Training of librarians and information officiers at the University of Wales

Abstract

A two-level training of librarians and information officers is going on in the College of Librarianship of the University of Wales (Aberystwyth).
On the first level, the students may earn tha degree of Bachelor of Librarianship after three years of study at the College of Librarianship. The students may elect their second major subject from among courses offered by either the Faculty of Arts or of the Faculty of Science.
The second level consists in obtaining the degree of Master of Librarianship. This degree may be obtained by students who have already gained the degree of Bachelor of Librarianship with an advanced qualification at the University of Wales or at other appropriate universities. To obtain the degree the student has to conduct research work in library science or in information science for a minimum of one year and to sum up his/her results in a thesis. Those graduates who are not library majors but show an interest in librarianship or in information science may obtain a "University Post-Graduate Diploma" in librarianship after the completion of a post-graduate course offered by the University of Wales. This course lasts one year.
The examinations of the Library Association and its courses in the colleges aim at permitting the students to acquire thorough knowledge in the subject field, as well as practical skills in library and information science.
The peculiarities of the British pattern of training librarians and information officers are:
the course-based system of training is in harmony with the highlevel training at universities and other higher educational institutions;
the University of Wales offers highly differentiated forms of training in librarianship, special librarianship and information science;
the Library Association has a great professional authority in the field of training librarians and information officers.