IN DEPTH
LIS students: fears and hopes for future of profession
Biddy Casselden shares the key fi ndings from a small survey that she conducted of current postgraduate library students in the UK.
LAST term during my sabbatical, I undertook a small-scale survey of postgraduate students in the UK. The survey asked how postgraduate LIS students felt about the state of the library profession and what they hoped a postgraduate qualifi cation would do for their careers. The fi ndings show that the latest cohort of LIS students are concerned about the chal- lenges the sector faces and whether CILIP is managing to meet them.
Optimism and pessimism were fi nely bal- anced in response to some issues, with just over 70 per cent of respondents agreeing with the statement “I am concerned for the future of the library profession across the sectors” while just over 60 per cent agreed with the statement “The library profession has a positive future.”
Technology
However there was a strong consensus on the topic of change, with more than 90 per cent agreeing that “The role of libraries has changed, and needs to change further to survive the modern world.” Almost all respondents agreed with statements on change giving a very clear indication that in order to survive the profession needs to adapt to the conditions it fi nds itself in. Technological developments were seen as the main driver of change, in addition to politics. According to one respondent: “The
46 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Biddy Casselden (@NElibraryland
b.casselden@Northumbria.
ac.uk) is Senior Lecturer, i-School, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne.
role of the library professional has defi nite- ly changed over the last 10 years with the evolution of technology. For example, who would have thought that public librarians would be running workshops on coding, stop motion, and 3D printing 10 years ago? Now it’s fairly common to walk into a public library and sign up to any of those work- shops and more”.
Another said: “It’s clear that the sector has changed in light of evolving technol- ogies, sources of information delivery etc, but there has also been a further shift in politics, where public services are being held as unimportant and funding is being slashed. It makes me fearful for the future of libraries”.
September 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
