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Executive Summary

BACKGROUND: The Special Libraries Association (SLA) has long been concerned with the knowledge requirements of new entrants to the field. The Association's members have explored and shared their vision of the competencies and skills required for special librarianship over the years. Following the publication of the 1996 document Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century, the SLA Board of Directors directed Association staff to conduct a survey of Library and Information Science programs throughout the world. The goals of the survey were to provide a benchmark of information studies curricula and to identify competency areas better served by continuing education programs offered through professional associations. Since the status of special librarianship is of interest to related information associations, two other organizations contributed to the project, the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) and the Medical Library Association (MLA).

METHODS: The survey instrument was organized into two sections. Components of the eleven professional competency areas were categorized into six "Essential Areas of Knowledge for Special Librarians": Information Resources, Information Management, Information Access, Information Systems and Technology, Research, and Information Policy. Respondents were asked to write the course titles from their information and library science program under all the Essential Competency Areas to which they were relevant and to indicate whether the courses were "Core" or "Elective." There were also three open-ended questions: how library and information studies programs fostered the development of personal competencies; whether they planned to make changes in their curriculum based on SLA's Competencies document and MLA's Platform for Change; and how professional associations and library and information studies programs can work together.

The survey was sent to 372 schools internationally. Fifty-six were North American schools accredited by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1997; the other 316 were "international" schools listed in the 1995 World Guide to Library Archive and Information Science Education. A package was sent to each school containing a letter of introduction, a survey, and the executive summary of the Competencies document. The response rates for ALA- accredited schools and the international schools were 75% and 22% respectively.

ANALYSIS: The ALA and international school data were analyzed separately due to differences in the programs, survey response rates and the technological development of certain countries.

A. Professional Competencies: The goal of the first part of the survey was to assess whether the schools' curricula are preparing students for the demands of the 21st century special library. Because of the low rate of response and strong variance among international schools, only the ALA schools' responses to the first section of the survey were fully analyzed.

A total of 1,909 courses were listed by the ALA programs in the professional competencies section of the survey; the average was 45. When grouped by Essential Competency Areas, Information Resources (23%) had the highest percentage of the total number of courses, closely followed by Information Management (20%), Information Access (19%), and Information Systems and Technology (18%). The areas of Research and Information Policy had the lowest representation in the total number of courses (10% each).

Examination of whether the courses offered are core or elective courses is also important in determining the extent to which programs are preparing their students. Core courses provide essential building blocksand a foundation for further study for students. Elective courses may, however, indicate opportunities for specific development.

• A total of 17% of courses in the Essential Competency Areas were core courses - with courses in specific Essential Competency Areas ranging from 21% for Information Access to 12% for Information Resources.
• While the majority of schools offered core courses in all the Essential Competency Areas, more than one-quarter of them did not require courses in the three areas of Information Systems and Technology, Research and Information Policy.

B. Open Ended Questions: When the responses to the open-ended section of the survey for the international schools were compared to the responses of the ALA programs, there was overlap in the responses in several areas and differences in others.

1. Examples of approaches programs have taken to develop personal competencies.

• special workshops or continuing education courses offered by professional organizations (both)
• integration of personal competencies into existing coursework (both)
• courses focusing specifically on personal competencies (international)

2. Impact of SLA or MLA documents on school's plans for changing curriculum.

• while the majority stated they have used or plan to use the documents in the future, others stated that the documents reinforced existing curricula (ALA)
• few have used the documents for curricula development, but many plan to in the future (international)

3. Suggestions on how professional associations can collaborate with library schools.

• guest lectures, videos and conferences (ALA)
• active collaboration, e.g. research & development, joint curriculum committees (both)
• sponsoring, mentoring and internship programs (both)
• professional associations provide seminars and conferences for students, teachers and librarians (both)
• professional associations expand partnerships with schools worldwide - take advantage of global alliances and intellectual wealth (international)

SUMMARY: The SLA and MLA documents are having an impact. Programs worldwide now have a greater awareness of these documents and the principles contained in them. The goals of this survey were to provide a benchmark of information studies curricula and to identify competency areas better served by continuing education programs offered through professional associations. While this project has come far in meeting these goals, it is our hope the survey results will also serve to stimulate discussion and collaboration between library and information studies programs and professional associations throughout the world.