MULTIPLY EFFECTS OF TEACHING IN LIBRARY MASTER PROGRAM FOR LIBRARY PRACTITIONERS : A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Transcription

1 MULTIPLY EFFECTS OF TEACHING IN LIBRARY MASTER PROGRAM FOR LIBRARY PRACTITIONERS : A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE by Janti G. Sujana* *Librarian from Institut Pertanian Bogor/Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia ([email protected]) Abstract Institut Pertanian Bogor has a master program Information Technology for Library since It s home base is in Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Faculty members come especially from the Department of Computer Science, and some library practitioners from Institut Pertanian Bogor Library. This master program has a great impacts to the librarianship in Indonesia, because the graduates from the program will have ability to plan and implement the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in libraries activities. The competency in the use of ICT is really important, since the development in librarianship is getting more and more involvement of the ICT. It is common that library practitioners are busy with a lot of administration works, trying to communicate with the users, monitoring all the library services, etc. I feel that I have no time to read the journal articles, research reports, textbooks and papers from the proceedings in library and information science. Since I joint as the part time faculty member in Information Technology for Library master program, I have to update my knowledge in the courses that I teach, otherwise the students will think that my lectures are not qualified and they do not want to listen to my lectures. By reading textbooks, research reports and journal articles I also can implement some new ideas and methods to improve the library services. I can discuss and share the new ideas and methods with the students, and the discussion is qualified because all of the students are library practitioners. When I become the advisor to the final assignment and the student has to do the research, I am also pushed to learn some research methods which may be used in the library daily research. Doing some applied researches are important in order to increase the library support to the users needs. With the students come from a variety of libraries in Indonesia, I will have the libraries network around the country. As a library practitioner who also teaches in the master program I get multiply effects from teaching in the program. Background Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB = Bogor Agricultural University) is one of the old higher education institutions in Indonesia. Formerly it was the Faculty of Agriculture of University of Indonesia. IPB as you can see from the name provides education in agricultural sciences, such as agriculture, veterinary medicine, fisheries and marine science, animal husbandry, forestry, and agricultural technology. In order to support the development in agricultural sciences, IPB has also to do researches in basic sciences, that is why IPB has Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Now IPB has also Faculty of Economic and Management, and Faculty of Human Ecology. IPB has a central library and branches in each faculty. In the year of 2003 IPB had nine masters mostly in library science, seven masters were working in the Library and two other masters are working as faculty members. At that time the head of the Library was a faculty member, a PhD. from Departement of Computer Science. He think that we have good human resources in library

2 science and the Department of Computer Science of course had some PhDs and masters, why not we opened a master program in library science with strong base in information technology. We started to make the proposal for opening the master program in We gave the name of the master program Information Technology for Library. Finally it was established in the year of 2006 and its home base is in Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The reason is that information system is one of the twig in the computer science tree, and the library science basically is one kind of information system. In addition, that information technology is dominant subject in the courses that makes this program study really appropriate to be in the Department of Computer Science. The Curriculum According to Zain (2009) the curriculum in the library science will be always related to technology, should be up to date, and provides the students with the capability to adapt new technologies fastly. Observing the development in today s librarianship, information technology is really dominating the library activities everywhere. Whether you like it or not, you should take information technology in your daily life, otherwise you will be left behind. The curriculum of the Information Technology for Library master program was designed with some considerations, i.e. it has strong content in telematics, but focus on information technology, library science (and as an alternative also archive). The curriculum was designed together by the faculty members from Department of Computer Science and library practitioners from the IPB Library. It is as suggested by Buttlar and DuMont in 1989 (in Lillard and Wales, 2003) that practitioners and educators should together design a library school curriculum that recognizes the realities of librarianship by including both theoritical and practical components. For this time I think the Information Technology for Library master program is the only master program in library science in Indonesia which its courses dominated by information technology. I hope that this master program will give significant contributions to the development of librarianship in Indonesia, because the graduates have the competencies in planning and implementing the use of ICT in library activities. The courses for each semester are described in Table 1. Table 1. The Courses in Information Technology for Library Master Program in Each Semester Semester Courses st Perspectives in Library and Information Science Management of Library Databases English Language Organization of Information 2 nd Informetrics Information Sources and Searching Management of Information Technology Research Methods 3 rd Library Digital Library Multimedia

3 Management Technology 4 th Colloquium Seminar Writing Theses Note: In the 3 rd semester there are courses in archives as alternative courses, i.e.: Management of Archives, Archives Preservation and Conservation, Legal Aspect in Archives Management. The Faculty Members As mentioned above mostly faculty members come from the Department of Computer Science. The other faculty members are: one faculty member is the Professor Emeritus from the other Library School, one faculty member from the Faculty of Economic and Management, and another one from the Faculty of Human Ecology in IPB. The last two faculty members have master degree in library science. The other faculty members are library practitioners from the IPB Library, the Library of the Agency of Research and Development Minister of Agriculture, and the Library of the Minister of Research and Technology. The Department of Computer Science encourages the faculty members to get PhD. in computer science or library and information science. Now there are two professors, seven PhDs, four faculty members are doing PhDs program, and the rest are masters. In some courses the library practitioners teach together with the faculty members from Computer Science, such as in Digital Library, the library practitioner gives some perspectives from the librarianship point of view in digital library. In the course of Management of Library s Databases, a library practitioner give some materials focus on the databases handled in the libraries. In Informetrics the faculty member from Computer Science gives some introduction in applied mathematics, and the rest are taught by faculty members with the library science background. According to Lillard and Wales (2003) the practitioners possess valuable knowledge and know the needs of today s profession. With collaboration between academic librarians and library educators will strengthen library and information science education and the profession as a whole. Multiply Effects of Teaching in Library Master Program for Library Practitioners : My Experience In the Information Technology for Library master program I am teaching Research Methods and Organization of Information. In the Research Methods I teach with the other faculty members, one from the Computer Science, and the other one from Faculty of Human Ecology. In the Organization of Information I teach with the two other library practitioners. In the beginning it was very hard for me to prepare the teaching materials. I have to read text-books a lot. As may be happened to many library practitioners, I feel that I have no time to read textbooks. Since 2008 I have been responsible for the users services, so during office hours I have to monitor all the library services. Anytime students can come to my office, asking some questions related to the policy in library s services, or reporting that they have lost the library books and discussing the book s title they have to replace if the book is not available at the market. As the leading library in agricultural sciences in Indonesia, the IPB Library has been visited by a lot of

4 students from the other universities that have faculties in agricultural sciences. My colleagues and I have to provide some brief explanation how to search information in the Library for the students come in a group. In the digital age where the library has to subscribe a lot of databases, my colleague in the Reference Services and I have to socialize the e-journal and e-book to the IPB faculty members and students. IPB has about 1200 faculty members and students, so we have to create a lot of classes to socialize the e-journal and e-books to them. Every year we have to introduce the library to new undergraduate students. Regularly at the beginning of every semester we provide information literacy classess. But since I have been teaching at the master program, I have to prepare the teaching materials. It has the impact that I have to reduce my relax times. Even now the master program has been running for six years, I have to update the teaching materials every semester. There is always new materials that I have to read. In order to keep my knowledge up to date, I have to find new books, articles, papers in my courses. I can not standing in front of my students and saying something out of date, they will abandon me and not appreciate the teacher. With those new knowledge in my mind, it is really good for supporting my practical works. If I did not teach in the master program in library science, it might be that I did not care about new developments in library science. Usually I ask the students to write papers as assignments. You know, when I evaluate the papers I also get a lot of information. In some cases the students knowledge in information technology applications is better than my knowledge, because they already got courses in information technology. Most of the students are library practitioners, so when I teach in the class I incourage the students to share their works in their own libraries. Everbody can take advantages from this sharing experiences include me as the teacher. Many topics in the lectures that I can ask the students how is about in your library?. With this discussion the students do not get only theories, but also get practical experiences. Ford (2007) mentioned that good practical knowledge without theory is little better than good theory without practical knowledge. But in my class the students get theories and practical experiences. In the last semester the students have to do research and write the final assignment. The advisors are usually one from the computer science and one from the library science background. Many research topics suggested are related with the application of the information technology in librarianship. During the advisory process sometimes I learn some new research methods, usually the research methods common to the computer scientist, or quantitative methods in decision making. Those research methods are very useful to be applied in evaluating my practical works in the library, to improve library services. As you know in the digital age the academic librarians have to be creative, sensitive and quick responding to the needs of the students and faculty members, otherwise the library will be left by the users. Doing some applied researches are important in order to increase the library support to the users needs. The students in the Information Technology for Library master program come from a variety of libraries in Indonesia. Some of them come from the National Library of Republic of Indonesia, some of them come from academic libraries, school libraries, and research libraries. In the internet era connecting to your colleagues is really important. With a lot of databases offered by vendors, in the meanwhile the library s budget is limited, having connection with your colleagues is very

5 useful. You can share some databases informally. In Indonesian libraries we have not had consortium in subscribing journal and book databases. So you have to use personal relations to get more access to the information. Actually Ellen A. Keith and Trudi Jacobson, both full-time academic librarians, have written their experiences serving as adjunct faculty at nearby graduate library and information science schools in a periodical in They encourage other librarians to consider adjunct positions as a unique opportunity for continuing education (in Lillard and Wales, 2003). Closing Remarks With my experiences I do not mean to say that all librarians have to teach in the library master programs. Anyway our jobs in the library are still very important. But, if you have a chance to teach in the master program in library science, it may good that you take that chance. From my experiences, teaching in the library master program will have good impacts to our professional competencies, improve your practical knowledge, and at the end it will improve the library services. As said by Line (2007) that some of the teaching in the library education should be done by practising librarians. It will be a great deal of good to have practitioners to communicate their experience, knowledge and ideas to others. Lillard and Wales (2003) also said that fostering a closer collaboration between library educators and academic librarians through a variety of activities can help ensure that library education meets the needs of the profession. References Carrigan, Dennis P The Library School Looks to the Future. Kentucky Libraries 72 (3): Damayani, Ninis Agustini Pengembangan Program Pendidikan S1 dan S2 Ilmu Informasi & Perpustakaan di Indonesia : Masalah dan Tantangan. Presented on Lokakarya Pengembangan Program Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Perpustakaan di Indonesia, Jakarta Juli (downloaded on 15 Desember 2011). Dougherty, Richard M Building Bridges: Library Educators and Practitioners. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 32 (3): Ford, N.J Quality in Education for Information : Recent Research into Student Learning. Education for Information 25: Latham, Joyce M A librarian, a technologist and an information scientist are out in a boat... New Library World 103 (1181): Lillard, Linda L. and Wales, Barbara A Strengthening the Profession: Educator and Practitioner Collaboration. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 29 (5):

6 Line, Maurice B Requirements for Library and Information Work and the Role of Library Education. Education for Information 25: Simmons, Martin and Corrall, Sheila. 2010/2011. Education for Information 28: Zain, Labibah Pendidikan Perpustakaan di Indonesia : Upaya Memadukan Isu-isu Perkembangan Teknologi Informasi dalam Kurikulum Program Pendidikan Perpustakaan dan Informasi. Presented in Seminar and Interactive Discussion Library and Information the Crossroad, November 2009, Hotel Topas, Bandung. (downloaded on 20 Feb. 2012).