Transcript Slide 1

Revamping the LIS Curriculum in India in
conformity to the Needs of the Emerging
Information Scenario
Prof. I V Malhan
Head, DLIS & Dean
SoMCIS, Central University Of H. P.
Dharamshala
Challenge of Accommodating varied skill sets
in curricula
LIS professionals have opportunities to work in very
diverse work settings that require varied skill sets.
The challenge is how to balance curricula and potential
opportunities to expand our educational programs.
The limited faculty strength at LIS schools is major
constraint to expand on the existing course curricula
and offer more choices to students.
Ample scope for divergence
As work in every sphere of activity is becoming more
competitive, it is also becoming more knowledge intensive.
There are thus opportunities for LIS professionals to work and
contribute in diversity of work settings ranging from imparting
information literacy in secondary schools to managing
knowledge assets in the corporate sector.
Because of lack of faculty resources, reasonable level of
divergence in LIS education is not taking place in consonance
with opportunities available for divergence.
There is thus a huge gap between what we continue to do and
what actually is possible
Changing requirement of skill sets
The desired competencies and skill sets are changing with
changes at work places because of adoption of new
technologies and professional practices for handling
information.
Library professionals after completion of their professional
degrees are required to self assess what they know and what
they need to further continuously learn to survive and thrive in
this chosen profession.
Library schools therefore has another major challenge of
organizing effective and need based continuing education
programs.
Theory versus practice
Not only our current curricula is required to be enriched, it also
needs more tilt towards learning by practice.
Learning through advanced level practice can not only help to
improve employment opportunities for our graduates but can
also make more professional impact at work places.
For instance, our graduates should actually learn how to
develop a digital library, how to design a database, how to
evaluate information and create a virtual library or portal, how
to aggregate and organize electronic information resources and
how to design and develop an electronic journal or a wiki book?
Technology enhanced delivery of education
Development of content with integration of text, video, pictures,
animation helps to better comprehend the learning resources e.g.epathshala project
Development of smart classrooms and use of educational
technologies for delivery of education enhance meaning and
understanding of content.
The technology enabled learning also makes the process of learning
interesting and joyful and demonstrate processes through show how
State of the Art LIS Education and Training
LIS education plays a key role for professionals to use
their skills and competencies for surviving and thriving
in professional practice.
Therefore LIS education and training programs must
match:Contemporary Library and Information Systems and
anticipated future developments.
Ongoing metamorphosis in libraries and information
centers.
Changing information seeking channels and methods.
Changing information scenario being created by
electronic publishing and the Internet.
Analysis of curricula
The LIS curricula in several library schools in India continue to
focus on education on the functionality of document acquisition,
organized storage of documents and document supply.
Providing access to electronic documents and rendering reference
service are other thrust areas of study.
Library’s interface with society, study of select professional
organizations, ICT applications in libraries and study of select
library software packages continue to be still another areas of
education and training.
Information Professionals Changing Role & LIS Education
The present day information professional is supposed to be
An information mining expert and knowledge manager.
Hypermedia organizer, database specialist and digital
information architect.
Information coordinator, team worker and social computing
specialist.
Expert in packaging and repackaging of information and
alignment of knowledge resources with work processes.
Manager of technical services, expert in ICT enabled services
including cloud computing, and service innovator
Managing Knowledge and Information Resources is an
unending opportunities
Knowledge and Information are sin-qua-non to human work and
activities.
Generation of knowledge is an endless process and information is
growing exponentially.
There are thus unending service opportunities for managing
knowledge and information resources provided we are able to
timely refocus our LIS programs incorporating state of the art
technologies and contemporary knowledge management (K.M.)
tools.
Expansion and Reconstruction
Because of growing knowledge management needs in different
disciplines and its application in diversity of work settings, the LIS
education has enormous scope for expansion and reconstruction.
There is also enormous scope to look at our discipline from the
angle of several cognate disciplines and develop a specialized body
of knowledge and practices based on it.
If we want to fetch more service opportunities for LIS profession,
considerable restructuring and massive effort will be required to
tune LIS education programs to facilitate grabbing of such service
opportunities in our domain of work.
Need to Concentrate on Information Products and Services
Research
We also need to refocus our research efforts and concentrate on
research that may lead to innovations, improvements and value
addition in information products and services.
We also need to focus on research for developing information
provisions that offers unique value to users and at the same time
lead to saving of time.
We need to focus on research for development of simple and
convenient ways of information accessibility as with life as it is today, information users don’t desire more complications and
struggle especially where information accessibility is concerned
Wake up and Shake up
A major professional wake up is desired to shake up and
rebuild the whole LIS education & training programs.
However, our slumber over issues and concerns and lack of
action and concern is leading to loss of opportunities.
Quality assessment and quality control of LIS is an important
issue that directly influence the credibility of our degrees and
employability of our professionals.
Flexible, rich and both technologically and technically
advanced system of LIS education must evolve year after year.
Versatile and Multi skilled LIS Professional
In order to take advantage of the fluid information
environment, we need to develop versatile and multi skilled
LIS professionals.
At the sometime, we require to train and educate subject
specialist LIS professionals so that there is desired interface
between the information provider and information receiver.
We must make efforts to develop human resources who not
merely act as custodians of knowledge resources but act as
knowledge workers to derive value from the existing
accessible knowledge resources in the best interest of
institutes and society they serve
Opportunities to Prepare Human Resources for a Wide Range
of Information Services
The emerging information scenario offer opportunities for LIS
professionals to work in a wide range of work settings.
We must proactively perceive possibilities of education and
collectively work to design new curricula and educational
facilities.
Library and Information Science now concerns over a variety
of services ranging from simple document supply to
information analysis, information literacy, knowledge
consultancy providing prescriptive information for problem
solving and managing learning resources through Moodle
Gaining competencies beyond profession
The skills and competencies required to manage present day
knowledge and information resources are much more than what
was desired in the past.
The technological and management skills and competencies are
becoming as important as technical knowledge for professional
practice.
There is therefore enormous need to gain competencies beyond
profession particularly in the ICT in general, web based
technologies and content management in particular.
Electronic publishing and e-content and e-content marketing are
the other areas where we should prepare our graduates.
Preparing Employable Graduates
There is no dearth of LIS manpower produced by library schools in India,
however, there is scarcity of high quality and highly skilled manpower
possessing skills that are in demand.
We therefore require to reorient our LIS education programs according to the
skills and competencies that are currently in demand for handling information
work at the work places.
Through project work and case handling, we must prepare our graduates for
providing prescriptive information for problem solving.
Through rigorous practice and intensive training, we should develop in them
capabilities and competencies that make them more employable.
Such graduates through their contributions will also keep the image of
profession very high
CUHP Model
Thank You