Teaching Information as an Integrated Field: assessing the Curriculum of the LIS Dept of the TEI of Athens

Abstract

The belief that information organizations, such as libraries, archives and museums have common goals and manage the same resource, i.e. information, leads to the proposition presented here, that they should be regarded as an integrated unit. Furthermore, the development of new technologies offers a common platform via which all information organizations can acquire, organize and disseminate information in the form of electronic data and metadata. This study focuses on assessing the results of the implementation of a curriculum based on the aforementioned principle. The study collected data from the student work experience program which took place after a three year implementation of the new curriculum. The work experience program took place in diverse information organizations and both parties involved. i.e. students and employers participated in the research. The research was designed to explore the degree of knowledge gained and the ability of students to apply it to diverse information organizations. Furthermore, it attempted to determine the needs of information organizations in specific areas of knowledge. The methodology used included two surveys with cross corresponding questions, one addressed to the students during the work experience program and the other to the hosting organizations. Results highlight the emerging students' professionalism and indicate that students can manage at a good level all major information science tasks independently of the type of organization or the form of their collections. It became evident that students are able to work and implement professional tasks likewise in libraries, archives and museums. Similarly, organizations perceive their abilities and knowledge in the same way, independently of their nature. Suggestions for further improvement of the curriculum, deriving from the research described here, include the incorporation of a course or a module within a course regarding user education/information literacy.