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The Bologna reform at the department of library and information science and book studies, university of Ljubljana

The Bologna reform at the department of library and information science and book studies,... Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 DOI 10.1007/s10791-008-9077-5 The Bologna reform at the department of library and information science and book studies, university of Ljubljana Polona Vilar Æ Maja Zumer Received: 7 January 2008 / Accepted: 18 November 2008 / Published online: 18 December 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Relevance of the new Bologna study programme at the Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies at University of Ljubljana is demonstrated from different aspects. The example of IS&R themes and topics which are recognized as one of LIS core areas is used to show the differences from the previous study programme in terms of content, together with coverage of Web 2.0 related themes. In regard to teaching and learning methods it is shown how e-learning is used to support the educational process. At the end a few insights into employability of future graduates are added. Keywords LIS education  Slovenia  Ljubljana  Bologna reform Curriculum  Information seeking and retrieval  Web 2.0  E-learning Employability 1 Introduction In the last few years there have been a number of debates about what the Web, its search engines and technologies, enabling the new developments such as Web 2.0, mean for libraries and LIS profession as a whole. Among them there are also discussions which go beyond mere contemplation about the future role of libraries and question the future of libraries and librarians (Broady-Preston 2006; Brophy 2001); they advocate the need for new business models of the information profession and sometimes even more or less predict the decline of the profession due to strong competition of the web resources and search engines. Even if we do not agree with the most pessimistic prophecies we need to look into the ways in which we educate the future information professionals in general and in particular P. Vilar (&)  M. Zumer Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies, University of Ljubljana, As ˇkerc ˇeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia e-mail: [email protected] M. Zumer e-mail: [email protected] 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 103 in regard to the new technologies. It is therefore imperative that together with these debates one thinks about how these developments (should) influence the education for the pro- fession (see for example Bawden et al. 2007). As Broady-Preston (2007) writes, the traditional qualifications landscape is evolving from traditional, formal qualifications towards newer vocational work-based approaches to learning. Here, of course, we can not overlook the role of the so-called Bologna reform which has an ambitious goal of increasing the international competitiveness of European higher education and of facilitating mobility and employability of EU citizens. The goals of the reform are creation of the overall convergence of the higher educational space within Europe, the adoption of a common framework of transparent qualifications and comparable degrees, and compatible credit systems. These also cover lifelong learning activities, and a European dimension in quality assurance, with comparable criteria and methods, compa- rable curricula and, above all, comparable knowledge of the graduates. As Roberts (2006) illustrates, mobility and employability are at least partly dependent on employers in one country being able to understand and recognize the academic and professional qualifica- tions of individuals from another country. The Bologna schema is divided into the Bachelor and Masters programmes, the first usually lasting 3 years and the latter 2. An attempt to form a joint European LIS curriculum (Kajberg and Lørring 2005) resulted in the formation of 12 core themes and topics, one of which is Information Seeking and Retrieval (IS&R). The term itself was coined by Ingwersen and Ja ¨rvelin (2005). The working group for this topic (Bates et al. 2005) prepared a set of 28 topics and subtopics from which an IS&R curriculum could be developed (Table 1). In Table 1 we see that each of these topics is labelled as either a general topic (Gen), or as being primarily concerned with human information behaviour (HIB), information seeking (IS), or infor- mation retrieval (IR). The latter three are the broadest aspects, distinct but inter-related. The authors also recognized that while IS&R is undoubtedly a core area, it is not possible (or even desirable) to specify a single curriculum. As Bates (2001) points out, when deciding on core areas, we need to look at three basic aspects: rules and particularities governing the world of recorded knowledge, different relations which people have towards information, its searching and use, and different ways of assuring fast and efficient access to information. A subsequent attempt to apply the IS&R framework to two actual teaching courses— one from Slovenia, prepared as part of the Bologna teaching programme, and one from Ireland, existing for over 30 years (Vilar et al. 2007)—confirmed that such broad frame- works are indeed useful in preparation and/or assessment of curricula. On the other hand we confirmed, on the basis of this example, that direct comparability of curricula from different environments is not an easy and straightforward task. Experiences in preparation of this simple survey gave us a few issues to think about in the future: 1. It is not easy to compare curricula and it even more difficult to transform the findings into sensible conclusions or recommendations of more general validity. It is, of course, a matter of debate, whether this (non)comparability is positive or negative. 2. It would be better to approach the comparison on a wider scale, i.e. it would be better to compare the entire curricula of the two LIS schools or even look at several LIS departments within EU. 3. However, even then we might miss some important points, as teaching topics are sometimes more hidden and not so easy to define. 4. We should (again) ask ourselves about the sensibility of ‘‘core curriculum’’ and of core content of LIS field, since there seem to be many debates as to what they actually are. 123 104 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 1 IS&R topics and themes (Bates et al. 2005) 1 Basic concepts and relationships Gen Relationships between HIB, IS, IR Three perspectives: human/user, culture, system Concepts: information and knowledge; documents; typology of information resources Relevant research methodologies; laboratory, operational, qualitative, quantitative 2 Overview of HIB HIB Frameworks, concepts, models, theories Research approaches and methods Example topics Historical development of studies 3 Overview of IS IS Frameworks, concepts, models, theories Research approaches and methods Example topics Historical development of studies 4 Overview of IR IR Frameworks, concepts, models, theories Components of retrieval systems Research approaches and methods Example topics Historical development of studies 5 Human information behaviour: people HIB Individuals and groups Occupation, age, activity, etc. Characteristics: cognitive, social, cultural, organizational 6 Human information behaviour: sources and places HIB Channels and media Print, electronic, formal, informal, mass, local, ICTs Places & spaces—libraries, information centres, archives, museums, information grounds 7 Human information behaviour: patterns of behaviour HIB Browsing, encountering, avoidance, anxiety, advantages of lack of Information, overload Innovation and creativity 8 Information needs; nature and typology HIB Identifying information needs; users and non-users 9 Information literacy HIB Place of seeking/retrieval in wider context Teaching and supporting users to retrieve 10 Organising and using information HIB 11 Role of information professionals HIB 12 Information seeking in context 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 105 Table 1 continued IS Occupational, professional, everyday life, etc. 13 Information seeking in specific domains (subjects) IS Relation to domain analysis Domain specific resources 14 Strategies and tactics for information seeking IS Task-based and cognitive etc. 15 Relevance and satisfaction IS Concepts, typology, history, empirical studies 16 Person-centred information services IS Developing services around needs, using research findings 17 Historical development of IR systems IR Associated IT: retrieval in different media—print, digital, network 18 Retrieval interfaces IR HCI, usability testing, personalisation. Machine interfaces and interoperability, visualisation 19 Typology of retrieval systems IR Dbms, factual/numeric systems Bibliographic databases, full-text retrieval, e-journals, content management systems OPACS, digital library, managing digital resources Internet search engines, subject gateways, ‘hidden web’, semantic web Enterprise and knowledge management systems (Autonomy, Verity, Google, etc.) 20 Specialised retrieval IR E.g. multimedia, images, audio, sounds, music, fiction, chemical structure, genome and protein sequence 21 Intelligent systems and techniques; cognitive aspects IR Intelligent agents, AI Data/text mining Question-answering systems, recommender systems Cyc 22 Retrieval tactics IR General and specific 23 Citation searching, bibliometrics. webliometrics IR 24 Retrieval language IR Natural language processing, automatic indexing, classification, summarisation Multilingual systems, CLIR 25 Metadata and controlled vocabularies IR Controlled vocabularies in retrieval Ontologies, subject headings, thesauri, taxonomies, classifications, RDF, topic maps, concept Retrieval/topic retrieval/latent semantic retrieval Metadata and retrieval Intellectual metadata creation: cataloguing, indexing, abstracting Format and content standards 26 Evaluation of systems and services 123 106 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 1 continued IR IR system evaluation: TREC, metrics and other performance measures User-oriented evaluation of information seeking and searching 27 System design based on research findings IR 28 New developments and future trends in HIB, IS and IR Gen Current research topics Evaluating research, evidence-based practice 2 Learning and e-learning in LIS educational programmes It has been advocated among others by Allen (2007) and Broady-Preston (2007) that not only curricula, but also delivery modes in higher education learning and thinking need to change to form a so-called blended learning. This means that learning needs to become a structured process involving a mixture of learning and teaching activities which include e- learning, face-to-face or telephone contact and access to different types of learning materials. Social-networking services, such as skype, blogs, mashups, podcasts, MySpace/Face- Book, wikis, folksonomies and similar tools and services, commonly known as elements of Web 2.0, have a goal of facilitating collaboration and sharing between users (O’Reilly 2005). These developments must be taken into consideration when developing courses, especially in terms of social networking skills. Bawden et al. (2007) argue that it seems important that LIS students, as future infor- mation professionals, are aware of these changes and innovations and that they should know more about them than an average user to be able to cope in the information world of tomorrow. In this respect Web 2.0 technologies are ‘‘both, sites of learning and tools for learning’’ (Bawden et al. 2007, p. 29). As the authors reveal, LIS schools worldwide approach this issue from very different angles. Some use many, while some decided to use only a limited scope of the Web 2.0 type technologies and services. In this review a few questions have been emphasized: 1. How (and to what extent) to incorporate these themes into the curriculum? Due to the lack of common understanding as to what Web 2.0 actually is, a certain amount of scepticism and pragmatism is needed. In addition the tools and services are changing and new ones are being developed very fast; it is very difficult to follow all the developments and include them into the curriculum. 2. How to use the emerging technologies and means of communications in the teaching process itself? It seems that in this part higher education has been quite successful by setting up web learning materials, e-learning environments, etc., on which Web 2.0 facilities may be built. In our Department e-learning is used only as a complement to face to face teaching; in this way some of the problems of e-learning, such as alienation of students, are avoided. E- learning therefore enriches the learning and we agree with Krevs (2007), who argues that e- learning can help facilitate: – Better use of teacher’s and student’s time, greater freedom for planning, – More student activity, greater responsibility of students in the learning process, 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 107 – More independent and current student engagement, – Better overview over the teaching/learning material, – Different forms of learning, of materials (dictionaries, glossaries, quizzes, AV materials, …), – Direct student engagement (‘‘the growing classroom’’), – Different ways of communication with and among students (contact hours, forums, blogs). Studies (Mullen and Tallent-Runnel 2006) show that e-learning environment has great influence on student perceptions of the learning process, their teachers and tutors, and in addition also influences their motivation, satisfaction and learning. On the other hand, studies (Allen 2007) also show that students are not very keen on using e-learning, unless their teachers strongly encourage them. They much rather use technologies of their own choice. This means that they may be very literate in these aspects (perhaps much more than their teachers), but also that they often use these technologies purely intuitively, lacking knowledge on how they work and what their overall purpose is. As Krevs (2007) has presented, e-learning also brings along certain requirements, both for teachers and students: Teachers – Knowledge and skills for preparation of e-materials and e-classrooms, – Attention to planning student involvement, their assignments, means of communication, – Different, enhanced knowledge assessment methods (e.g. portfolios), grading. Students – Knowledge and skills for use of e-materials and e-classrooms, – Internet access, – Regular visits and steady rhythm of work in e-classrooms, – Strict meeting of deadlines. Although e-learning can have both positive and negative consequences (Donnert 2004). Lavric (2006) argues that through e-learning we can achieve an integration of the three pedagogical approaches: traditional, constructivist, and social constructivist (Fig. 1). 3 Study programme at department of library and informations science and book studies in Ljubljana We decided to analyse the new Bologna programme at the Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies (LIS&BS) of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana which was introduced in 2006. It is the only library and information science programme in Slovenia, and the first at the Faculty of Arts to undergo the Bologna reform. It is a 5-year programme, divided into two levels, and as most LIS study programmes, it is devised for a scheme 3 ? 2. At the first (Bachelor) level there is a single Library and Information Science programme with three internal specializations (Library Science, Information Science and Book Studies). These are formed through elective courses, mostly in the third year of study. At the second (Masters) level four separate programmes have been prepared: Library Science, Information Science, Book Studies, and School Librari- anship. In the old programme there were two study directions, one-major and two-major; the latter including less courses and allowing the study of LIS to be combined with some other study at the same faculty. 123 108 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Fig. 1 Integration of three pedagogical approaches (Lavric ˇ 2006) As said before, two generations of students are currently enrolled in the first and second year of the first level programme. For this reason we decided to only look at the first level programme, since not much can be said about the actual implementation of the second level programme at this point (although all programmes have already passed accreditation). This paper will tackle the renovated curriculum from the following points: – differences from the old teaching programme (in terms of courses including IS&R topics) – the extent to which the Web 2.0 is covered in the curriculum – contemporary (Web 2.0 related) learning and teaching approaches – usefulness (as far as it can be assessed at this point) in the light of employability and relationships with the ‘labour market’. 3.1 IS&R topics in the old and new study programmes We must emphasize that direct comparison of the two programmes is rather difficult. The duration of the old study programme is four years, while new programme lasts ‘‘only’’ three years, but offers more condensed and more diverse study activities which should result in better knowledge acquired in shorter time. In our general overview we looked at contents of courses to see where IS&R topics were present. Tables 2 and 3 show in which courses IS&R topics were/are covered (completely, partly,or not at all). We can also see how many contact hours (directly taught by a teacher or instructor) there were/are for each course. In the new programme the overall student workload is shown in the number of credits for a respective course—reflecting the overall 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 109 Table 2 Old undergraduate study, one major Year Course title Teaching hours IS&R topics Year 1 Foundations of librarianship 60 No History of librarianship 60 No History and philosophy of science 60 No Publishing and book trade I 60 No Bibliography 60 No Descriptive cataloguing I 60 No Information technology 90 Completely Introduction to information science 60 Completely Research methods I 60 No Foreign language I—English I 60 No Year 2 Contemporary Organization of Librarianship I—Basics 60 No Public libraries 30 Partly School libraries 30 Partly Publishing and book trade II 60 No Descriptive cataloguing II 60 No Subject cataloguing I 60 No Library automation 90 Completely Databases I 60 Completely Developmental psychology 60 No Research methods II 60 No Foreign language I—English II 60 No Placement 80 – Year 3 Contemporary Organization of Librarianship II—Systems 60 No Academic libraries 30 Partly Special libraries 30 Partly Publishing and book trade III 60 No Bibliometrics 60 Partly Descriptive cataloguing III 60 No Subject cataloguing II 60 Partly Methods of reference service 60 No Cognitive psychology I 60 No Databases II 60 Completely Codicology 60 No Sociology of mass media 60 No Placement 80 – Year 4 Contemporary Organization of Librarianship III—Theory 60 No Comparative librarianship 60 No Library marketing 60 No Library management 60 No Descriptive cataloguing IV 60 No Publishing and book trade IV 60 No Documentation 60 Partly Computer communications 60 Completely 123 110 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 2 continued Year Course title Teaching hours IS&R topics Cognitive psychology II 60 No Library user studies 60 No Book history 30 No Preservation and restoration of library materials 60 No number of hours (contact and independent work) and showing the weight of each course in relation to the entire curriculum. In Table 3 we added information on the so-called study pillars to illustrate the flexibility of the study as one of the features of Bologna reform (A— compulsory core courses, B—compulsory specialized LIS courses, C—elective courses offered by the Department, or D—elective courses offered by other departments or faculties). Already a quick glance of the courses offered in both programmes reveals that the new programme is more IS&R oriented. Among other things, this indicates why the old pro- gramme desperately needed revision to adapt to the imminent changes governing the development of LIS field in general. In other words, the reform would have been necessary even without the Bologna reform. We can see that the old programme offered only a limited number of courses with complete coverage of IS&R content, and a few courses where these topics were partly covered. In addition, these courses were more or less randomly distributed in the curriculum which sometimes led to insufficient knowledge of the student who then had difficulties following the course. The course content was also often left to the judgement of individual teachers. Therefore we can not say that contemporary topics were completely left out, but it is still rather obvious that the programme in this respect was not appropriate (any more). The new programme approaches this issue in a more systematic and structured way. In the first years IS&R topics are present in the courses which belong to the co called Information Science specialization, although, being A and B courses, they are followed by all students. In the second year IS&R topics are partly covered also in the Librarianship and Book Studies courses, and, of course, in all Information Science courses. In the third year, where the students shape their final study orientation towards Librarianship, Infor- mation Science or Book Studies, most courses in the first two groups, regardless of the pillar, offer at least partial coverage of IS&R. At this point we need to mention that the IS&R topics are covered predominantly from the LIS perspective; computer science programmes in Slovenia do not focus on IR. If we think in terms of general and specific competences which the students acquire during study, as Brine and Feather (2002) argue, every process within the professional information field depends on the ability of the information worker to identify, analyze, and manage collections of information and data, organize knowledge, and process, seek and evaluate information. The goal of the new study programme is to educate the graduates for work not only in libraries, but in all institutions which are involved in production, dis- tribution, storage and mediation of information; this information being traditionally tied to the classical, printed format, but now also existing in other forms and media. In terms of IS&R this means that through these courses we are teaching the students to understand: – the origins, development and dynamic nature of information field, – different areas within the information field and connections with other academic areas, 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 111 Table 3 New Bologna study programme Course title Pillar Contact Credits IS&R hours topics Year 1 Librarianship and common Foundations of librarianship and A90 10 No courses library organization History of libraries and librarianship B 30 4 No Introduction to research B 45 5 No Psychology for librarians B 45 5 No Information science Foundations of information science A 45 6 Completely Foundations of organization of A 105 10 Completely information Computers in libraries B 75 8 Completely Book studies The book in historical and social A75 8 No context Elective courses (of which Reading and interpretation of LIS C30 4 No 1 must be chosen) texts in English Book topics in popular culture C 30 4 No Literature for librarians and C30 4 No publishers Year 2 Librarianship and common Organization of library collections A 75 8 Partly courses Statistics for librarians B 45 4 No Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C C 15 4 Partly/No Information science Information sources and services A 45 5 Partly Information retrieval systems A 75 8 Completely Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Book studies Foundations of book studies A 45 6 No Sociology of media and knowledge B 45 5 Partly Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Elective course D D * * * Elective course D D * * * Elective courses (of which at Professional communication in C30 4 No least 4 C courses must be English chosen—altogether 24 Reading and interpretation of LIS C30 4 No credits) texts in English Book topics in popular culture C 30 4 No Literature for librarians and C30 4 No publishers School libraries C 30 4 Partly Public libraries C 30 4 Partly Manuscripts in libraries C 30 4 No Elective course D D * * * 123 112 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 3 continued Course title Pillar Contact Credits IS&R hours topics Year 3 Common courses Cognitive processes in org. of A30 4 No information Placement – 60 6 – Diploma – 30 4 – Librarianship Descriptive cataloguing A 75 8 Partly Subject cataloguing A 75 8 Partly Library automation B 45 6 Completely Library collection development B 75 8 No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Information science Organization of information A 75 8 Completely resources Internet information sources A 75 8 Completely Digital publishing B 45 6 Completely Digital library B 75 8 Completely Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Book studies Formats and carriers of book content A 75 8 Partly Digital publishing B 45 6 Completely Found. of Slov. and internat. book B75 8 No market research Cultural policies and the book in EUB75 8 No and Slovenia Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective courses for all 3 Professional communication in C30 4 No specializations English Reading and interpretation of LIS C30 4 No texts in English Book topics in popular culture C 30 4 No Literature for librarians and C30 4 No publishers School libraries C 30 4 Partly Public libraries C 30 4 Partly Academic libraries C 30 4 Partly Special libraries C 30 4 Partly 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 113 Table 3 continued Course title Pillar Contact Credits IS&R topics hours Preserv. and conserv. of written and C30 4 No graphic materials Employment on the youth labour C30 3 No market Manuscripts in libraries C 30 4 No Communication in information C 30 4 Partly services Elective course D D * * * Key: A—compulsory course from pillar A, B—compulsory specialized LIS course from pillar B, C— elective course within department, D—elective course from anywhere; * data can not be given for D courses – basic principles of organization and management of information – the origin and types of information resources, – the information cycle, – social, economic, and cultural context influencing the production, distribution and use of information, – influence of information and communication technology on creation of content and on its distribution. In addition they acquire the skills necessary to work with the various information and communication technologies and tools. Placement and diploma play an important role, because they enable the students to get in touch with their actual future working environments. 3.2 Web 2.0 coverage in the curriculum It is known that young people are attracted to and rather skilled in the use of social- networking services (chat programmes, blogs, skype, mashups, podcasts, MySpace/Face- Book, wikis, folksonomies, etc.). However, they acquire the knowledge of these tools through spontaneous self-education and are keen to use them for their own private pur- poses. They don’t use them for study purposes, unless prompted by their tutors (Broady- Preston 2007). Our students are no different in either of these respects. In this context one of the questions which we face is how to apply structure to the sporadically acquired knowledge of the technologies which students perceive as enter- tainment and not as a working tool? It seems imperative that students develop a critical approach and learn both about the advantages and flaws of various technologies and tools. This means that with the study programme we give them theoretical bases, as well as opportunities to use these tools in a professional manner. Our goal is to teach the students not only to master the (passive) use of the new technologies, but also to be able to design new systems and services and understand the social dynamics of the new users. 3.3 E-learning & teaching at Dept for LIS&BS Broady-Preston (2007) also writes that technical development enables new possibilities of personalization of study process, rather than mass education, however, in order to achieve 123 114 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 this, it is the responsibility of university staff to acquire more knowledge of these tools to be able to use them in the teaching process. As already presented in Bawden et al. (2007), there are a number of benefits we can achieve through e-learning, e.g. better knowledge, better e-literacy, control over study materials, more independent and current student engagement, independence of time/place, easier student and teacher mobility. It offers potential benefits for teachers, students, institution (faculty, university), and society. The Department of LIS was one of the first at the faculty to start working with the e- learning environment by setting up a few pilot e-classrooms with Moodle. The new Bologna programme which started last year is entirely supported by e-learning. Students in the first year of Bologna programme were immediately introduced to the environment. They do not report any difficulties in using it. They appreciated to have all the materials prepared in advance. They accepted the means of knowledge assessment and grading, e.g. portfolios, mostly respected deadlines for the assignments, and actively participated in other activities, e.g. forums. In the future, more Web 2.0 facilities may be included to support communication with the teachers as well as among students themselves. 3.4 Usefulness in the light of employability Technological development requires libraries, publishing houses and other information institutions to employ information and technologically literate and widely educated workforce who understands the entire communication circle of information. In this respect some dilemmas exist in regard to the ratio of practical and theoretical knowledge which a graduate of LIS programme should have acquired by the end of their studies. Zumer (2005) writes that a higher education programme should not primarily concentrate on ‘‘how’’, but also on ‘‘why’’—i.e. procedural knowledge is not enough. Understanding of the theoretical foundations enables an individual to better and faster adapt to changes. For this reason the new study programme is designed as a balanced mixture of practical work and theory, and ends with placement to give students the opportunity to test their knowledge while pre- paring their final research. At this point it is difficult to assess how useful the programme will be in terms of employability of the graduates. This is due to several reasons. Bologna reform has only been around for a few years and it has not yet demonstrated its characteristics in the labour market, i.e. newly educated staff has not yet entered the labour market (this goes for all study programmes in Slovenia, not only LIS). Another reason is that relationships between graduates of ‘‘old’’ and ‘‘new’’ programmes are not quite clear yet. Zumer (2004, 2005) and Kovac and Sauperl (2005) explain that graduates of the first level can be employed to perform less demanding and routine procedures in libraries (basic pro- cedures in acquisition, processing, arrangement and circulation), publishing houses (basic publishing activities) and certain other areas (information management, archives, etc.). Graduates of the second level could occupy more demanding and managerial posts in libraries of all types and in information management in other institutions as well as pub- lishing houses. Graduates of the second level could also specialize as school librarians or teachers of information literacy. We would like to particularly encourage students from other areas to enter the second level programme (provided that they pass the necessary entrance requirements from LIS area). We assume that such programme will appeal to those who will seek employment in publishing houses, but most of all in school, academic and special libraries. School 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 115 libraries often employ teachers who haven’t had the opportunity to acquire formal LIS education. Similarly, special librarians often do not have formal LIS education, instead they are graduates of the area covered by their libraries. Both these groups will probably welcome the opportunity to enrol in our second level programme. Such joint education of ‘‘book professionals’’, backed up by second level study, therefore brings triple benefit (Vloga…, 2005): – it enables the graduates good understanding of the processes in the communication circle of the ‘‘book’’, thus overcoming of the traditional misunderstandings which happen in communication between publishers and librarians and consequentially much wider employability of the graduates, – the structure of study enables students of both study levels to choose desired specialization, – enrolment to second level and doctoral study is possible both for our graduates and for graduates of any other first level programme which enables specialized education for individuals who find themselves in organizations dealing with book or information, and require additional knowledge due to complex working processes. 4 Conclusions We know that one of basic aims of Bologna reform is to produce better qualified, more flexible and more employable graduates. LIS is a profession characterized by rapid change, together with the concomitant necessity to acquire a new set of skills (Broady-Preston 2007) to be able to stay competitive. Naturally, besides good quality formal education this implies, more than ever before, the need for lifelong learning of every individual. This is a topic which exceeds the purpose of this paper, but needs to be mentioned nevertheless. In perspective we can say that e-learning has proven to be useful in facilitating the educational process. Besides this, it is an important measure of quality of institutions of higher education. It supports the ‘battle’ for students as well as for better knowledge of graduates. What we need at this point is to think how to integrate various scattered initiatives into a whole in a search for even better e-learning approaches. In this paper we tried to demonstrate the relevance of the new study programme from different aspects. Using the example of IS&R themes and topics which are recognized as one of LIS core areas we showed the differences from the previous study programme in terms of content. We also showed how Web 2.0 related themes are covered in the cur- riculum. In regard to teaching and learning methods we showed how e-learning is used to support the educational process. In the end we added a few insights into future employ- ability of the graduates. References Allen, B. (2007). Developing the best blend? From blended e-learning to blended learning. Library and Information Update, 6(3), 26–28. Bates, M. (2001). The invisible substrate of Information Science. [Retrieved September 20 2007 from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/research/bates1.html]. Bates, J., Bawden, D., Cordeiro, I., Steinerova ´, J., Vakkari, P., & Vilar, P. (2005). Information seeking and information retrieval. In L. Kajberg, & L. 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The Bologna reform at the department of library and information science and book studies, university of Ljubljana

Vilar, Polona; Žumer, Maja
Discover Computing , Volume 12 (2) – Apr 1, 2009
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Springer Journals
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Copyright © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
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Computer Science; Pattern Recognition; Data Structures, Cryptology and Information Theory ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery; Document Preparation and Text Processing
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2948-2984
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1573-7659
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10.1007/s10791-008-9077-5
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Abstract

Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 DOI 10.1007/s10791-008-9077-5 The Bologna reform at the department of library and information science and book studies, university of Ljubljana Polona Vilar Æ Maja Zumer Received: 7 January 2008 / Accepted: 18 November 2008 / Published online: 18 December 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Relevance of the new Bologna study programme at the Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies at University of Ljubljana is demonstrated from different aspects. The example of IS&R themes and topics which are recognized as one of LIS core areas is used to show the differences from the previous study programme in terms of content, together with coverage of Web 2.0 related themes. In regard to teaching and learning methods it is shown how e-learning is used to support the educational process. At the end a few insights into employability of future graduates are added. Keywords LIS education  Slovenia  Ljubljana  Bologna reform Curriculum  Information seeking and retrieval  Web 2.0  E-learning Employability 1 Introduction In the last few years there have been a number of debates about what the Web, its search engines and technologies, enabling the new developments such as Web 2.0, mean for libraries and LIS profession as a whole. Among them there are also discussions which go beyond mere contemplation about the future role of libraries and question the future of libraries and librarians (Broady-Preston 2006; Brophy 2001); they advocate the need for new business models of the information profession and sometimes even more or less predict the decline of the profession due to strong competition of the web resources and search engines. Even if we do not agree with the most pessimistic prophecies we need to look into the ways in which we educate the future information professionals in general and in particular P. Vilar (&)  M. Zumer Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies, University of Ljubljana, As ˇkerc ˇeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia e-mail: [email protected] M. Zumer e-mail: [email protected] 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 103 in regard to the new technologies. It is therefore imperative that together with these debates one thinks about how these developments (should) influence the education for the pro- fession (see for example Bawden et al. 2007). As Broady-Preston (2007) writes, the traditional qualifications landscape is evolving from traditional, formal qualifications towards newer vocational work-based approaches to learning. Here, of course, we can not overlook the role of the so-called Bologna reform which has an ambitious goal of increasing the international competitiveness of European higher education and of facilitating mobility and employability of EU citizens. The goals of the reform are creation of the overall convergence of the higher educational space within Europe, the adoption of a common framework of transparent qualifications and comparable degrees, and compatible credit systems. These also cover lifelong learning activities, and a European dimension in quality assurance, with comparable criteria and methods, compa- rable curricula and, above all, comparable knowledge of the graduates. As Roberts (2006) illustrates, mobility and employability are at least partly dependent on employers in one country being able to understand and recognize the academic and professional qualifica- tions of individuals from another country. The Bologna schema is divided into the Bachelor and Masters programmes, the first usually lasting 3 years and the latter 2. An attempt to form a joint European LIS curriculum (Kajberg and Lørring 2005) resulted in the formation of 12 core themes and topics, one of which is Information Seeking and Retrieval (IS&R). The term itself was coined by Ingwersen and Ja ¨rvelin (2005). The working group for this topic (Bates et al. 2005) prepared a set of 28 topics and subtopics from which an IS&R curriculum could be developed (Table 1). In Table 1 we see that each of these topics is labelled as either a general topic (Gen), or as being primarily concerned with human information behaviour (HIB), information seeking (IS), or infor- mation retrieval (IR). The latter three are the broadest aspects, distinct but inter-related. The authors also recognized that while IS&R is undoubtedly a core area, it is not possible (or even desirable) to specify a single curriculum. As Bates (2001) points out, when deciding on core areas, we need to look at three basic aspects: rules and particularities governing the world of recorded knowledge, different relations which people have towards information, its searching and use, and different ways of assuring fast and efficient access to information. A subsequent attempt to apply the IS&R framework to two actual teaching courses— one from Slovenia, prepared as part of the Bologna teaching programme, and one from Ireland, existing for over 30 years (Vilar et al. 2007)—confirmed that such broad frame- works are indeed useful in preparation and/or assessment of curricula. On the other hand we confirmed, on the basis of this example, that direct comparability of curricula from different environments is not an easy and straightforward task. Experiences in preparation of this simple survey gave us a few issues to think about in the future: 1. It is not easy to compare curricula and it even more difficult to transform the findings into sensible conclusions or recommendations of more general validity. It is, of course, a matter of debate, whether this (non)comparability is positive or negative. 2. It would be better to approach the comparison on a wider scale, i.e. it would be better to compare the entire curricula of the two LIS schools or even look at several LIS departments within EU. 3. However, even then we might miss some important points, as teaching topics are sometimes more hidden and not so easy to define. 4. We should (again) ask ourselves about the sensibility of ‘‘core curriculum’’ and of core content of LIS field, since there seem to be many debates as to what they actually are. 123 104 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 1 IS&R topics and themes (Bates et al. 2005) 1 Basic concepts and relationships Gen Relationships between HIB, IS, IR Three perspectives: human/user, culture, system Concepts: information and knowledge; documents; typology of information resources Relevant research methodologies; laboratory, operational, qualitative, quantitative 2 Overview of HIB HIB Frameworks, concepts, models, theories Research approaches and methods Example topics Historical development of studies 3 Overview of IS IS Frameworks, concepts, models, theories Research approaches and methods Example topics Historical development of studies 4 Overview of IR IR Frameworks, concepts, models, theories Components of retrieval systems Research approaches and methods Example topics Historical development of studies 5 Human information behaviour: people HIB Individuals and groups Occupation, age, activity, etc. Characteristics: cognitive, social, cultural, organizational 6 Human information behaviour: sources and places HIB Channels and media Print, electronic, formal, informal, mass, local, ICTs Places & spaces—libraries, information centres, archives, museums, information grounds 7 Human information behaviour: patterns of behaviour HIB Browsing, encountering, avoidance, anxiety, advantages of lack of Information, overload Innovation and creativity 8 Information needs; nature and typology HIB Identifying information needs; users and non-users 9 Information literacy HIB Place of seeking/retrieval in wider context Teaching and supporting users to retrieve 10 Organising and using information HIB 11 Role of information professionals HIB 12 Information seeking in context 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 105 Table 1 continued IS Occupational, professional, everyday life, etc. 13 Information seeking in specific domains (subjects) IS Relation to domain analysis Domain specific resources 14 Strategies and tactics for information seeking IS Task-based and cognitive etc. 15 Relevance and satisfaction IS Concepts, typology, history, empirical studies 16 Person-centred information services IS Developing services around needs, using research findings 17 Historical development of IR systems IR Associated IT: retrieval in different media—print, digital, network 18 Retrieval interfaces IR HCI, usability testing, personalisation. Machine interfaces and interoperability, visualisation 19 Typology of retrieval systems IR Dbms, factual/numeric systems Bibliographic databases, full-text retrieval, e-journals, content management systems OPACS, digital library, managing digital resources Internet search engines, subject gateways, ‘hidden web’, semantic web Enterprise and knowledge management systems (Autonomy, Verity, Google, etc.) 20 Specialised retrieval IR E.g. multimedia, images, audio, sounds, music, fiction, chemical structure, genome and protein sequence 21 Intelligent systems and techniques; cognitive aspects IR Intelligent agents, AI Data/text mining Question-answering systems, recommender systems Cyc 22 Retrieval tactics IR General and specific 23 Citation searching, bibliometrics. webliometrics IR 24 Retrieval language IR Natural language processing, automatic indexing, classification, summarisation Multilingual systems, CLIR 25 Metadata and controlled vocabularies IR Controlled vocabularies in retrieval Ontologies, subject headings, thesauri, taxonomies, classifications, RDF, topic maps, concept Retrieval/topic retrieval/latent semantic retrieval Metadata and retrieval Intellectual metadata creation: cataloguing, indexing, abstracting Format and content standards 26 Evaluation of systems and services 123 106 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 1 continued IR IR system evaluation: TREC, metrics and other performance measures User-oriented evaluation of information seeking and searching 27 System design based on research findings IR 28 New developments and future trends in HIB, IS and IR Gen Current research topics Evaluating research, evidence-based practice 2 Learning and e-learning in LIS educational programmes It has been advocated among others by Allen (2007) and Broady-Preston (2007) that not only curricula, but also delivery modes in higher education learning and thinking need to change to form a so-called blended learning. This means that learning needs to become a structured process involving a mixture of learning and teaching activities which include e- learning, face-to-face or telephone contact and access to different types of learning materials. Social-networking services, such as skype, blogs, mashups, podcasts, MySpace/Face- Book, wikis, folksonomies and similar tools and services, commonly known as elements of Web 2.0, have a goal of facilitating collaboration and sharing between users (O’Reilly 2005). These developments must be taken into consideration when developing courses, especially in terms of social networking skills. Bawden et al. (2007) argue that it seems important that LIS students, as future infor- mation professionals, are aware of these changes and innovations and that they should know more about them than an average user to be able to cope in the information world of tomorrow. In this respect Web 2.0 technologies are ‘‘both, sites of learning and tools for learning’’ (Bawden et al. 2007, p. 29). As the authors reveal, LIS schools worldwide approach this issue from very different angles. Some use many, while some decided to use only a limited scope of the Web 2.0 type technologies and services. In this review a few questions have been emphasized: 1. How (and to what extent) to incorporate these themes into the curriculum? Due to the lack of common understanding as to what Web 2.0 actually is, a certain amount of scepticism and pragmatism is needed. In addition the tools and services are changing and new ones are being developed very fast; it is very difficult to follow all the developments and include them into the curriculum. 2. How to use the emerging technologies and means of communications in the teaching process itself? It seems that in this part higher education has been quite successful by setting up web learning materials, e-learning environments, etc., on which Web 2.0 facilities may be built. In our Department e-learning is used only as a complement to face to face teaching; in this way some of the problems of e-learning, such as alienation of students, are avoided. E- learning therefore enriches the learning and we agree with Krevs (2007), who argues that e- learning can help facilitate: – Better use of teacher’s and student’s time, greater freedom for planning, – More student activity, greater responsibility of students in the learning process, 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 107 – More independent and current student engagement, – Better overview over the teaching/learning material, – Different forms of learning, of materials (dictionaries, glossaries, quizzes, AV materials, …), – Direct student engagement (‘‘the growing classroom’’), – Different ways of communication with and among students (contact hours, forums, blogs). Studies (Mullen and Tallent-Runnel 2006) show that e-learning environment has great influence on student perceptions of the learning process, their teachers and tutors, and in addition also influences their motivation, satisfaction and learning. On the other hand, studies (Allen 2007) also show that students are not very keen on using e-learning, unless their teachers strongly encourage them. They much rather use technologies of their own choice. This means that they may be very literate in these aspects (perhaps much more than their teachers), but also that they often use these technologies purely intuitively, lacking knowledge on how they work and what their overall purpose is. As Krevs (2007) has presented, e-learning also brings along certain requirements, both for teachers and students: Teachers – Knowledge and skills for preparation of e-materials and e-classrooms, – Attention to planning student involvement, their assignments, means of communication, – Different, enhanced knowledge assessment methods (e.g. portfolios), grading. Students – Knowledge and skills for use of e-materials and e-classrooms, – Internet access, – Regular visits and steady rhythm of work in e-classrooms, – Strict meeting of deadlines. Although e-learning can have both positive and negative consequences (Donnert 2004). Lavric (2006) argues that through e-learning we can achieve an integration of the three pedagogical approaches: traditional, constructivist, and social constructivist (Fig. 1). 3 Study programme at department of library and informations science and book studies in Ljubljana We decided to analyse the new Bologna programme at the Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies (LIS&BS) of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana which was introduced in 2006. It is the only library and information science programme in Slovenia, and the first at the Faculty of Arts to undergo the Bologna reform. It is a 5-year programme, divided into two levels, and as most LIS study programmes, it is devised for a scheme 3 ? 2. At the first (Bachelor) level there is a single Library and Information Science programme with three internal specializations (Library Science, Information Science and Book Studies). These are formed through elective courses, mostly in the third year of study. At the second (Masters) level four separate programmes have been prepared: Library Science, Information Science, Book Studies, and School Librari- anship. In the old programme there were two study directions, one-major and two-major; the latter including less courses and allowing the study of LIS to be combined with some other study at the same faculty. 123 108 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Fig. 1 Integration of three pedagogical approaches (Lavric ˇ 2006) As said before, two generations of students are currently enrolled in the first and second year of the first level programme. For this reason we decided to only look at the first level programme, since not much can be said about the actual implementation of the second level programme at this point (although all programmes have already passed accreditation). This paper will tackle the renovated curriculum from the following points: – differences from the old teaching programme (in terms of courses including IS&R topics) – the extent to which the Web 2.0 is covered in the curriculum – contemporary (Web 2.0 related) learning and teaching approaches – usefulness (as far as it can be assessed at this point) in the light of employability and relationships with the ‘labour market’. 3.1 IS&R topics in the old and new study programmes We must emphasize that direct comparison of the two programmes is rather difficult. The duration of the old study programme is four years, while new programme lasts ‘‘only’’ three years, but offers more condensed and more diverse study activities which should result in better knowledge acquired in shorter time. In our general overview we looked at contents of courses to see where IS&R topics were present. Tables 2 and 3 show in which courses IS&R topics were/are covered (completely, partly,or not at all). We can also see how many contact hours (directly taught by a teacher or instructor) there were/are for each course. In the new programme the overall student workload is shown in the number of credits for a respective course—reflecting the overall 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 109 Table 2 Old undergraduate study, one major Year Course title Teaching hours IS&R topics Year 1 Foundations of librarianship 60 No History of librarianship 60 No History and philosophy of science 60 No Publishing and book trade I 60 No Bibliography 60 No Descriptive cataloguing I 60 No Information technology 90 Completely Introduction to information science 60 Completely Research methods I 60 No Foreign language I—English I 60 No Year 2 Contemporary Organization of Librarianship I—Basics 60 No Public libraries 30 Partly School libraries 30 Partly Publishing and book trade II 60 No Descriptive cataloguing II 60 No Subject cataloguing I 60 No Library automation 90 Completely Databases I 60 Completely Developmental psychology 60 No Research methods II 60 No Foreign language I—English II 60 No Placement 80 – Year 3 Contemporary Organization of Librarianship II—Systems 60 No Academic libraries 30 Partly Special libraries 30 Partly Publishing and book trade III 60 No Bibliometrics 60 Partly Descriptive cataloguing III 60 No Subject cataloguing II 60 Partly Methods of reference service 60 No Cognitive psychology I 60 No Databases II 60 Completely Codicology 60 No Sociology of mass media 60 No Placement 80 – Year 4 Contemporary Organization of Librarianship III—Theory 60 No Comparative librarianship 60 No Library marketing 60 No Library management 60 No Descriptive cataloguing IV 60 No Publishing and book trade IV 60 No Documentation 60 Partly Computer communications 60 Completely 123 110 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 2 continued Year Course title Teaching hours IS&R topics Cognitive psychology II 60 No Library user studies 60 No Book history 30 No Preservation and restoration of library materials 60 No number of hours (contact and independent work) and showing the weight of each course in relation to the entire curriculum. In Table 3 we added information on the so-called study pillars to illustrate the flexibility of the study as one of the features of Bologna reform (A— compulsory core courses, B—compulsory specialized LIS courses, C—elective courses offered by the Department, or D—elective courses offered by other departments or faculties). Already a quick glance of the courses offered in both programmes reveals that the new programme is more IS&R oriented. Among other things, this indicates why the old pro- gramme desperately needed revision to adapt to the imminent changes governing the development of LIS field in general. In other words, the reform would have been necessary even without the Bologna reform. We can see that the old programme offered only a limited number of courses with complete coverage of IS&R content, and a few courses where these topics were partly covered. In addition, these courses were more or less randomly distributed in the curriculum which sometimes led to insufficient knowledge of the student who then had difficulties following the course. The course content was also often left to the judgement of individual teachers. Therefore we can not say that contemporary topics were completely left out, but it is still rather obvious that the programme in this respect was not appropriate (any more). The new programme approaches this issue in a more systematic and structured way. In the first years IS&R topics are present in the courses which belong to the co called Information Science specialization, although, being A and B courses, they are followed by all students. In the second year IS&R topics are partly covered also in the Librarianship and Book Studies courses, and, of course, in all Information Science courses. In the third year, where the students shape their final study orientation towards Librarianship, Infor- mation Science or Book Studies, most courses in the first two groups, regardless of the pillar, offer at least partial coverage of IS&R. At this point we need to mention that the IS&R topics are covered predominantly from the LIS perspective; computer science programmes in Slovenia do not focus on IR. If we think in terms of general and specific competences which the students acquire during study, as Brine and Feather (2002) argue, every process within the professional information field depends on the ability of the information worker to identify, analyze, and manage collections of information and data, organize knowledge, and process, seek and evaluate information. The goal of the new study programme is to educate the graduates for work not only in libraries, but in all institutions which are involved in production, dis- tribution, storage and mediation of information; this information being traditionally tied to the classical, printed format, but now also existing in other forms and media. In terms of IS&R this means that through these courses we are teaching the students to understand: – the origins, development and dynamic nature of information field, – different areas within the information field and connections with other academic areas, 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 111 Table 3 New Bologna study programme Course title Pillar Contact Credits IS&R hours topics Year 1 Librarianship and common Foundations of librarianship and A90 10 No courses library organization History of libraries and librarianship B 30 4 No Introduction to research B 45 5 No Psychology for librarians B 45 5 No Information science Foundations of information science A 45 6 Completely Foundations of organization of A 105 10 Completely information Computers in libraries B 75 8 Completely Book studies The book in historical and social A75 8 No context Elective courses (of which Reading and interpretation of LIS C30 4 No 1 must be chosen) texts in English Book topics in popular culture C 30 4 No Literature for librarians and C30 4 No publishers Year 2 Librarianship and common Organization of library collections A 75 8 Partly courses Statistics for librarians B 45 4 No Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C C 15 4 Partly/No Information science Information sources and services A 45 5 Partly Information retrieval systems A 75 8 Completely Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Book studies Foundations of book studies A 45 6 No Sociology of media and knowledge B 45 5 Partly Elective course C C 30 4 Partly/No Elective course D D * * * Elective course D D * * * Elective courses (of which at Professional communication in C30 4 No least 4 C courses must be English chosen—altogether 24 Reading and interpretation of LIS C30 4 No credits) texts in English Book topics in popular culture C 30 4 No Literature for librarians and C30 4 No publishers School libraries C 30 4 Partly Public libraries C 30 4 Partly Manuscripts in libraries C 30 4 No Elective course D D * * * 123 112 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 Table 3 continued Course title Pillar Contact Credits IS&R hours topics Year 3 Common courses Cognitive processes in org. of A30 4 No information Placement – 60 6 – Diploma – 30 4 – Librarianship Descriptive cataloguing A 75 8 Partly Subject cataloguing A 75 8 Partly Library automation B 45 6 Completely Library collection development B 75 8 No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Information science Organization of information A 75 8 Completely resources Internet information sources A 75 8 Completely Digital publishing B 45 6 Completely Digital library B 75 8 Completely Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Book studies Formats and carriers of book content A 75 8 Partly Digital publishing B 45 6 Completely Found. of Slov. and internat. book B75 8 No market research Cultural policies and the book in EUB75 8 No and Slovenia Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective course C or D C/D 30 4 Partly/No Elective courses for all 3 Professional communication in C30 4 No specializations English Reading and interpretation of LIS C30 4 No texts in English Book topics in popular culture C 30 4 No Literature for librarians and C30 4 No publishers School libraries C 30 4 Partly Public libraries C 30 4 Partly Academic libraries C 30 4 Partly Special libraries C 30 4 Partly 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 113 Table 3 continued Course title Pillar Contact Credits IS&R topics hours Preserv. and conserv. of written and C30 4 No graphic materials Employment on the youth labour C30 3 No market Manuscripts in libraries C 30 4 No Communication in information C 30 4 Partly services Elective course D D * * * Key: A—compulsory course from pillar A, B—compulsory specialized LIS course from pillar B, C— elective course within department, D—elective course from anywhere; * data can not be given for D courses – basic principles of organization and management of information – the origin and types of information resources, – the information cycle, – social, economic, and cultural context influencing the production, distribution and use of information, – influence of information and communication technology on creation of content and on its distribution. In addition they acquire the skills necessary to work with the various information and communication technologies and tools. Placement and diploma play an important role, because they enable the students to get in touch with their actual future working environments. 3.2 Web 2.0 coverage in the curriculum It is known that young people are attracted to and rather skilled in the use of social- networking services (chat programmes, blogs, skype, mashups, podcasts, MySpace/Face- Book, wikis, folksonomies, etc.). However, they acquire the knowledge of these tools through spontaneous self-education and are keen to use them for their own private pur- poses. They don’t use them for study purposes, unless prompted by their tutors (Broady- Preston 2007). Our students are no different in either of these respects. In this context one of the questions which we face is how to apply structure to the sporadically acquired knowledge of the technologies which students perceive as enter- tainment and not as a working tool? It seems imperative that students develop a critical approach and learn both about the advantages and flaws of various technologies and tools. This means that with the study programme we give them theoretical bases, as well as opportunities to use these tools in a professional manner. Our goal is to teach the students not only to master the (passive) use of the new technologies, but also to be able to design new systems and services and understand the social dynamics of the new users. 3.3 E-learning & teaching at Dept for LIS&BS Broady-Preston (2007) also writes that technical development enables new possibilities of personalization of study process, rather than mass education, however, in order to achieve 123 114 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 this, it is the responsibility of university staff to acquire more knowledge of these tools to be able to use them in the teaching process. As already presented in Bawden et al. (2007), there are a number of benefits we can achieve through e-learning, e.g. better knowledge, better e-literacy, control over study materials, more independent and current student engagement, independence of time/place, easier student and teacher mobility. It offers potential benefits for teachers, students, institution (faculty, university), and society. The Department of LIS was one of the first at the faculty to start working with the e- learning environment by setting up a few pilot e-classrooms with Moodle. The new Bologna programme which started last year is entirely supported by e-learning. Students in the first year of Bologna programme were immediately introduced to the environment. They do not report any difficulties in using it. They appreciated to have all the materials prepared in advance. They accepted the means of knowledge assessment and grading, e.g. portfolios, mostly respected deadlines for the assignments, and actively participated in other activities, e.g. forums. In the future, more Web 2.0 facilities may be included to support communication with the teachers as well as among students themselves. 3.4 Usefulness in the light of employability Technological development requires libraries, publishing houses and other information institutions to employ information and technologically literate and widely educated workforce who understands the entire communication circle of information. In this respect some dilemmas exist in regard to the ratio of practical and theoretical knowledge which a graduate of LIS programme should have acquired by the end of their studies. Zumer (2005) writes that a higher education programme should not primarily concentrate on ‘‘how’’, but also on ‘‘why’’—i.e. procedural knowledge is not enough. Understanding of the theoretical foundations enables an individual to better and faster adapt to changes. For this reason the new study programme is designed as a balanced mixture of practical work and theory, and ends with placement to give students the opportunity to test their knowledge while pre- paring their final research. At this point it is difficult to assess how useful the programme will be in terms of employability of the graduates. This is due to several reasons. Bologna reform has only been around for a few years and it has not yet demonstrated its characteristics in the labour market, i.e. newly educated staff has not yet entered the labour market (this goes for all study programmes in Slovenia, not only LIS). Another reason is that relationships between graduates of ‘‘old’’ and ‘‘new’’ programmes are not quite clear yet. Zumer (2004, 2005) and Kovac and Sauperl (2005) explain that graduates of the first level can be employed to perform less demanding and routine procedures in libraries (basic pro- cedures in acquisition, processing, arrangement and circulation), publishing houses (basic publishing activities) and certain other areas (information management, archives, etc.). Graduates of the second level could occupy more demanding and managerial posts in libraries of all types and in information management in other institutions as well as pub- lishing houses. Graduates of the second level could also specialize as school librarians or teachers of information literacy. We would like to particularly encourage students from other areas to enter the second level programme (provided that they pass the necessary entrance requirements from LIS area). We assume that such programme will appeal to those who will seek employment in publishing houses, but most of all in school, academic and special libraries. School 123 Inf Retrieval (2009) 12:102–116 115 libraries often employ teachers who haven’t had the opportunity to acquire formal LIS education. Similarly, special librarians often do not have formal LIS education, instead they are graduates of the area covered by their libraries. Both these groups will probably welcome the opportunity to enrol in our second level programme. Such joint education of ‘‘book professionals’’, backed up by second level study, therefore brings triple benefit (Vloga…, 2005): – it enables the graduates good understanding of the processes in the communication circle of the ‘‘book’’, thus overcoming of the traditional misunderstandings which happen in communication between publishers and librarians and consequentially much wider employability of the graduates, – the structure of study enables students of both study levels to choose desired specialization, – enrolment to second level and doctoral study is possible both for our graduates and for graduates of any other first level programme which enables specialized education for individuals who find themselves in organizations dealing with book or information, and require additional knowledge due to complex working processes. 4 Conclusions We know that one of basic aims of Bologna reform is to produce better qualified, more flexible and more employable graduates. LIS is a profession characterized by rapid change, together with the concomitant necessity to acquire a new set of skills (Broady-Preston 2007) to be able to stay competitive. Naturally, besides good quality formal education this implies, more than ever before, the need for lifelong learning of every individual. This is a topic which exceeds the purpose of this paper, but needs to be mentioned nevertheless. In perspective we can say that e-learning has proven to be useful in facilitating the educational process. Besides this, it is an important measure of quality of institutions of higher education. It supports the ‘battle’ for students as well as for better knowledge of graduates. What we need at this point is to think how to integrate various scattered initiatives into a whole in a search for even better e-learning approaches. In this paper we tried to demonstrate the relevance of the new study programme from different aspects. 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Journal

Discover Computing – Springer Journals

Published: Apr 1, 2009

Keywords: LIS education; Slovenia; Ljubljana; Bologna reform; Curriculum; Information seeking and retrieval; Web 2.0; E-learning; Employability

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