Special library education and continuing education in Canada

Library Trends, Fall, 1993 by Judy Macfarlane, Miriam Tees

INTRODUCTION

To discuss education for special librarianship in Canada is no easy task, since there is no standard throughout the nation, and, like many things in this country, it varies from province to province, city to city, school to school, association to association. As in the United States, special libraries have been an important aspect of the field of librarianship for about a hundred years, and courses have been geared to the special librarian for nearly as long, whether by the library associations or by the schools of librarianship.

For many years, courses called "Special Libraries" were part and parcel of the curricula of the two original library schools (McGill University and University of Toronto) and, when new schools were formed, they followed suit. These were usually elective courses, of ten taught by practitioners who worked as special librarians themselves. Students were usually required to choose one or more "type of library" course: public, college, university, children's, special, or a variant of these.

There was, of course, no guarantee that if a student took the course in special librarianship he or she would actually work in a special library. Then, as now, most organizations employing special librarians are looking simply for someone with a library or information science degree, if in fact they know enough to employ a librarian with professional education at all. A course in "special libraries" may be the perfect preparation for work in a special library, but the graduate may well find himself or herself in another type of library while the person working in the special library may never have taken such a course. Nonetheless, education for special librarianship is still available in one way or another in all the schools in Canada.

There are at present seven accredited schools of librarianship and a number of institutions which give training for library technicians. We shall deal here only with the former, since the latter rarely cover special librarianship in any specific way. The seven accredited schools are: School of Library and Information Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec; Ecole de bibliotheconomie et des sciences de l'information, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec; Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; School of Library and Information Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario; School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; and School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia (see Appendix A for information about these school and Appendix B for course content of the Canadian special library courses). Each of these schools has different emphases, different strengths, and a different approach to education for librarianship.

With the exception of the University of Western Ontario, which has a three-semester program, all the Canadian schools have two-year programs. This means that students spend the first year learning basics of librarianship, and there is usually a required core which probably includes cataloging, classification, bibliography, reference, library automation in its various aspects, collection development, management, or some variation of these. The content of a course in special librarianship would depend on how much the students would already know in any one area and where emphasis would be needed. In one school, for example, time is spent discussing appropriate databases and how to evaluate and choose them. In another, such a topic is not touched upon.

COURSES

Of the seven schools of library and information studies/science in Canada, six have specific courses in special librarianship, and the seventh, Dalhousie, provides a variety of options for students who wish to explore this type of library. Several schools report discussions about abandoning such a course along with other "type of library" courses, but, on the other hand, the Universite de Montreal, which did abandon it in a revision of the curriculum some years ago, has recently reinstated it. The courses are taught either by sessional faculty who work in special libraries or faculty members with special library experience. There is a range of titles for these courses from a bald "Special Libraries" to "Management of Corporate and other Special Information Centres."

The methods of teaching are fairly standard and vary little from school to school. All emphasize reading and discussion, site visits, and interviews with special librarians. Most invite special librarians to speak to their classes. In most schools, the students have some form of project or paper. One school, Toronto, has a well-established practicum; students are assigned to a special library where they work on a special project as well as taking part in the activities of the library and reporting on them. At McGill and the Universite de Montreal, students take part in a six-week simulation of the establishment of a new special library in a pharmacological firm. At Western Ontario, students use a seminar method using specific problems to prepare, solve, and discuss at each class.