Library and Information Science Education-Discipline Profession, Vocation?

As an academic field, Library and Information Science (LIS) resembles a patchwork. This statement is valid in general, but it is probably particularly true of Europe, given the fact that LIS in Europe has developed independently in approximately 30 countries, without a unifying accrediting body comparable to what one finds in the United States and Canada. Three main approaches to LIS can be identified: the vocational, the disciplinary and the professional. Within these, in turn, one finds different orientations, for example technological, social scientist and approaches based in the humanities. Both the disciplinary and the profession oriented approaches are research based and academic in nature. The former, which for a time has had the upper hand, loosens or cuts links to the field of practice. The article maintains that the disciplinary approach if not balanced by a professional one results in two paradoxes: difficulties in demarcating the discipline from other academic disciplines and a return to a vocational approach. The article then goes deeper into the professional approach and argues that integrating different disciplines under a professional perspective represents an alternative compared to that represented by the disciplinary. The conclusion is a case for pluralism. The different approaches enrich the field, but the professional approach plays a vital integrating role. Introduction: LIS - A Complex Patchwork If a person presents himself or herself as an educator in Library and Information Science (LIS), estimating what he or she is doing is difficult. We are dealing with an educational field and a research field that represents a complex patchwork. Although LIS as an academic and educational area of activities has common historical roots related to the need for qualified staff in libraries, research and education in the field have developed in different directions. Some of the major dividing lines are: * From being vocational education, LIS has gradually established itself as a research-based academic undertaking. There are, however, relatively big differences with respect to how far and how fast different schools and countries have moved on the road towards academia. In Europe, we still have programs leading to professional diplomas that are not integrated into the structure of academic degrees from the bachelor's level via master's level to PhD level, although the Bologna Process (dealt with elsewhere in this article) is about changing that. Other countries have systems of higher education qualifications that have for decades been part and parcel of the national academic degree structure. * There are two main roads towards academia: for some, becoming an academic field implies developing into an academic discipline like sociology and history. Hence, LIS becomes a generalized information science. For others, it is a question of developing an academic and research-based profession like medicine and law. It is obvious that which of these two strategies one chooses will affect the level and content of the curriculum. * In some countries, above all the United Kingdom, there is a tradition where a master's in LIS builds on a bachelor's in another subject, whereas in other countries, e.g. Denmark and Norway, a PhD in LIS builds on a master's degree in the same subject which, in turn, is based on a bachelor's in library and information science qualification. * LIS is a multidisciplinary field. It comprises professionals having their primary competencies within a variety of disciplines ranging from mathematics over social science to history of literature. Educational programs can adapt theoretical and methodological perspectives from anyone of these. In line with this, LIS programs have different institutional affiliations. Some are affiliated with faculties or departments of the humanities, other with faculties or units of the social sciences, still other with schools of computer science. …

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