Working Together in Developing Library and Information Science ...

Working together in developing library and information science education in the Asia Pacific

Foo, S., Khoo, C., Chaudhry, A., & Majid, S. (2006). Proc. 9th International Conference of Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL2006), Kyoto, Japan, November 27-30, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), 4-11.

Working Together in Developing Library and Information Science Education in the Asia Pacific Schubert Foo, Christopher S.G. Khoo, Abdus Sattar Chaudhry, Shaheen Majid Division of Information Studies School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University Singapore 637718 {assfoo, assgkhoo, aschaudhry, asmajid}@ntu.edu.sg Abstract. Ongoing initiatives that offer potential collaboration and cooperation among LIS educators, particularly in the Asia Pacific context, are identified and discussed. By no means being exhaustive, these areas include hosting and participating in workshops, symposiums and conferences; implementing a portal for education; developing a repository of learning objects and resources; assuring quality through accreditation; and promoting and sustaining research and scholarship. These are highlighted to with the aim to foster and promote dialog among LIS educators and researchers, and to engender participation in these activities. Collectively, these areas lays a foundation to create an informal network to improve information exchange and dissemination, knowledge sharing and creation, research collaboration, and in so doing, help further improve and ensure high standards of LIS education and research in the region.

1

Introduction

The emergence of the Web Wide Web and the networked information society has changed the landscape and roles of information professionals dramatically. Six challenges have been identified by Johnson (1998) facing these professionals: assisting users deal with information overload through higher selectivity and screening; high level of technical skills to manage new information and communication technologies (ICTs), competition with other professionals for positions in increasingly converged library, information and computing services; need for new skills drawn from those traditionally seen as separate sectors of the information industry such as publishing; higher level of skills for teaching and facilitating information literacy; and the ability to work with other people. Against this backdrop, we have seen library and information schools rise to the challenge to train such a new breed of information professionals by reinventing themselves and engaging in the revision of their LIS curricula, rightly recognizing the lack of expertise in traditional LIS departments and thereby fostered and created collaboration and cooperation opportunities with other departments to offer new specialisms within the framework of a generalist programme of education. Beyond this, these departments have extended their reach beyond the institution into national and international boundaries. In the Asia Pacific region, we have began to witness pockets of activities by LIS educators to enhance and promote collaboration to deal with this increasing demand of educating competent information professionals for the future. Typical activities would include the hosting of seminars, symposiums, workshops and conferences; making available learning and teaching resources; collaborative research and scholarship; improving quality of education through information sharing and accreditation. This paper attempts to outline some of these activities along these lines with the aim to further engage and promote dialog among LIS educators, and to engender participation, either formally or informally, to further develop these activities to reach a higher plane of quality that would benefit all educators, students and LIS professionals alike.

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Workshops, Symposiums and Conferences

In 2004, the Research Center for Knowledge Communities (RCKC), University of Tsukuba organized an international symposium on digital libraries and knowledge communities in networked information society in cooperation with the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA), DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries (DELOS, EU) and the Japan Society of Library and Information Science (University of Tsukuba, 2004). In 2006, the symposium focused on new directions for information science education in the networked information society. In this March 2006 symposium, speakers from North America and Asia-Pacific countries gathered to share information and ideas, and provided updates of new directions for education for the future (University of Tsukuba, 2006). Institutions represented at the symposium included the University of Pittsburgh (US), University of Michigan (US), University of British Columbia (Canada), National Taiwan University (Taiwan), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Monash University (Australia), University of Tokyo (Japan), Khon Kaen University (Thailand) and Sookmyung Women’s University (Korea). In essence, the three pillars of information, namely, people (society), technology (IT) and information (LIS and related disciplines) seems to be an acceptable framework and way forward to inculcate the skills and competencies of information professionals. LIS schools working in collaboration with other schools and disciplines is clearly an upward trend to recognize the diversity of needs in the marketplace. Opportunities for growth still prevail – examples include archives management, records management, and knowledge management. Interesting discussions on the ―I‖ schools versus the ―L‖ schools continue to prevail as we grapple with the new future. A more structured approach in the form of the LIPER (Library and Information Professionals Education Reform) project in Japan is an attempt to restructure the Japanese LIS education and training system to tackle the current state of LIS education that takes the current form of shiso training (public libraries), shisho-kyoyu training (school libraries) and graduate LIS education. Information, which is now widely acknowledged as a key commodity by industries, businesses, governments and universities is an enabling resource to fuel research to tackle global priorities to advance knowledge and understanding, ensuring economic and cultural prosperity, and providing safety and security. Online proceedings of the symposium will eventually be made available at the symposium’s website. Another related conference in LIS education in 2006 is the inaugural Asia-Pacific Conference on Library and Information Education and Practice (A-LIEP) conference that was held at Nanyang Technological University in April (NTU, 2006). The conference was organised by NTU’s Division of Information Studies in collaboration with the Department of Information Science, University of Malaya (UM), and NTU Library. Traditionally, the LIS profession in Asia-Pacific has often looked to the West for ideas and leadership without realizing the growing wealth of valuable developments, innovations and expertise in the own yard of countries in AsiaPacific. Each country exhibits its own history of LIS education and research, shaped by socio-economic, political and cultural factors. As a result, LIS education and research in Asia-Pacific exhibit a wide variety of characters, flavors and areas of strength. The conference provided a platform for each country to tell its story of LIS, engender dialogue and knowledge sharing, and paved the way for greater collaboration and cooperation among LIS educators and researchers in the Asia-Pacific as well as globally. The conference saw an exciting gathering of more than 200 LIS professors and professionals from 20 countries, including the presidents of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Library Association of Singapore (LAS), as well as representatives from the American Library Association (ALA), Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) and International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and many deans and heads of Information departments across the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe (Khoo, Singh & Chaudhry, 2006). In addition, a pre-conference meeting on accreditation of LIS programmes in Asia was held with representatives from several countries and LIS associations. An update of the 2006 Tsukuba’s symposium that was highlighted previously was also given by Professor Shigeo Sugimoto (Symposium’s Organising Chair) as an introduction to the final panel discussion attended by all conference participants. A number of regional collaborative projects were initiated at the conference including developing a Web portal and learning objects repository for LIS education in Asia, and a regional accreditation scheme for LIS education. These will be further elaborated in subsequent sections of this paper. Proposals were also received from Taiwan and Japan to host the second and third ALIEP conferences in future. LISEA is akin to ICADL (International Conference of Asian Digital Libraries) which had its initial roots in Hong Kong in 1998 as an event to invite international participation focusing and highlighting digital libraries,

related technologies and issues especially in this part of the world. Professor Hsinchun Chen from the University of Arizona, who first initiated this conference had seen it mature annually to its current 9 th current meeting in Kyoto, Japan. ICADL is now firmly established as one of the three key international digital libraries around the world, the other two being the IEEE/ACM JCDL (Joint Digital Library Conference) and ECDL (European Digital Library Conference). Over the years, ICADL have been hosted by major Asian cities that included Taipei (Taiwan), Seoul (South Korea), Bangalore (India), Singapore, Kuala Lumper (Malaysia), Shanghai (China) and Bangkok(Thailand). We are indeed hopeful that LISEA will be nurtured in the same way through the support and collaboration of LIS educators in Asia-Pacific so that it can truly make its mark and serve as an important platform to congregate LIS educators and professionals together to jointly advance and improve the LIS education landscape.

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Portal for LIS Education and Development

A portal for LIS education known as LISEA (Library and Information Science Education in Asia) located at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/lisea was to be set up after A-LIEP conference to promote resource sharing among LIS educators and researchers after the conference. The portal will be developed jointly by the Division of Information Studies at NTU, and the Department of Information Science at UM. The objectives of this portal is fourfold: 1. To provide a gateway to LIS education programmes in Asia—including a directory of LIS schools and programs, and faculty members. 2. To provide a forum for LIS educators—including a listserv, a blog and a news service. 3. To serve as a learning repository and exchange for LIS education—including a repository of teaching materials contributed by LIS schools and educators 4. To serve as a digital library of LIS publications, papers and reports—including a bibliography of papers published by LIS educators in Asia, and papers on LIS education in Asia. Work is currently ongoing in the design and development of the portal, accumulating and editing the contents for publication and in developing public relations to publicise this collaborative effort to obtain commitment, support and contributions from LIS education and research communities. The portal when completed will serve as a very important repository of information, gateway to learning and teaching resources, an invaluable platform to discuss and deliberate current and emerging issues, and sharing of best practices.

4

Development of Repository of Learning Objects

A repository of learning resources is currently being developed at the Division of Informaton Studies at NTU with a view to facilitate and promote sharing of teaching resources in LIS education programs in Asia. This forms part of the functionality of LISEA (Section 3). The main issues in this development pertain to content creation, management and organization, as well as accessibility and usability of resources in the repository (Chaudhry et. al., 2006). At a more detailed level, it encompasses the resolution of quality, size and format of learning objects; metadata, vocabulary, and taxonomy considerations; and repository system, interface; and accessibility policies and mechanisms. While many of these issues are still being researched to date, the developers envisage a phased development approach that will gradually render the full repository functionality over time. When completed, the repository is expected to yield significant benefits (Chaudhry et. al., 2006):

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LIS instructors who are teaching a particular subject for the first time will benefit from hindsight the different perspectives/approaches that other instructors have taken in teaching the subject, the level of detail covered for different topics, amount of material that can be covered in a certain amount of time, types of activities used to enhanced learning and evaluation methods. Course development time is expected to be reduced by re-using the learning objects and customizing it to distinct needs. LIS instructors who are already teaching the particular course will likewise benefit from alerts to new developments and emerging topics that are being covered by other instructors. Instructors can also search for supplementary materials, e.g. diagrams, illustrations, exercises/tutorials and class activities, to enhance student learning. LIS students will find the repository particularly resource base for supplementary readings, tutorials, assessment and examination questions.

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LIS professionals can use the repository for e-learning in new and emerging areas on the assumption that the learning objects on the subject are detailed and comprehensive enough.

The key to the success of this repository hinges on both the technologically and usability aspects of the platform, and more importantly, on the content development and use by a sustainable (and growing) pool of participants who can achieve a win-win situation in contributing and using the repository. More information on the issues that are currently been addressed by the development team on the repository can be found in the paper by Chaudhry et. al. (2006).

5 Quality Assurance through Accreditation The topic of quality assurance through some form of accreditation schemes augurs both positive and negative inclinations. While proponents of the scheme see the real worth and value of the scheme, a mark of achievement of the standing of one’s programme, and the overall confidence in the education process, the dissidents view this as a means of parochialism and protectionism, so as to achieve competitive advantage by this group of accredited members. While the reality is the situation is true on both sides, accreditation will no doubt enhance the quality of education and acceptability of degrees, and create mobility among professionals. Currently, there are no accreditation schemes for most parts of Asia Pacific except for Australian library schools through ALIA. As such, there is a need for LIS departments in this part of the world to embrace this aspect of development for the future. Arising from a first study about a regional accreditation scheme by Majid, Chaudhry, Foo, and Logan (2002), it has subsequently evolved into a proposal at the CONSAL (Congress of South East Asian Librarians) Conference in 2003 in Brunei (Khoo, Majid & Chaudhry, 2003). In the proposal, the accreditation standards of ALA, ALIA, IFLA and Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, UK) were examined and guidelines provided in these standards were adjusted with respect to the Southeast Asian context. Issues related to implementation of a regional accreditation system were discussed in two later library conferences, namely, ICADL in Bangkok in 2005, and A-LIEP in Singapore in 2006. At the last meeting in Singapore, it was proposed that further discussions should continue with various stakeholders to further refine the scheme and to seek collaboration with other accreditation bodies. This is in view of the differing perceptions from different LIS schools whose education systems are different from one another. Accreditation at different levels may prove more appropriate. These levels include recognition, assessment, endorsement, and accreditation. It is expected that some countries would be able to use the accreditation guidelines for securing adequate resources and may not pursue formal accreditation. Additionally, ongoing engagement with international forums like IFLA, ALA, ALISE, etc. is expected to be useful in our efforts of quality improvement and ultimately establishing a system for accreditation in this part of the world.

6 Research and Scholarship The networked information society has spurred and spawned many areas of important researches that need to be tackled. In examining the research trends and developments of digital libraries in the Asia Pacific, Theng and Foo (2005) noted the emerging individuals and groups of digital library researchers in a number of Asia Pacific countries who are well plugged into the global digital library community, collaborating with established researchers, fostering new initiatives, making good research progress, reporting findings in scholarly journals and conferences, and making significant contributions in the global digital library research agenda. The diversity and richness in heritage, culture, languages and practices across Asia Pacific, including that of LIS education poses real challenges and opportunities for further research, but especially in areas of cross-cultural and cross-lingual research. A truly useful LIS portal would encompass the provision of solutions to such challenges to make it truly useful for the communities it serves. Rigorous research and scholarship must continue to prevail among educators and researchers in order to make LIS course offerings and education more up-to-date, relevant and challenging for students, in contributing towards knowledge and sharing findings that can have impact globally. An example would be the need to seek a reliable and affordable long term solution to the digital preservation problem – to manage and preserve the

digitally born materials that are growing substantially. To this end, we need businesses and governments’ support to fund such research to maintain the intellectual and cultural heritage of countries, and to create a global network of researchers who have common research interests. Likewise, creating a network of LIS educators and professionals to foster collaboration and cooperation are important agendas that needs to fostered and nurtured.

7 Conclusion This paper has described a number of areas that present opportunities for collaboration among LIS educators and researchers. While we are still largely at an early stage to make an significant impact on global LIS education, we need to start somewhere and the continued efforts, commitment and advocacy work done by many individuals and groups are important first steps for us to reach the long term final ultimate goal of being equal leaders of education to our counterparts outside the region. A loose bottom-up structure to create an informal network organization appears to be the logical direction in the formative stages of this effort. At the same time, we should also be mindful of what we can learn from others who have matured into more structured formal networks with established policies and processes. Examples of such international networks in higher education in Asia Pacific are APHERN (Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Network - http://www.aprim.net/aphern/aphern.htm) launched in Bangkok in 1995, and CERNET (Chinese Education and Research Network - http://www.edu.cn/HomePage/english/index.shtml) for the Chinese region launched in 1995. In their research in international networks for higher education, Ottewill, Riddy & Fill (2005) noted that only by sharing experiences and ideas can progress be made. They cited a number of distinct contributions of such collaboration and cooperation: (1) information exchange and dissemination through conferences and workshops, hosting discussion boards or online seminars, gateways to information, and access of educational resources; (2) knowledge creation through sponsorship of research and development; (3) contribution to processes of policy making and implementation; (4) fostering a culture of cross-national dialogue and collaboration for individuals and institutions. This last point is modeled after the values of mutuality, respect and open mindedness. When taken collectively, they add towards the sources of stimulation and support for educators. They help complement national sources and can serve to revitalize academic communities. They also pointed out issues and challenges and suggested characteristics that can be used to assess network effectiveness. While we are still a long way off in realizing such formal networks and the way to effectively manage them, their contributions can certainly serve as motivators for educators and researchers in Asia Pacific to take concrete first steps to make commitments to improving LIS education through a renewed urgency of collaboration and co-operation.

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