Old Wine Into New Bottles: Responses To New Approaches In Library Education

Abstract

Library schools historically have paid little attention to paradigm shifts in society. They have been slow to change their curricula in meaningful ways, and their leaders have not paid enough attention to forces from the external social environment. The limited theoretical foundation for librarianship leaves librarians without a clear sense of future direction. Five themes related to improving library education were proposed and discussed at the Feather River Institute held in May 1997.

• 1.

  Librarians lack a strong sense of identity.

• 2.

  The profession of librarianship lacks an adequate body of underlying theory.

• 3.

  Library schools and the library profession have been weak in regulating themselves.

• 4.

  Library schools have been slow to respond to technological changes.

• 5.

  The time is ripe for major changes in the curricula of library schools.