As of 22 April 2009 this website is 'frozen' in time — see the current IFLA websites

This old website and all of its content will stay on as archive – http://archive.ifla.org

Transition of library and information science education in China: Problems and perspective

ABSTRACT

Education of library and information science in China is in the period of transition and reformation. Development and application of information technologies have put forward new requirements to the professional personnel. The growth of information industry and expansion of labor market has motivated library schools to adjust their objective, curriculum and knowledge structure in order to meet so cial needs. The article discussed the changing of social environment in 1990s and their challenges to professional education, and the responses from library schools. The author made a survey on the curriculum of 17 schools in order to fine out their structure and cognition among teaching institutions. The difficulties and problems in educational reform are discussed and the trends of professional education in China are predicted.

PAPER

Introduction

The first library school in China was found in 1920. During 1949 1979, there were only 8 library schools nationwide. Since 1978, the open door policy and reform have brought an unprecedently development of librarianship. According to the statistics of 1996, in the past 15 years, the numbers of public libraries have increased 105% (from 1256 to 2579), children's libraries have grown 110% (from 7 to 77), and the university libraries have risen 80% (from 598 to 1080). The requirement of qualified librarians have stimulated the growth of professional education at both university and college levels. Under the circumstance, the numbers of library schools have increased into 55. Among these schools, 19 are national universities which under the supervision of the National Education Commissio n, 21 are regional universities that are administrated by local educational bureau, 12 are financially supported and directed by the ministries affiliated to central government and 2 belong to military universities. Since 1990, the increasing of library schools have been getting slow down. Education for library and information profession has shown the trends of paying more attention to quali ty than to quantity, and the programs are more diversify than unitary. The multi level education and training programs have been set up nationwide. There are 3 Ph.D. programs (Peking University, Wuhan University and ChineseAcademy of Science), 11 Master programs, 24 undergraduate programs and many other continuing professional education programs. Some schools have provided part time undergraduate and graduate programs for experienced librarians and information specialists. Not only the education, but also the academic status of library and information science has been getting recognized by the highest national academic institutions. In 1993, Library and Information Science, was listed on the top level, at the first time, by the National Academic Commission. In 1994, the Guideline of Nati onal Social Science Foundation was first catalogue Library and Information Science and Documentation as an independent research area.

Social and economic factors impact on professional education

Firstly, the emerging of information industry and new type of information services. China is the fast growing market in developing and application of information technologies in the world. The profits of information industry, for instance, have increased 10 times in 1995 compared to 1990 (from 50 billion yuan to 500 billion yuan). The hardware sold in 1994 increased 54% compared to the year b efore. Since 1994, the global upsurge of information highway has also strongly impacted on Chinese decision makers. Chinese information superhighway, which consists of "Eight Golden Projects", CHINANET, CHINAPAC and CERNET are involving in construction of information networks among banks, customs, enterprises and educational and research institutions. The expansion of market economy has stimulate d the growth of more efficient information services. Consultant companies, which cover many specified information service areas, have reached into 40,000 in 1994. The openness and repackaging of information resource for more efficient dissemination under networking environment are catching higher attention by both government and users. There are 1200 Chinese databases have been developed and some on line services are available. The importance of information resource has been generally recognized as a strategic resource by government, industry and general public. In April 1994, when China got its first direct Internet link, there are only 1,000 users. Now there are 8 Chinese networks connected with Internet and the users increased into 100,000 and keep growing. Following the rapid applica tion of information technologies and telecommunication in social sectors, many professions are required information management expertise. The emerging of new information sectors has changed the profession into a multifarious situation. It is a new occasion for the expansion of library and information education, particularly to remodify a multi levelobjectives and to update core curriculum in orde r to provide student's abilities of wide adaptability in job market and in life learning.

Secondly, the labor market of library and information institutions are getting stable. During 1980s, because of the rapidly growth of library schools and manyopportunities of part time study and in service training available to practice librarians, the educational backgrounds of library staff have changed a great deal. The proportions of library staff who had university degrees (as Table 1 indicated) have increased from 10% to 40 64%. The large and urgent requirements for personnel are no longer existed.

Table 1: Educational background of librarian in different libraries, not available, please contact Author.

Thirdly, the social value inclines to more emphasis on commercial benefits. During the transition period from planned economy to market oriented economy, the non profit institutions, which mainly depend on government budget, have involved in a very difficult situation. In spite of the annual budget increase, many libraries are still facing with the problems of funding shortage resulted by the price rising of publications. The annual collections are getting down and some experience librarians are looking for higher pay in other professions. Government have made new policy to encourage libraries to find ways to support themselves. Some libraries have successfully gotten donations from business or overseas, others are trying to make profits by the ways of renting space, offering public entertainment or providing fee based information services, the rest are struggling for survive. The commercialized social atmosphere also influenced on student's attitude toward job selection. As Table 2 indicated, during 1986 1988, 90% of graduates from the library school of Peking University chose to work in various types of libraries. During 1990 1992, the students who voluntarily went to libr aries and information centers took only 22%. In 1994, 16% of students chose to work in libraries and information centers. While more than one third would more like to work in joint venture enterprises, computer companies or higher pay professions.

Fouthly, the pressure from economical and market factors on education. During 1990s, Chinese universities have been adjusting their structure and composition in meeting with the new requirements of society. The emerging professions, such as law, economy and business, management and computer science are attracting more students while humanities and basic sciences are shrinking. Moreover, the change of university policy from free of charge to tuition required have pushed students and parents to considerate more carefully about the cost effective of educational investment and future options in job market. If educational institutions can not meet the social requirement and can not provide good job opportunity, students would be reluctant to enter the subject field. All these factors, no matter positive or negative, have impacted on the educational reform in library and information science. There are pressure from surrounding on universities, that if you keep still, you will be left behind of the time.

Table 2: Job selection of graduates from Peking University from 1986 to 1994, not available, please contact Author

The adjusting and reform of library and information education in China

It was a controversial issue in discussing whether the school name should be changed. The scholars who support the change suggested that information management, which broaden original coverage of library science into "wild adaptable areas related to information production, information collection, information sorting, information storage and information dissemination. The aims of information m anagement are to provide services for different sectors, professions and users, including library, information center, archive, consultant, business, enterprise, news agency and government institutions. The area of information management should include scientific information management,business information management, government information management and cultural information management. Although the subject areas are different, the basic principles and methods are general applicable". Some other scholars expressed their worries about the change. They appealed to keep sober mind in transition period, while many thing are still confusing and indicated that changing name is a of lost confidence on the profession.

The changing name not only brought in fresh air and opportunities of development, but also induced some confusion and problems. After establishing a stabilized teaching system and curriculum, the changing and updating of established ones, increasing equipment and information material, bringing up to date faculty's knowledge are becoming very difficult and money consuming. The other problems, such as how to adjust structure from library and information science into information management, and how to integrate modern technologies into traditional courses are still heavy tasks to be solved.

After renaming, some schools started to adjust and expand their objectives from just affording personal to library and information center to "provide senior information management staff who will take responsible to information collection, system design and analysis, information processing, information services for government, science and technology, culture, education, industry and business i nstitutions" (Peking University). Since adaptability to new emerging professional sectors and long term development are becoming more important, the teaching program should "strengthen student's ability on understanding and using the basic principles and methods of information dissemination and communication in various environments and to apply information technologies to handle different informa tion systems. (Nangjing University).

The survey and evaluation of curriculum of library and information science

Table 3: Frequency of required courses in 17 schools, not available, please contact Author.

Table 4: Frequency of specialized elective courses in 17 schools, not available, please contact Author.

The curriculums from 17 library and information teaching institutions have shown that
(1) three groups of courses, which cover rather comprehensive fields of library and information science, are demonstrated to be mixed with both tradition and modern technologies;
(2) the current courses on information management mainly based on library and information science. As Table 3 indicates th at traditional course, such as classification or cataloguing, are still take very important position in core courses. The coalition between old and new programs is not established;
(3) there are certain level of cognition on core curriculum among different teaching institutes;
(4) the framework of curriculum, particularly the inherent connection between courses and the sequence in proper order, which develop from general to more advanced ones, are still not very clear;
(5) subject orientations are not solid enough to training students to become a subject specialist.

From Table 5, we can find that non specialized elective courses include mathematics, economics, sociology and other subjects. Since most undergraduates only major in library and information science, it is very important to encourage them to have a solid background and training in either social sciences or sciences and technologies. Since 1980, many educational experiments have been tested in Chi nese library schools, which try to provide a more comprehensive training at undergraduate level, but very few continued. In 1979 1980, Peking University, for instants, had required students to study in other schools or department, such as biology, computer science, economics, history, economy etc. for two years before they start to learn library and information science. The department also set up a Master program which offered to the students who already had a degree in other subject fields. The experiment did not last long because of management difficulties. Now, undergraduates can study for double degrees in bachelor level, with extra one year longer, in the fields of law, intellectual property or computer science. The program should expand to many other subjects, but the decision will be depended on university administration.

Table 5: Frequency of appearance of non specialized elective courses in 17 schools, not available, please contact Author.

When the objectives of professional education and frameworks of curriculum have been established, it is very important to deepen and expand it based on the development of information technology and social need. So the whole courses be more organic, solid and systematic rather than scattered. For library and information science, constantly assimilating the knowledge and methods from relevant a nd periphery subjects is inevitable, while keeping the identity of library and information science in an interdisciplinary environment is also very important. Considering the special need in China, the framework of information management should consisted of following parts.

1. Information management. The management from macro point of view will include information policy, information legislation and law, information systems and structure. The method and theory of micro management will focuses on certain type of institutes where special circumstance should be considered..

2. Information technologies and their applications. The courses on information and telecommunication technologies should be consolidated in order to help students no only able to use and understand the system, but also can maintain and operate on them. That means, they need more strict scientific training rather than just eliminating illiterate computer knowledge.

3. Information processing and access. To be the mean of effective information management, the basic principles and methods of information processing and retrieval are always core and basic part of the professional education. Information technologies are changing the way of information processing, but the nature and target are still the same. Any new theories and technologies are targeted for mo re efficient management of information should be included.

4. Communication and telecommunication. Networking has changed the traditional patterns of communication, information dissemination and sharing. There are many new research areas appeared following the expansion of international networking, from both technical, human to social aspects.

5. Management and use of subject information resources. Tremendous growths of different formats of information resource have made information retrieval more complex and difficult. More subject specialists are required in information management and reference services. The subject information which can be divided by subjects (such as social science information, science information, law informati on, business information, government information), by types (such as serial, rare books, tradition Chinese document) and by formats (such as printed material, CD ROM, on line and multimedia) are still very important part in core curriculum.

6. User studies and information marketing. It is necessary to let students keep in mind that no matter what kind of technologies has been developed or what kind of interface has been designed, to satisfy user's need are always our aims. These concepts should be particularly emphasized in China, where former planned economy used to neglect user's need and orientation, which also influenced on li brary and information services.

The problem and trends of professional education

1. Establishing a comprehensive objective for education and training programs. The department of information management should establish a more clarified and concrete multi level objectives that can be put into practice step by step.

2. Setting up a systematic and integrated curriculum. The framework of curriculum in information management should cover the most important knowledge and technologies in the procedures of information collection, information processing, information storage and retrieval, information dissemination and communication, information service and system evaluation.

3. Combining research, teaching and practice together and to establish a close relation with each other. Traditionally, theoretical studies published in Chinese professional journals are used the method of philosophical thinking. Since there are many new topics appeared during professional development, problem solving is more important. Researchers should come out from ivory tower and to face w ith reality by establishing closer relationship with practitioners.

4. Strengthening national administration and coordination between educational institutions. The National Education Commission has selected 12 courses as required ones for professional education. Scholars in each field are invited to compiled a guideline for each course. But the guideline might not meet the special interests and local requirement of each institution. In spite of the contradictio n between national unified program and diversified of local needs, quality control and evaluation of curriculums from a national level are still necessary.

Based on the current situation in China, we may predict that

1. the programs of professional education will be more diversified in meeting with the various needs in society;

2. the popularity of information network will promote Chinese educational programs and curriculums approaching to international standards;

3. the changing of job market and application of information technologies will have stronger impacts on education system;

4. the curriculum will becoming more comprehensive and harder after continuously updating and assimilating of knowledge and techniques from relevant subjects fields.

Reference

1. Jin Feng, The Objectives and curriculum for the higher education of library science in China. Dissertation for Master degree. Peking University. 1995.

2. Chinese information policy on science and technology, Chinese Information Report, June. 1995.

3. Wang Wanzong, Training information specialists for the professional development. Proceeding of 2nd Seminar on Library and Information Science Education Between China and Taiwan. Aug.1994.

4. Li Jinzheng, Information management the inevitable trends of library science education, Journal of Chinese librarianship, Vol.1, 1995.

5. Peng Peizhang, Education reform of library and information science and discipline building. Proceeding of 2nd Seminar on library and Information Science Education between China and Taiwan. Aug.1994.

6. Wang Shiwei, The puzzle and solution after changing the name in library and information science. Library Journal (Chinese), Vol.1, 1995.

7. Chen Shaonang (trans.) Educational reform of Library and information Science in Britain. Library and Information Work. Vol. 2, 1995.

8. June Kinoshita, Scientists hope competition will improve Internet access, Science, Nov. 1995.