ALISE abstracts: The Wind Beneath Our Wings...

Robert Grover
Professor
E-mail: groverro@esumail.emporia.edu

Herbert Achleitner
Associate Professor
E-mail: achleith@esumail.emporia.edu

Nancy Thomas
Assistant Professor
E-mail: thomasna@esumail.emporia.edu

Faye N. Vowell
Dean
E-mail: vowellfa@esumail.emporia.edu

Roger Wyatt
Associate Professor
E-mail: wyattrog@esumail.emporia.edu

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School of Library and Information Management
Emporia State University
Emporia, Kansas 66801
Phone: 316-341-5203
Fax: 316-341-5233

The Wind Beneath Our Wings: Chaos Theory
and the Butterfly Effect in Curriculum Design

GENERAL SESSION I: Toward the New Information Profession,
Wednesday, February 12, 1997, 11:15am - 12:30pm

Introduction

Unprecedented global, social, economic, and technological forces are constantly reshaping the core knowledge for the preparation of information professionals. The School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) at Emporia State University has risen to the challenge of restructuring its curriculum to meet the requirements of these new realities, which are dynamic and unpredictable. The central metaphor of complexity and chaos theory, the butterfly effect, aptly describes these conditions. This metaphor suggests that a butterfly's gently flapping wings in Mongolia could, in unpredictable ways, influence weather conditions in Boston. These currents manifest themselves in the SLIM curriculum as well. As an example, the emergence of listservs and web sites within the Internet has created a new sensitivity to initial conditions or starting points, which have greatly influenced course design and delivery in the School.

The purpose of this paper is to:

Articulate SLIM's knowledge base which will enable professionals to lead change in the information professions
Foster survival skills for information professionals entering the 21st century
Identify fundamental attitudes necessary for information professionals to navigate "nimbly" in a fast-changing environment
Suggest implications for alternative, innovative delivery of professional education

Social Context

Change is the most significant characteristic of our information age. Change is fostered by the rate at which new information is produced, disseminated, and used. Explosive developments in electronic technology drive this process in large part. Effective response requires that the information professional must be educated as a change agent who is fully capable of participating in the diagnosis of information requirements, the prescription of appropriate information resources and services, and the evaluation of these resources and services for clientele. Furthermore, information professionals must understand the impact of change on both the macro and micro levels, i.e., the symbiotic nature of the relationship between the global information infrastructure and the customization of information services at the local level.

Information professionals are the architects, engineers, managers, and evaluators of the information infrastructure in this environment. The information professional's role is to create, construct, evaluate, and expand the infrastructure to enhance information flow. As noted in the literature of a variety of disciplines, management of information is critical to the economic and social well-being of society. To meet these challenges, people entering the profession must be prepared to learn, unlearn, and relearn throughout their careers. Professional curricula must support the preparation of professional problem solvers who are creative, flexible, innovative, and fluent in technology.

Knowledge Base for a Professional Program

A key for understanding the current age is emergent systems theory. Morphogenic systems must be open, dynamic, interconnected, and complex in order to evolve. A curriculum must function under these same conditions. The SLIM curriculum is a dynamic mix of theory, tools, application courses, and electives context-sensitive.

The core knowledge of an information professional must include the following:

A professional philosophy for the information professions
An understanding of human behavior as individuals interact with information and society
An understanding of the information transfer process--how information and knowledge is created, recorded, disseminated, organized, diffused, utilized, preserved, and destroyed
A comprehension of information engineering--the theories supporting the organization of information for effective use
A working knowledge of management theory to enable leadership of an information agency
Knowledge of the global information infrastructure as it interfaces with local, regional, and national networks

The curriculum's theory base provides the intellectual foundation for the following: "tools" courses, applications courses, and electives. Tools knowledge enables the practitioner to organize (e.g., catalog) information, retrieve and repackage information, diagnose information needs, plan and evaluate information services, and use print and electronic information resources. Themes that are identified in the tier of theory courses are amplified and extended at the applications level.

Applications courses cluster in the following areas: information transfer, global information infrastructure, management, and technology.

Values and Attitudes Required by Information Professionals

A vital professional curriculum acknowledges the centrality of people as the appropriate focus of all professional activities. Articulated by the SLIM faculty as essential values and attitudes are: a global perspective, a well-defined professional ethic, a concern for others and the ability to promote civility in practice, an acceptance of change, a passion for excellence, a positive attitude, a respect for diversity, a sense of humor, a sense of self worth, an acceptance of ambiguity, a willingness to take risks, energy, technological fluency, and an appreciation for the contributions of research from a variety of methodological perspectives. The values and assumptions from which these attributes emanate are inherent in the culture of SLIM and manifest themselves in the courses, activities, and assignments which students complete.

Two major values of the School of Library and Information Management are a people first philosophy and a commitment to quality. It is our intent to model our commitment to these values through the goals, designs, and delivery of courses which acknowledge the primacy of customization and ethics in the design and provision of user-centered information services, an intellectual and social climate which promotes diversity and encourages risk taking, and administrative policies and procedures which foster and support initiative, flexibility, and creativity in instruction and research for both faculty and students.

Implications for Delivery of Professional Education

A professional program must model the values which it promulgates. SLIM has extended its program from reaching students within its home state (Kansas) to meeting the professional educational needs of its region (Nebraska, Colorado, North and South Dakota), nationally (Oregon and New Mexico) and internationally (Manitoba). International education includes consulting and education projects in Paraguay and eastern Europe; present projects include development of an international degree in Bulgaria and Russia. Experimentation with the packaging of courses on CD-ROMs, video, and Web sites is leading to an extended constituency far beyond the School's state borders. In addition, these distance programs have resulted in the School's assembling a national faculty of part-time instructors, with the expectation of hiring an international faculty to deliver programs.

Meanwhile, as the SLIM faculty implements this new curriculum, it awaits the next flapping of the butterfly's wings.

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