Competencies survey: focus on special libraries

Information Outlook, Nov, 1998

In the 1997-1998 association year, the SLA Board of Directors directed association staff to conduct a survey of library schools to assess the extent to which library education curricula offered the training students need to develop the knowledge, understanding, and skills of information professionals necessary for the twenty-first century, as outlined in the Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century document (http://www.sla.org/professional/comp.html). The survey was also intended to provide insight into competency areas better served by continuing education programs offered through professional associations. Two other related professional associations, the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) and the Medical Library Association (MLA) partnered with SLA on this project.

After considering several formats, the survey instrument was divided into two sections. In the first section, components of the eleven professional competency areas were categorized into six "Essential Areas of Knowledge for Special Librarians:" Information Resources, Information Management, Information Access, Information Systems and Technology, Research and Information Policy. Using the curriculum list of their library science programs, respondents were asked to list their course titles under all of the "essential" areas to which they were relevant, indicate whether each course was "Core" or "Elective," and record the credit hours for each course offered.

In the second portion of the survey, respondents were asked to provide the following information in open-ended questions: ways in which their programs foster the development of personal competencies; whether they plan to make changes in their curriculum based on SLA's Competencies document and MLA's Platform for Change; and suggestions on how professional associations and library and information studies programs could work together to continuously improve curriculum content. The survey was mailed to library and information studies programs throughout the world. After these efforts, forty-two of the fifty-six ALA-accredited schools responded for a response rate of 75 percent among Canadian and U.S. schools. There were responses from eighty-four international schools, a 26.6 percent response rate.

The data collected are quite insightful into how the competency areas are being addressed in the schools. One interesting section of the survey was the analysis of special library courses being offered by the library and information studies programs at ALA-accredited schools in the U.S. and Canada. As Figure 1 indicates, 52 percent of schools offer a general special libraries course while 48 percent do not offer such a course. One school offered this course as a core course while the rest offered it as an elective. A "general" course most likely introduces a variety of types of special libraries, though no detail on such courses can be examined since the schools just provided course titles.

Figure 2 shows the breakdown of specific special libraries courses by subject area. The breakdown is as follows: Government/International (81 percent), Humanities (64 percent), Health Science (62 percent), Science and Technology/Engineering (74 percent), Corporate (57 percent), Legal (62 percent), Art/Music (24 percent), Geography/Map (5 percent), and Social Sciences (76 percent). The greatest concentration of specific special libraries courses are the areas of Government/International, Social Sciences, and Science and Technology/Engineering. Two out of a total of 212 specialized courses are offered as core courses, with the remainder as electives. This is not surprising given that students who want to enter the special library field would want to pick their area of specialization.

Based on the fact that only three out of a total of 266 special libraries courses, general or specific, are core courses, it can be concluded that should students not choose a special libraries course, they may have very little in depth study of this field. It is likely that special libraries are touched on in other courses, especially in general, introductory courses, but extent of which was not explored in this survey.

This is just one piece of very useful information that can be gained from the survey results. In the full report, you'll find out more about the types of core and elective courses the schools are offering, the most innovative courses that are out there, and ways that the schools are addressing the personal competencies.

For a copy of the full report, contact the Professional Development department at: 1-202-234-4700, ext. 627.

For more information on Professional Development Outlook or to contribute to the column, please contact Director, Professional Development Valerie Taylor (valerie@sla.org).