Empirical research on archivists' skills and knowledge needs in Chinese archival education

摘要

This article reports on a survey of archivists from 20 provinces and municipalities in China to investigate their professional skills and knowledge needs. It analyzes their responses concerning the educational advantages and disadvantages archivists face and the relationship between their skill levels and knowledge needs. In conclusion, it points to several solutions to these problems: preprofessional curriculum design better addressing actual archivists' needs, increasing continuing education to address archivists' needs to maintain professional skills, and archivists' desire for custom-built training to specific technical requirements.