ERIC Number: EJ1312015
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0748-5786
EISSN: EISSN-2328-2967
Available Date: N/A
Shaping LIS Education for Blended Professionals in a Pluralist Information Environment: Global Reflections
Raju, Jaya
Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, v62 n4 p366-382 2021
Technological innovations have led to an increase in demand for information technology (IT) skills in contemporary library and information agencies. This in turn has created an increased need for pedagogical skills on the part of library and information science (LIS) professionals for them to empower users with knowledge and skills to navigate a complex digital information terrain. Hence LIS professionals with both technology and pedagogical skills have become increasingly critical in a digitized information environment. In the context of this confluence of knowledge and skills requirements for the LIS professional, this article draws early findings from a global phenomenological probe into curriculum design and development directed at the blended or hybrid LIS professional located in a pluralist information environment and requiring cross-disciplinary competencies spanning LIS, IT, teaching and learning, and perhaps even other cognate areas. It explores, in this context, challenges, ideas, and thinking in LIS education from preliminary empirical findings from parts of Africa, Asia, and South America (representing the Global South) and from parts of Europe and North America (representing the Global North), with a view to stimulating debate and discourse on the repositioning of the LIS discipline toward staking an intellectual claim on the broadening of its disciplinary space resulting from a natural evolution of the LIS discipline in response to a technology-driven information environment. Shank and Bell's concepts of "disruptive innovations" and the blending of traditional librarian skills with information technology and pedagogical skills, together with Corrall's "content, conduit, and context" approach to educating for a pluralist digital information environment, are used to frame this reflection.
Descriptors: Information Science Education, Technological Literacy, Curriculum Design, Curriculum Development, Blended Learning, Interdisciplinary Approach, Competence, Foreign Countries, Library Development, Library Science, Information Technology, Knowledge Level, Skill Development, Instructional Design
Association for Library and Information Science Education. 4 Lan Drive Suite 310, Westford, MA 01886. Tel: 978-674-6190; Fax: 978-250-1117; e-mail: office@alise.org; Web site: https://www.alise.org/jelis-2
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Africa; Asia; South America; Europe; North America
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A