Over the next two weeks here in the United States, we will be celebrating our Independence Day holiday, followed closely by the annual meeting of the American Library Association scheduled in New York City. In view of these events, we will resume our open discussion.
We are rather desperate for guest editors. We have three topics scheduled for this summer. Gary Olson will lead a discussion on doctoral education from July 14-27, followed by a discussion led by Ray McGinnis from July 28-August 10. Brad Eden will assume the editor's role for a discussion of libraries and remote work from August 11-24. During the two-week period around the American Labor Day holiday (August 25-September 7), we will again feature an open discussion.
That is all we have scheduled. We had an open discussion hardly two weeks ago. At the beginning of that discussion, I listed over a dozen topics that had been suggested. I received a few additional suggestions for new topics. Unfortunately, of the six prospective guest editors I contacted, only two are interested in leading a discussion next fall.
We need volunteers to assume the role of guest editors. Please suggest a topic that interests you. Perhaps you are studying a particular topic or your institution is debating over how/whether to accomplish a particular task, change your mission, address the needs of a new user community, etc. Consider using the CRISTAL-ED electronic discussion group to broaden your viewpoints, obtain new perspectives, or debate various options.
Let's go ahead and start our two-week open discussion period. At the same time, think about how the CRISTAL-ED discussion group could help you and your organization achieve your goals. Please suggest new topics. Volunteer to be a guest editor. Find a colleague and collaborate on a guest editorship. Get involved and active. Please respond to the list or contact me directly via electronic mail (karen.drabenstott@umich.edu) with your questions, concerns, ideas.
The latter is my own case. In the last "Occasional Papers" (nos. 200/201) of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was published my own paper, "Why Library Schools Need to Change Their Curriculum." This paper was my contribution to the "Russian-American Seminar on Critical Thinking and the Library" (Moscow, June, 1992), edited by Cerise Oberman and Dennis Kimmage, both SUNY Plattsburgh. My paper argues that library school curricula lack concern for the new pedagogy, especially what we now know about how people learn, read, write, and conduct research, all basically in the domain of "critical thinking," and that knowledge about these things is very important for the effective functioning of reference librarians in today's colleges and universities.
In the same collection other papers address such topics as "Library Instruction in the Information Age," by Connie Mellon, "Librarians as Co-Creators of the Curriculum," by Betsy Baker (Northwestern), and "The Role of the Library in Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom and Beyond," by Joan Ordmondroyd (Cornell), and "In Search of a Definition of Critical Thinking," by Lori Arp (Colorado).
Again, if a point is to be made about the topics covered by this seminar, it is this: All papers address aspects of the repertoire reference librarians need to function effectively in today's academic world, but are not currently taught in library school. As I mentioned in the paper, I would be very surprised to find any evidence of any of these being included in library school curricula today. To meet these needs, currently librarians need to learn about and how to implement strategies in teaching about critical thinking on their own. And, as I note above, so far I have not seen any reaction -- positive or negative -- to this proposal.
The chief aim of the model syllabus document was to encourage schools to develop and offer such courses or to incorporate these areas into existing courses. At the time there were about 10 schools offering courses that covered all or most of these topics, including Hawaii (we have several courses that include these topic areas and methodologies, and we have faculty who study learners and information seekers). I don't know whether other schools are changing their curricula in this direction or not, but I hope schools will realize that their graduates need this orientation, especially in customer-oriented management models. Job descriptions for recently advertised positions certainly reveal that employers expect or desire employees who possess knowledge and abilities in critical thinking and instruction.
Whereas critical thinking should be engrained before a person attains any university, the university itself is the very place to enhance critical thinking on a high degree. Mentioning this, I am astonished to hear Ray McInnis arguing that in the domain of critical thinking:
>"... library school curricula lack concern for the new pedagogy, especially what we now know about how people learn, read, write, and conduct research... ."
If Ray means by this that critical thinking should be taught as a separate subject, then I would be opposed to it; in my view, it is rather the duty of every teacher of any academic discipline to foster critical thinking in his students and to rely on it in conducting research projects of any type.
Perhaps the low response rate is due to the fact that the last couple of weeks have been end of semester for USA and some other folks: making up and grading exams, reading papers, and the seemingly endless end of year academic meetings would have an effect on what/when you read, and how much time you have to devote to a reply.
You are correct that knowing a topic suggestion will generate a request to be the guest editor inhibits the suggestion. Much of my time is often devoted to things which, when I agreed to them, were said to take little time, but in fact take much more than that.
Re: discussion topics, all of which may be too general for this group:
Distance ed: How about the issue of distance students having access to the same material as near-by students? There appears to be a tendency to assume that all materials needed by the student must be readily accessible. This sounds a lot to me like the textbook-plus-book of readings approach. And, if we do expect students to do anything like research, who is responsible for providing help and materials?
e.g.: The student in Podunk, with a local typical small public library, will not have access to the same resources as the student in Metropolis, with a large public and several academic libraries in town.
e.g.: We currently have students who must use commercial services to access email, or long-distance phone calls to use the "free" campus links. Some of them are complaining that this is an extra burden and expense. Others, of course, lack home or office computer connections at all.
Another distance ed issue: What is a reasonable class load when part or all of it is DE? How many students per "class"? How many "classes"? Should there be additional compensation (more money, lower course load, or ?) and/or increased support (teaching assistants, aides, or ?)
Another possible topic? What are our obligations to students in general? In a legal sense, how far does ADA "reasonable accommodation" go? In a non-legal sense, what are reasonable expectations of performance and productivity? How are these determined, and by whom?
e.g.: is counting spelling and grammar on an essay exam merely an imposition of outmoded cultural norms? Are essay exams themselves a legitimate form of assessment?
e.g.: is requiring students to use E-mail, or computer databases, an unreasonable imposition on students with incipient carpal tunnel syndrome?
e.g.: is mounting DE class material on a Web site, but not on a gopher, and including graphics in that site, an unfair imposition on students who lack modems, or who have only a 2400 baud modem?
On lack of response: I generally operate on the basis that, if I have nothing to contribute except "how interesting" or "I agree," there is no point to cluttering up the system. Too many other LISTSERVers seem to generate endless postings which do not advance the discussion. And, of course, not all topics are of interest to any given person. Or -- what's the problem with the response rate?
>From: Ray McInnis:
>Margaret If when you say, and I quote, "professional library groups and associations can play in library and information science education be viable?", you mean that these groups have a responsibility to recommend revisions in the curriculum, I say a definite "YES". However, at the same time, I believe that exactly how the curriculum should be changed or, more significantly, what needs it should address, will be open to vigorous debate. Or, worse, be ignored.
>Would a discussion of the role that professional library groups and associations can play in library and information science education be viable? Interest has been expressed in our state association special libraries section for reexamination that of the role that groups such as ours can play in the state.
This is just a guess, but I think this conversation would end up focusing mainly upon (or revolving heavily around) the issue of "professional certification" (see CRISTAL-ED, V9). I certainly would have a tendency to drift that direction... I don't think this would necessarily be a bad thing, but it is a topic about which the profession seems to be fairly evenly divided. Such divisiveness can be traced back into the 1920s (1928?) when the Williams Commission Report recommended the MLS become the standard for measuring professional education.
Speaking personally, I find it extremely frustrating that the associations representing the membership of this profession (excepting the Medical Library Association and sometimes ALISE) seem incapable of establishing some benchmarks which define minimal professional competencies. To me, the questions of whether to implement post-MLS certification, continuing education credit programs, and/or state/national licensing systems all hinge upon the ability of the profession to coherently describe what a responsible professional is expected to know and understand. The how of teaching professionals by necessity must be based upon such a description.
In reading the first CRISTAL-ED draft report and in following the discussion topics on this list, I am constantly struck with a feeling that no such uniform vision of what a library professional is exists.
A library school can teach the principles and theories that serve as the framework for professional practice. What I find as the main issue relates to individuals being able to perform certain specific task for a library in wherever and not being able to explain the principles or theories behind the practice. When situations change, then these professionals can not plan or even responds to the changes in their own libraries without considerable external support. My concern relates to letting individuals into library schools who have not been adequately prepared during their elementary, secondary, and undergraduate educational experiences. Do we then add 12 more semester hours to our 36, do remedial teaching at the graduate level, give the students academic credit for what they should have learned in college or high school?
I have received a number of the competencies lists from associations and divisions within the associations. I give them to the students and the faculty, the response that I get in most cases is, "When did the committee members who prepared these lists go to library school?"
The Committee on Accreditation of the American Library Association also get these competencies lists, make sure they have representatives on the Committee and on the External Review Panels for assessment of the library and information studies programs of the library schools; and the schools also seek input from their own alumni, employers of their graduates, and bring in recognized practitioners to teach courses, lecture to classes, and serve of course and program reviews. So, making the statement that the library schools ignore professional suggestions would probably not hold up as a generalization.
We have not yet dealt with the issues of training vs. education.
The current surge in electronic access to information and data resources is making the need for an agreement on a common set of knowledge expectations, but there is need for a lot of re-conceptualizations to take place.
Back during the 1920s many of the principles and theories that served as the framework for the practice of Librarianship came from subject disciplines and other service professions. Can we now ignore our past when the information processing professions and knowledge industries are coming center stage?
A new home page at the University of Michigan School of Information provides information from librarians throughout the United States concerning the electronic-age innovations under way in their communities.
With support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Council on Library Resources surveyed librarians about the state of information technology in their communities. The results of those queries have been collected and published online on the CLR Library Initiatives for Electronic Information Technologies home page. It can be accessed at:
The home page is organized by regions, with each containing letters from librarians -- organized by state -- which document the state of information technology at their institution. We encourage you to browse through these letters or to contact the various institutions polled for more information.
There are many ways to study and appreciate your astute comments on competencies. For a starter I need to do some homework. I need to answer the question: "Why is competency as an indicator (objective) of professional education and field practice seen as suspect. As to theory, I reflect on the article appearing in the Journal of Nursing Research, November, v17, 1968, pg. 415-553, by Patricia James, E. Wiedenbach and J. Dickoff. "Theory in Practice Discipline."
That is not to say that ideas by Bruner, Papert, Gardner, Hirsch, Kolb, Papert and the others cited by McInnis are not influential among LIS faculty -- I believe that they are -- but I don't think LIS students are widely encouraged to read them. These authors DO pop up in LIS syllabi, but in odd places, and not always in "BI" or "reference"-type courses. Should these be required reading for budding library professionals?
I have just completed a frustrating process of interviewing candidates for a library-media specialist position with the requirement of an MLS from an ALA accredited school. No problem there, but when we tell candidates they must hold, qualify for or work to secure NM Teacher Certification, they quite frankly panic and withdraw from consideration. Most applicants with an MLS have little or no education course background at either the BA or graduate level. In NM, this means they will need to take additional courses (up to 30 hours + student teaching) to become certified to be a librarian in a K-12 setting.
I have spoken to colleagues in several other states where this is also the case. Is there anyway that our library schools can advise those students considering a career in a K-12 setting to get some background in the education field, as well as library coursework? Their desire to be considered for a position in a K-12 setting will be much easier to secure, especially if they have an undergraduate degree in education. Then, most states would probably require fewer courses, no student teaching and only successful passage of the NTE (National Teachers Exam). I'd be happy to comment on this further, if there is any interest or comment warranted.
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