Training in library and information sciences with more focus on practical skills needed in library environment

Abstract

The past few years have brought radical changes in the Hungarian higher educational system. Similarly to other training programmes, the training in library and information sciences has been subject to significant modification too. Beside structural changes of the training, LIS departments and schools are striving to keep up with the technological requirements of the information age with syllabuses focusing on IT-related subjects. This tendency is justified on the one hand, since library services do have to keep up with the fast development of information technologies. However, we have to keep in mind that in order to train competent LIS professionals, the training programme must be founded on a solid, long term, progressive concept. In addition to developing IT skills, students need to get familiar with all the basic principles of library and information sciences. These principles have been somewhat neglected over the past few years in favour of the use of information technology tools, nevertheless, libraries are not able to provide quality services without them. Unfortunately there are a few areas of librarianship and related work processes that are missing from current LIS curricula or are only included as theoretical subjects. This paper demonstrates the shortcomings of the current training programmes and argues that structural modifications in the training system need to be followed by the improvement of the syllabuses too.