This paper looks at the state of education in knowledge management (KM). It reports findings from a study of knowledge management courses included in the curriculum of academic disciplines of business, computing, and information. Based on a review of course descriptions selected from web sites of universities in Australia, Canada, Singapore, UK, and USA, the paper describes levels of courses, curriculum areas and topics, and differences in emphasis in teaching knowledge management courses in different departments and schools.

This paper highlights major trends and issues of LIS education in Asian countries, based on content analysis of a series of international workshops held in Tokyo as a part of the LIPER (Library and Information Professions and Education Renewal) Project. We invited speakers from China, Korea, Sin-gapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, in order to improve our understanding of recent trends in LIS education in neighboring countries, anticipating that such understanding would be beneficial not only for the pos-sible reform of Japanese LIS education, but also for future collaboration in LIS education among Asian countries. Each invited speaker reported on his/her country in terms of the current situation in LIS edu-cation, qualification systems for librarianship, recent changes in curricula and job markets for certified librarians, and credit exchanges with nearby countries. Through content analysis of the presentations and discussion sessions, we identified the following common trends of LIS education in Asia: (1) elimination of the word â libraryâ from the names of LIS programs in order to attract students, (2) shift in the educa-tional level from undergraduate to graduate, (3) changes in core subject areas from an emphasis on man-ual-based collection development to ICT-based information/knowledge management, (4) depreciation of LIS education for school librarians (except in Thailand), (5) decreasing opportunities for new employ-ment in library markets due to over production of LIS graduates and economic recession, (6) low interest among well-educated graduates in seeking employment opportunities in the public library market, which is characterized as offering relatively low social status and wage levels compared to national and aca-demic libraries, (7) lack of understanding among employers to accept LIS graduates as capable knowl-edge workers, and (8) increase in the number of faculty with doctoral degrees, who prefer to teach cutting-edge courses rather than traditional library oriented courses.

All is not good with Library and Information Science (LIS) Education in South Asia. Out of the seven countries in South Asia; India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have provision for Library and Information Science Education, whereas Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives depend upon outside support for educating and training people for looking after their professional turf. Existing body of literature shows that in India there is a mushroom growth of Library and Information Science Departments. There is no professional accreditation, though institutional accreditation is in place in India. Many departments have failed to respond adequately to the ICT-based developments. Nomenclature of the courses offered has changed but the course contents are not consistent with the nomenclature in many cases. Moreover, these departments are seriously suffering from insufficient infrastructure, inadequate faculty, lack of quality research and document support. The course contents are not informed by the emerging employment opportunities in the corporate sector. Even today, the focus is on technical services. Academic Librarianship and Literature survey in social sciences are the only options offered by majority of LIS Programmes in India. Whereas, the core is still stuck to classification, cataloguing, indexing, and vocabulary control, the emerging themes, such as information literacy, knowledge management, elearning, ICT application, use of networks in teaching, and teaching about networks have not been adequately integrated in the curricula. On the top of it, there is limited Internet connectivity available in these departments. Attitude of authorities is also not that encouraging as these departments, being small, are considered liabilities. Above all, these departments have not, till today, internalized the concept and practice of cooperation and collaboration. Globalization and privatization of LIS education under GATS is another threat to the developing countries as it will lead to competition among the unequal. In fact, LIS education in majority of the departments in South Asia is in shambles.

This is a presentation (Microsoft Word document) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 in the session sponsored by the Technical Services SIG at the 2005 ALISE Conference, Boston, MA. A recent study (fall 2003) of employers' (CAPCON sample) is summarized.

Since the 1970s, most disciplines and schools of professional studies have developed their areas of curriculum, research, and theory construction by including race and ethnic studies. At the same time, library and information studies has lagged in providing a broader understanding of race and librarianship. Although attempts have been made to fill the racial-understanding gap, most of the work is characterized as exceptional/pioneer biography, with little attention given to broader social constructs of race and racism. This article explores how library and information science education falls short in contributing to the literature on race and racism. The current multicultural movement in library science is to be addressed.

In this study, youth services instructors from five countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) were surveyed as to the content of youth-oriented classes they had taught between 2000 and 2003. As anticipated, a content analysis of those descriptions revealed that the youth-oriented library curriculum was heavily dominated by childrenâ s and young adult materials. Management of the youth library and foundations of youth library services were less frequently emphasized. Descriptive content is remarkably similar between regions, but looking at an analysis of the content with regard to national differences suggests additions to curricula based on the needs of each country.

Library and information science faculty must live within two competing cultures that have very different values and interests: the academic and the practicing profession. This difference causes these cultures to exert competing expectations and demands upon library and information science education. While the university's value is increasingly judged by its demonstrated utility, its central legitimating value is still intellectual achievement and the creation of knowledge. While the need for a knowledge base is recognized, the central legitimating value of the profession is demonstrated utility in terms of service to users. This is necessarily dominated by technical rather than reflective aspects and the need for immediate solutions to practical problems that include the education and continuing education of professionals. This article addresses the problems that result from the collisions of these two cultures: applied versus pure research, theoretical versus practical education, and competing definitions of service. It explores the applicability of Ernest Boyer's model of higher education as a means of solving problems.

This is a presentation (of 10 slides) in Session 3.1 â Contemporary Intellectual History: Reflections on the Work of Marcia J. Bates, on Wednesday, January 12, at the 2005 ALISE Conference. The research of Marcia J. Bates is reviewed. Major areas that Bates has worked are highlighted such as her contributions to (1) information seeking behavior, (2) subject access, (3) searching, (4) user-centered system design, (5) bibliographic relationships, and (6) user interface. Areas for further research that are inspired by Bates are listed.

This is a presentation in Session 4.1 â Continuing Education Programs in the US and Canada, at the 2005 ALISE Conference. It has 20 slides that highlight the issues in the practices of distance continuing education (DCE). The presentation focuses on the relationship between DCE and technological advances. Farmer highlights the impact of a range of modern technologies such as CourseWare, desktop publishing, databases, spreadsheets, presentation programs, telecommunications, World Wide Web, and digitized images. An evaluation of the practices, according to the author, should be focussed on student achievement and community interaction. Communication is believed to be the key to success in DCE.

This is a presentation in Session 7.1 on Friday, January 14, at the ALISE 2005 Conference. It is about WebJunction, "an online community where library staff meet to share ideas, solve problems, take online courses - and have fun." http://webjunction.org/