some issues on lis education and collaboration in latin america alise boston-2005 sergio...

Some issues on LIS Education and collaboration in Latin America

ALISE Boston-2005

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo

Assistant Professor

sergio.chaparro@simmons.edu

GSLIS

SIMMONS COLLEGE

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

2

Why collaboration?

Interest in enhancing the quality of the LIS classroom

Interest in enhancing the learning process of the LIS student and professional

Increasing interest in professional development

Recognition of the negative consequences of isolation

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

3

Why cooperating with Latin American Library Schools?

Spanish speaking presence in modern USA library world

Strong history of academic/teaching/sponsored programs and relations in several other fields

American Academic libraries’ foreign language materials and collections

Increasing role of information in R&D

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

4

Why cooperating with Latin American Library Schools?

LIS Graduate and post graduate education opportunities in USA not available in Latin America (The ticket factor)

LIS education in USA offers a wide range of professional development and supplemental training

Cost

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

5

Why cooperating with Latin American Library Schools?

Enhancement of the interaction between academic worlds

Testing of LIS teaching methods Testing and promoting new models of Library

education scholarship and scientific cooperation (Licea & Arenas 2000)

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

6

Why cooperating with Latin American Library Schools?

Archives and preservation (Digitization) Management of information (Efficiency and

planning) IT (research and development) Information policy (Expanding the role of LIS) Human Information Behavior (Library

instruction)

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

7

Mutual Collaboration I

Online education offers a wide array of possibilities for enhancing the collaboration process.

Online education requires IT infrastructure not available, or limited, in some nations.

Library education in Latin America needs to address and recognize online education as a real possibility for professional development.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

8

Mutual collaboration II

Spanish and/or Portuguese and English proficiency is a must. English skills required prior to the academic experience.

Testing needs to be done, and pilot experiences with online classrooms are necessary.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

9

Mutual collaboration III

Equity of access, cost, copyright, changing roles of the departmental staff, pressures on educational structures (Tyler 2000)

Limitations of the educational tool need to be explicitly stated on syllabi.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

10

Where should we start? I

Agencies and international organizations that promote cooperation

The Usual Suspects (e.g. IFLA/ALISE/) The Unusual Suspects (e.g. OAS, Academic

Networks, College-College) One example: The Educational Portal of the

Americas <http://www.educoas.org>

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

11

Where should we start? II

Dialogue College to College (e.g. Austin-TEC) Promotion and marketing Reaching out to prospective students Browsing the field of LIS academic research

and professional development (continuing education ) (Tannuri de Oliveira, 2004)

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

12

Why should we be careful?

Dancing with Elephants (Hazen, 2000) What is good for one school might not be for

another one (Johnson et al., 2001) The culture or lack of culture of syllabi The culture of LIS education in Latin America

(Tanurri de Oliveira, 2004) Lack of outcome measures

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

13

Why should we be careful?

Some classes may not “appeal” to students What should students do after turning off the

computer? Support and resources for LIS student

research (Where is the library collection?) Success depends on constant adequate

planning and evaluation (Feria & Machuca, 2004)

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

14

Collaboration requires planning

Before After

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

15

Let’s remember:

Library education is what is taught (Gorman, 2004)

What is taught depends on multiple factors. Let’s consider them thoroughly.

Sometimes it is more important to teach others to teach, let’s also plan for that.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

16

Some Bibliography

Da Silva (2002). A formacao profissional no seculo XXI: desafios e dilemas. Ciencia da Informacao, 31 (3), 77-82.

Feria, L.B., & Machuca, P. (2004). The digital library of Iberoamerica and the Caribbean: humanizing technological resources. International Information and Library Review, 36, 177-183.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

17

(cont.)

Gorman, M. (2004). What ails library education? Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30 (2), 99-101.

Hallmark, J., & Gonzalez, M. (2002). Latin-American initiatives in library science education: Three models. The Electronic Library, 20 (5), 390-394.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

18

(cont.)

Hitch, L. (2004) Aren’t we judging virtual universities by outdated standards? Journal of Academic Librarianship, 26 (1), 21-26.

Howze, P. C. & Moore, D. M. (2003). Measuring international students’ understanding of concepts related to the use of library based technology. Research Strategies, 19, 57-74.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

19

(cont.)

Johnson, I., Fuertes, A., & Herrera, L. (2001). Management education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Education for Information, 19, 3-18.

Licea, J., & Arenas, M. (2000). La formacion de comunidades cientificas en bibliotecologia y ciencia de la informacion. Anales de Documentacion, 3, 81-91.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

20

(cont.)

Liu, Z. , & Yang, Z. Y. (2004). Factors influencing distance-education graduate students’ use of information sources: A user study. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30 (1), 24-35.

Tannuri, E.F., & Chaves, J.A. (2004). Library professionals education in the Mercosur countries. Education for Information, 22, 31-39.

Sergio Chaparro-Univazo/Simmons College

21

(cont.)

Tyler, A. (2001). A survey of distance learning library and information science course delivered via the Internet. Education for Information, 19, 47-59.