Undergraduate degrees in information and library studies: a retrospect and revaluation

The article attempts to analyse the effects of global developments and managerial philosophies on education and training for the ‘information professions’. It is argued that these developments pose special problems for the identity of the ‘information disciplines’, particularly when the education and training delivery systems are in the form of undergraduate degrees. Crucial to the argument is the history of curriculum content and design from the ‘apprentice’ methods of the Library Association, through the early days of undergraduate degrees in librarianship to the fission and fusion of subject fields to emerge as new subject coalitions in the form of the composite schools and departments in contemporary higher education. As well as the ‘knowledge maps’ and their implications for professional coherence, the article looks anew at the old debate between practice and theory, and the innate tensions between the academic and professional forms of qualifications. The notes explain the idiosyncrasies of British academic terminology, and the appendices give details of the relevant professional schools and their undergraduate offerings for the aspiring student.