Education for Librarianship and Information Studies: fit for purpose?

摘要

The boundaries of the curriculum for Librarianship and Information Studies (LIS) appear to have changed enormously over the last 30 or 40 years. Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their increasingly common availability highlight the changes -and the challenges for Schools and Departments in developing countries — in a number of interesting ways. Maps - and map librarianship - are not a new phenomenon. One of the earliest known 'maps' - a wall painting in a cave in Anatolia - was produced some 8,000 years ago. It is doubtful that some of the trade routes that evidently flourished across the ancient world could have flourished without some kind of record of notable landmarks. What is new goes far beyond the value of an in-car or portable GIS in getting us through an unfamiliar city. It is the increasing representation and manipulation of maps through computer systems, the new knowledge that they can thus reveal, and the role that LIS specialists can play in this that is important.