Traces the history of e-learning to the learning age where knowledge will be freely accessed, profoundly abundant, and offered in cornucopia of formats. Distance learning has been accepted and recognized as a mode of education in LIS. The concept of open and distance learning is discussed. In the changing scenario of the society, the skills required of LIS professionals are also identified. The paper also examines the impact of the Internet on the teacher's role and explores the types of skills and strategies that teachers will need to be effective and efficient in online learning environments. The paper provides an insight into the innovative multi-channel delivery modes adopted by the different universities and their effectiveness for the LIS distance learners. Guidelines for distance learning Library services approved by Association of College and Research Libraries on June 29, 2004 are also discussed. For assessment and accreditation of LIS distance education institutions in India, areas have been identified.

This article is a call to practitioners to participate in the process of Library and Information Science (LIS) program accreditation by the American Library Association as a way of connecting educators and practitioners.

Library and information studies education in Australia is characterised by unresolved tensions, some of which have persisted for several decades. Among its characteristics and conflicts are a multi-tiered system of qualification, a high number of schools per capita with a wide range of discipline affiliations, a wide acceptance of distance learning, pressure for curriculum review, and the perceived need for a national approach to planning for the profession.

This paper chronicles the history of LIS education in Macau and profiles the current situation. It then goes on to highlight the problems arising from the present situation and to analyze the reasons for the absence of a formal LIS school in Macau. Three options to move forward with the aim of providing a formal and quality LIS education in Macau are proposed. The advantages and disadvantages of these three options are examined and one option considered the most practicable is suggested for adoption.

The organizational culture school of thought is a relatively recent notion in the field of organizational theory and is a response to the perceived shortcomings of other modes of thinking that may miss some important aspects, not just of organizing and the purpose of organizations, but of the real workings of organizations. The organizational culture of the research university is highly complex, because, in part, of the multifarious demands on and activities of the institution. This article examines the culture that pervades the research university, the problematic conflict between the cultures of university and of discipline, the implications of organizational culture for meaning formation and the reduction of uncertainty. Since this is the culture in which many LIS programs exist, the implications of the culture, especially regarding determination of success, are explored.

This is the text of the keynote speech at the joint EUCLID/ALISE conference â Coping with continual changeâ change management in SLISâ Fachhochschule Potsdam Potsdam, Germany, July 31st, 2003. Delineates the problems facing library education, particularly in the United States. Proposes changes in curricula, faculty, and diversity in library education. Calls for a restructuring of library education for the 21st century.

Although survey data disclose that traditional content and delivery continue to be stressed, educators still ponder the fact that the new combinations of knowledge, attitudes, and skills in the workplace may require something more of library and information science (LIS) educators. A de-emphasis on traditional content has resulted. Professional education and practice call for multiplicity, academic self-sufficiency, and adjustment to local needs and aspirations. The problem surfaces when students are so exceedingly diverse as to resist common boundary. There is a need for these types of problems to be discussed in light of curriculum changes and for a common boundary in instruction to be defined. Analytical studies to articulate the unarticulated part of the information paradigm may help to conceptualize the information science substance more clearly.

This is a presentation (of 12 slides) on Tuesday January 11, 2005 in the session sponsored by the Curriculum SIG titled "Preparing Students for the International Information Society: Studying the Global Context in LIS" at the 2005 ALISE Conference, Boston, MA. This presentation by the Co-Convenors of the SIG sets the context for the session by using the metaphor of World Fairs.

This article presents a theoretical investigation of the concept of 'subject' or 'subject matter' in library and information science. Most conceptions of 'subject' in the literature are not explicit but implicit. Various indexing and classification theories. including automatic indexing and citation indexing, have their own more or less implicit concepts of subject. This fact puts the emphasis on making the implicit theories of 'subject matter' explicit as the lirst step. A very close connection exists between what subjects are. and how we are to know them. Those researchersw ho place the subjects in the minds of the users have a conception of'subject' different to that possessed by those who regard the subject as a fixed property of the documents. The key to the definition of the concept of 'subject' lies in the epistemological investigation of how we are going to know what we need to know about documents in order to describe them in a way which facilitates information retrieval. The second step therefore is an analysis ol the implicit epistemological conceptions in the major existing conceptions of 'subject'. The different conceptions of 'subject' can therefore be classified into epistemological positions. e.g. 'subjective idealism' (or the empiric/positivistic viewpoint), "objective idealism'(the rationalistic viewpoint),'pragmatism' and 'materialism/realism'. The third and final step is to propose a new theory of subject matter based on an explicit theory of knowledge. In this article this is done from the point of view ol a realistic/materialistic epistemology'. From this standpoint the subject of a document is defined as the epistemologicapl otentials of that document.

Focus is on curriculum development for Knowledge Organization (a core area, a problem area) using Learning Communities; rather than LIS education continuing to focus on Information Technology. / This article reviews the state of education in digital libraries and curriculum planning documents from professional associations in two areas: Library and Information Science; and Computing. It examines suggestions for integration and interdisciplinarity in education for digital libraries curricula using definitions of a discipline, interdisciplinarity, and the transdisciplinary structure of a university in order to discover how such integration may be successfully accomplished. A plan to use learning communities and develop an interdisciplinary curriculum for Knowledge Organization is briefly discussed.