numerous interviews with managers
and new librarians to determine if the LIS educational mix actually matches library-information-knowledge realities. (BTW, I did a thesis on the professional folklore of night-school education for a master’s degree at Ohio State University in the 1990s and
can testify that is involved here is a LOT of time on subject. )
You could do all of the above and then find out that the intellectual lenses used by some of those who actually read the study will not allow them to accept
the reality of the results. For the reasons why this is so, you might want to revisit Kuhn’s
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions or the old legal truism of determining who benefits from asserting that a particular belief is true. (Jobs anyone?)
In short, a lot of work can be done with conclusions accepted or rejected on the basis of what benefits the reader the most. It can be irritating but it
is very human.
Best wishes,
Bill
Bill Crowley, Ph.D.
Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Dominican University
7900 West Division Street
River Forest, IL 60305
708.524.6513 v
708.524.6657 f
[log in to unmask]
www.gslis.dom.edu
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 3:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 2010 Forum on Library Education
This announcement asks: "Is there a chasm between LIS education and professional practice?"
As Yogi Berra once said, "It's like deja-vu, all over again." Isn't this question asked just about every year? And don't we wind up with one group saying
"Yes, there is a chasm", and another group saying "No, there isn't a chasm"? Then there's some heated debate, and maybe a report. Then people get tired of talking about the question and it gets put on a back burner until the next round.
It sure would be nice to put this question to rest once and for all by actually answering it. I remember John Unsworth's suggestion last summer in the iSchool/iCaucus response to the ALA Library Education Task Force report:
"As deans of the iSchools, we suggest that the most efficient means of achieving the outcomes that you desire would be to conduct empirical research leading to a genuine understanding of the needs of the profession and to consider how those needs are, or are
not, being met by programs such as ours. We envision this work being conducted in an atmosphere of
mutual respect between those who teach and those who practice, and would willingly engage the expertise and resources of the iSchools in the achievement of such an outcome."
To the best of my knowedge, no one (on either "side") ever took John up on his suggestion.
I, for one, am really tired of the "chasm" debate. It always seems to end with both sides each convincing themselves that their position is correct.
Bernie Sloan
--- On Thu, 1/7/10, Patricia Antrim <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Patricia Antrim <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 2010 Forum on Library Education
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 2:55 PM
The following announcement is sent on behalf of the ALA Committee on Education.
2010 Forum on Library Education
The American Library Association (ALA) Committee on Education and the
Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) will
present a forum on Library Education. The forum will be hosted by ALISE
and held during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston, (MA) at the Boston
Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 15,
2010.
This year's theme will be: "Learning Outcomes: Methodologies for
Connecting Communities"
Representatives from Library & Information Studies (LIS) education and
ALA divisions will discuss the following issues of learning outcomes in
LIS education and how the professional community views LIS graduates:
What is a Learning Outcome? How might the new competences impact LIS
education? What relationship do the new competences have to established
division competences? Is there a chasm between LIS education and
professional practice?
The forums on library education are annual events and are venues for an
open exchange of ideas and ongoing dialogue between LIS educators and
library practitioners on current topics related to library education
matters.
Speakers: Rachel A. Applegate, Indiana University - Indianapolis; Lynn
S. Connaway, OCLC; Sara Kelly Johns, Lake Placid Middle/High School
(NY); Dan O'Connor, Rutgers University and Scott Walter, University of
Illinois - Urbana.
For updates and additional information about the Forum, please visit the
website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/hrdr/abouthrdr/hrdrliaisoncomm/c
ommitteeoned/libraryeducationforum.cfm
Lorelle Swader
**Please include the history of email correspondence in your reply**
Dr. Patricia Antrim
Chair, Educational Leadership & Human Development
Lovinger 4102
University of Central Missouri
Warrensburg, MO 64093
Phone: 660-543-8633
Fax: 660-543-4164
