The essential skills and competencies of LIS professionals in the digital age: alumni perspectives survey

Purpose The librarianship profession has gone through many changes over time, more so with the emergence of digital technologies. To thrive in the library and information science (LIS) profession, professionals must have knowledge, skills, competencies and abilities to perform their job duties. The purpose of this paper was to identify essential knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) for the LIS professionals. Design/methodology/approach The targeted survey group for the study were alumni of ten LIS schools in India, who are now working in various library sectors. A structured questionnaire was designed to seek their opinions, and the snowball sampling technique was adopted to collect the data. A total of 377 responses were received from the respondents. Findings Five broad areas of KSAs were identified: traditional library skills, research skills, computing skills, data management skills and soft skills. This study found that computing skills, library automation and library digitization are considered absolutely essential for the LIS professionals. The results also brought out the importance of “soft skills” for the LIS professionals. Prerequisite knowledge of library liaison services, technical services and foreign language were reportedly important only for working in special libraries. Practical implications This study identified 54 skills across five broad areas that are essential for the professionals working in library and information centres. The research findings will be helpful for the educators who want to design, develop and upgrade the LIS course curriculum in accordance with the skills that are in demand in the market. Originality/value This study establishes that though the participants expressed satisfaction with the practicum of the curriculum, the LIS course curriculum needs to be improved. It would be in the best interest of the LIS schools to identify and rectify the gap.

The role of the library within school-level literacy policies and plans in Australia and the United Kingdom

Libraries are valuable resources that schools can draw upon to enhance their students’ literacy outcomes. However, the role of libraries in supporting student literacy attainment and maintenance may be poorly understood in schools. To determine if libraries are a valued literacy resource within schools, investigation of their incorporation into school-level literacy policies and plans was warranted. Literacy policies and plans from Australia and the United Kingdom were examined using a hybrid content analysis approach to explore if libraries are commonly featured in school literacy policies and plans. Analysis also identified the kinds of libraries that were mentioned, and the roles that libraries play in these documents. Only 34.3% of Australian documents mentioned a library, with UK documents far more likely to include them (74.3%). UK documents were more likely to mention school libraries, classroom libraries, public libraries, mobile libraries, online libraries and book swap areas, while parent libraries were only mentioned in Australian documents. Analysis of roles of libraries found mentions of borrowing and literature exposure; access to a well-resourced facility; reading for pleasure; reading for assessment; environment; research, information literacy and library skills; external expertise, resourcing and outreach; and literacy and literature instruction. UK documents were more likely to include these roles than their Australian counterparts.

Empowering the Educational Magnificence of Students' Life Skills through Library Web 2.0 Services

Cognitive skills, personal skills, and inter-personal skills are the tripartite components which are vital in to the teaching process and system. Indeed, in order to empower students’ competencies, it is undeniably true that school libraries have played a crucial role in materializing such magnificent achievement. This is due to the fact that as more schools add project-based learning to the curriculum, students need library skills to conduct research which is essential to completing their projects. Most importantly, students must master library skills in order to navigate problems which they might encounter in a real-life setting. In fact, some students, especially those in higher levels, do not receive direct instruction in regards to library skills, but learn them through activities that support the content areas instead. Thus, the main focus of this study is to explore an overall landscape of using Web 2.0 library services, as well as the awareness among students regarding the services offered by the library in developing their skills theoretically based on a practical approach. This study incorporates user survey to obtain the overall data use of library Web 2.0 services in general (public and academic libraries). A total of 657 people participated in this research. It is hoped that this study will increase the awareness of using library Web 2.0 services offered by the school libraries among students which could eventually enrich their life skills in facing their academic world holistically.

Responsiveness of Library Resources and Services in Ensuring Students’ Readiness towards ASEAN Integration

Academic libraries in the new millennium are leaders in knowledge management. Librarians in universities are innovative in their use of new information technologies to provide access to a range of multimedia sources. Today’s libraries teach students the information handling skills to last a lifetime. As the heart of the educational institution, the SPUP University library has a vital role to provide the necessary resources for the learning and research needs of its clients. Thus, this study was conducted to look into the responsiveness of SPUP library resources and services to ensure students’ readiness towards ASEAN integration. The results of the study clarified the extent of utilization of the library resources and availing of the services rendered. Likewise, the skills and competencies of the academic librarians which are needed to facilitate and foster involvement in the initiatives to be undertaken to strengthen the students’ readiness towards ASEAN integration were elicited from the respondents. Findings revealed that students’ utilization of library resources and services is to a great extent. Moreover, the library skills and competencies in the ASEAN integration among SPUP librarians is high. Meanwhile, the students chose to create library flyers and brochures for the promotion of the ASEAN integration as one of the prioritized initiatives to be implemented by the SPUP library to strengthen students’ readiness towards ASEAN integration.

From Dependence to Independence

Although it is widely believed that information literacy (IL) competencies are useful in helping students perform better in their schoolwork and beyond, limited empirical evidence is available showing the relationship between IL competencies and IL education. While a lot of research has been done worldwide and most of the findings have proven that IL is a much-needed skill by students, little research has been conducted on IL teaching approaches or what is termed IL pedagogy. To date, studies on IL have mainly focused only on students’ information skills per se, on library skills or on ICT education. None of these studies has assessed the different approaches to IL education. This paper provides an overview of a research study that investigates the impact of an IL teaching approach in the form of personalised coaching, which is grounded in the pedagogy known as mediated learning, on students’ level and applicability of IL competencies. Through the application of a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control-group design, as well as student responses in the post-experiment semi-structured group interviews, it was found that personalised coaching (or mediated learning) helps students perform better in the learning and application of IL competencies.

The Mysterious Affair at Squire: Using Code-Breaking Games to Deliver Law Library Skills

The Squire Law Library has designed and run a series of popular escape room-style events, aimed at masters and undergraduate law students. Intended to prompt students to explore the full range of legal resources available to them, the games typically challenge participants to open a locked safe: relying on legal databases, the library catalogue and print materials to decipher a six-digit combination. This article, based on Lizz Edwards-Waller's presentation at the BIALL (virtual) conference 2020, reflects on the practicalities of running and promoting code-breaking events within the library and considers the benefits of this style of event in addition to, or instead of, more traditional law library orientation tours.

An evaluation of digital library education in library and information science curriculum in Nigerian universities

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the library school’s curriculum in Nigeria with the aim of comparing it with international and national library and information science (LIS) guidelines regarding provision of “digital libraries” course. Design/methodology/approach This study covered 31 universities offering LIS approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC). The main instrument for data collection for the study was analysis of departmental documents containing the LIS curriculum. Second, some library and information science educators from universities that were yet to integrate the course digital libraries in their LIS curriculum were interviewed. Findings This study revealed that majority of the library schools offer the course “digital libraries” or related areas as core course in their curricula. However, only few library schools have computer laboratories for students to enhance digital library skills. Some LIS educators in the library schools identified challenges such as lack of qualified information and communication technology (ICT) staff to handle the course coupled with lack of computer laboratories equipped with modern computers with stable internet facilities in the LIS departments in Nigeria. Practical implications The findings from this study may inform curriculum revision and updating efforts to make it more relevant by incorporating a stand-alone course on “digital libraries” and provision of computer laboratories in the LIS departments to produce future ICT/digital librarians. Originality/value If university administrators, decision-making body in the departments and LIS educators understand the factors that are currently standing in the way of integrating a course on digital libraries, then those barriers can be removed or lowered. If the enabling factors are appreciated, then actions can be taken to stimulate the implementation of the Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN)/NUC recommendations in all library schools in Nigerian universities.