Library and Information Science (LIS) Curriculum Development Project
This project has been developed in response to requests from LIS schools worldwide, and has been further endorsed by the findings of the report, Towards the Digital Library which was published by INASP in 2005.
The project goal is to work with LIS schools to develop and update curricula in view of the developments in digital libraries. The aims of the project are:
- To review existing curricula in selected schools.
- To identify areas where new courses need to be developed.
- To identify existing courses which need updating.
- To identify areas where LIS staff (faculty) need to acquire new knowledge and skills in order to provide new courses or update courses.
- To provide LIS staff (faculty) with opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills e.g. via distance-education courses or attendance at training events.
Pilot projects 2006 and 2007
During 2006 and 2007 pilot projects are being undertaken in Asia and Africa:
Phase 1
Identify LIS schools to be included in the pilot project
- The Department of Information Studies, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Contact: Professor Ngawe Msuya)
- The Department of Library and Information Science, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh (Contact: Professor Nasir Uddin)
Phase 2
Delivery of a curriculum development workshop in each school
Phase 3
Delivery of a course design workshop in each school
Ongoing during phases 2 and 3
During phases 2 and 3 LIS staff (faculty) will be provided with opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills, e.g. via distance-education courses, expert visits and attendance at training events.
A curriculum development course has already taken place at University of Dar-es-Salaam (UDSM). Staff from UDSM and Rajshahi University have been registered for database education courses through the WISE (Web-based Information Science Education) programme.
Research and demonstration projects during 2006 and 2007
Background
A finding of the above survey was that university libraries in Africa have progressed towards establishing digital services at very different speeds and levels. They therefore have different immediate needs and ambitions. For that reason blanket support programmes offering the same assistance to all libraries are unlikely to work. This appears to be true also of libraries in the Asian and Latin American countries.
The report recommended support for:
- A number of research and demonstration projects in e-services and e-resource management and [to] disseminate the experiences learned
- Such projects could also act as 'laboratories' for LIS staff and students and so strengthen professional education.
It was therefore decided to fund three research/demonstration projects in university libraries.
In May 2006 a workshop was undertaken by the Consejo Latinoamericano en Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) in Guatamala on developing digital libraries for the dissemination of publications. At our request, CLACSO, for the first time, concentrated on including librarians among the participants. 14 librarians attended, mainly from the University of San Carlos, including three professors from the library school. It is hoped that the librarians will use their new skills to digitise parts of their collections. In Africa, we supported the University of Zimbabwe Library to expand the size and depth of its institutional repository. The grant included funding to employ a librarian to enter document data and to support advocacy for, and promotion of, the repository.
In 2007 INASP is supporting:
- Establishing E-Reference services at the University of University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
- Setting up a Institutional Repository at BRAC University, Bangladesh
For more information about these projects, please contact INASP by e-mail here