INFORMATION SCIENCES CURRICULUM Proposal
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Department of Information Sciences Faculty of Philosophy J. J. Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia INFORMATION SCIENCES CURRICULUM Proposal Osijek, March 2005 © Department of Information Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek – Professor Tatjana Aparac-Jelušić, Head No part of this document may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior permission of the Department. 2 Content Part I INTRODUCTION 5 Social context and the Proposal development 5 Mission of the LIS Department 5 Aims of the proposed curriculum 5 Reasons for the new curriculum 6 Purposefulness of the proposed curriculum - assessment 6 Relation with current scientific knowledge in the field 7 Comparability with LIS curricula at distinguished foreign institutions 7 Past experience of the curriculum proposer 7 Partners 8 Student mobility 8 Other issues 8 Part II GENERAL DATA 9 Introduction 11 Title of the proposed program 12 Holder of the program 12 Duration of the program 12 Entry requirements 12 Description of professional grades – undergraduate level 12 Description of professional grades – graduate level 13 Academic titles and description of professional grades 14 Part III COURSES – list and description 15 List of obligatory and elective courses with number of necessary classes 17 and ECTS credits Course description 20 3 4 INTRODUCTION Social context and the Proposal development This proposal of new information sciences curriculum attempts to establish a coherent program that would be compliant and comparable with other similar studies in Croatia and in a number of European universities. At the same time, the program tries to preserve national and cultural singularities as well as substantial experience acquired over more than a quarter of a century of academic education in the area of information sciences in Croatia. The program also takes into account relevant strategic goals of Croatian higher education system as well as provisions of the Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education (later in the text: Act) that laid foundations for a new scheme of program organisation at higher education institutions. Department of Information Sciences, the proposer of the new Information Sciences Curriculum (later in the text: Curriculum) believes that systematisation of interdisciplinary program in the area of information sciences is of vital importance for the successful participation of the J. J. Strossmayer University in the reformational processes of higher education, since the information science experts are, among others, important binding elements for facilitation of a new integrated system of academic education, organisation of research and cooperation with economy. It is widely known and accepted, particularly in the societies that build their national developmental strategies upon the idea of knowledge society i.e. learning society, that information and knowledge are crucial elements of development, and that educated information professionals are unavoidable in selection, acquisition, organisation, preservation, evaluation and use of information resources and documents on all media. The proposed Curriculum should therefore, among other things, enable education of modern experts in areas of so called e-economy, e-government, e-learning and e-publishing. It should also increase horizontal and vertical student mobility within the Osijek University but also between Osijek and other Croatian and European universities and Rutgers University in US (Cooperation Agreement between Osijek University and Rutgers University was signed in 2004) offering similar or related programs. Proposed program aims to offer students from other fields of knowledge, after successful completion of their undergraduate programs, to acquire, by participating in graduate and postgraduate programs in information sciences, knowledge and skills necessary for competent carrying out of everyday activities in their original field of interest, that are also increasingly based on new technology and use of new information resources. Mission of the IS Department Department of Information sciences offers education in the field of information sciences which will enable its students to become polyvalent information specialists through educational programs and research topics based on observation and interpretation of the transfer of information process in the modern society, heritage preservation and design of information services in the knowledge and lifelong learning society. Our vision is: information sciences curriculum that will, thanks to its orientation to new technologies, interdisciplinary studies and possibility of distance education, attract students and employees in information sector by its openness to different study programs, institution-partners, and potential students from neighboring countries, and facilitate close cooperation of university and industrial, governmental, cultural and educational institutions where practical training will take place. Aims of the proposed curriculum Respond to the growing needs of the society for educated information specialists; Offer basic knowledge and skills necessary for future information specialists and at the same time arouse curiosity of information sciences students and students of other disciplines in special aspects of information work which require additional education (specialist training) at graduate level; 5 Inform about hot issues in information professions and at interdisciplinary level (such as, multiculturalism, information ethics, information needs of people with special needs, preservation of written heritage, management of information services, reading promotion, development and management of material and information), thus creating a framework for interpretation of contribution of other disciplines to the development of information sciences and importance of information sciences for other disciplines; Contribute to systematic quality of research in the field of information sciences and encourage interdisciplinary research of the phenomenon of information society and demonstrate the need and value of research and teaching in the field of information sciences (in particular as related to the postgraduate study program); Inform about the needs of the modern society for information literate citizens and the role of information specialist in promotion of literacy, reading and quality leisure activities; Introduce students at University with philosophy, principles and ethics related to transfer of knowledge and information and development of information society; Enable student and teacher exchange on the basis of agreed cooperation and encourage students to surmount linguistic and cultural barriers. 1. a) Reasons for the new curriculum Proposed program is based on the principle of active student involvement in teaching processes, stronger interaction of students, teachers, librarians, and computer and telecommunication professionals in relation to the use of teaching resources and tools, and application of new technologies in teaching. Purposefulness of the proposed curriculum – assessment A mention should also be made that many public institutions and private companies feel the need for educated experts to mediate information, in particular electronic information, to their employers. In order to be successful, professionals today need to be skilled to deal with modern technology, to evaluate professional information, to compile analytic reports, etc. So far such tasks have been done by inadequatelly trained and semi-skilled personnel or, very rarely, librarians i.e. informatologists. Apart from full-time degree programs in librarianship, both universities i.e. Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek, offer highly popular part–time degree programs. The reason lies in the Croatian Library Act (passed in 1997) which stipulates that only persons with a degree in librarianship can work in libraries. In Croatia, there is approximately 1000 (primary and secondary) school libraries (actually, there are 1470 schools, but some do not have libraries), 130 academic libraries (university, college, faculty libraries), 250 public libraries, a number of special libraries and National and University Library, with approximately 1800 positions for graduated librarians. This data shows that there is a need for ca 80-100 graduated librarians annually. Since there is an insufficient number of graduated librarians and there are no unemployed graduated librarians for periods longer than two to three months, institutions often employ persons who do not have a degree in librarianship. However, these persons are then required to enrol (part-time) in library school and take state exam within five years after they have started working. Therefore, 30 to 60 students enrol in part-time library program at University of Zagreb and ca 30 in Osijek and the same number in Zadar (dislocated part-time program in librarianship in Zadar is offered by University of Osijek). In the last three years new technologies are very much employed in part-time teaching, particularly WebCT and teleconferences. As a part of the proposed Curriculum, for the first time in Croatia, a degree programme in Publishing and Bookselling has been offered. Programme has been developed on the basis of results obtained from surveys that looked into the need for such university degree and support of the Association of Croatian Publishers and Booksellers - ACPB. Despite the fact that there are almost 2000 registered