Distance Education for Librarians: Creating an Information-Competent Society

摘要

The project "Distance Education for Librarians : Creating an Information-Competent Society" -DELCIS -addresses the need for retraining of library and information professionals according to the new requirements of modern society for information services. Especially in relation to the increasing use of new ICT in professional as well as everyday life. This requires a complexity of new skills and services. The demand for information literacy, Internet and ICT training is particularly strong in the Baltic region as well as in other parts of the world. A survey was made of the continuing need for education among all types of libraries in Lithuania. Out of 900 respondents more than 75% indicated ICT and Internet education as the most needed. In Latvia the same situation applies. Even in newly organised education structures traditional means of training (courses, lectures, workshops, etc.) are unable to deal with the needs for training and retraining in a required scope and pace. Experiences from a Danish Distance Education programme run by Aarhus Public Libraries from 1997-2000 have shown that distance education can supplement and even replace more traditional teaching methods. Furtermore it is competitive i terms of cost benefit / cost efficiency. Through distance education it is possible to upgrade the staff in public libraries and to develop new courses when a new demand develops.