Content area
Full text
What to expect from library school graduates is an interesting topic. Ten years ago I could have told you with some certainty. Today, I am not so certain because library education is no longer as homogeneous as it once was. When I attended the University of Michigan as a graduate student, I had the same curriculum choices I would have had at any library school in the country. Gaining an understanding of the historic role and function of libraries in society and being introduced to the basic theories of librarianship were common to most students in all programs: to build/develop collections of resources, to organize collections, to develop services to make collections usable to those who need, want, and/or enjoy the right to those collections. We did not talk about access then, but when access became the driving word, the concept made sense. The other basic thing I came to understand is that implementing the basic tenets of librarianship in a practical sense, with integrity and understanding, means lifelong self-education and the ability to adapt to change, because change is a constant.
Library education programs have changed a great deal in the past twenty-five years, and they have become less homogeneous in some ways. In the mid-sixties and early seventies, in response to demands by the school field, the curriculum in some schools expanded with the addition of courses in multimedia acquisition, organization, production, and use, and courses for school librarians in instructional design and program development, that would encourage the integration of school libraries into the instructional program of the school.
Close on the heels of this expansion of a very traditional curriculum came the need for students who knew about computers. All schools began to change curricula in the late seventies and early eighties, some faster than others, and some with more sophistication and dedication to computer hardware. Embracing a range of communications technologies began for most schools with the addition of some computers (a few affluent ones put together a whole computer lab). It continued with renaming of schools to include information and management or science, and adding a few courses in information science, online searching, database construction, programming languages, et cetera. But the content of basic core courses (whatever their titles)...