Professional developments and initiatives both at international and national level have necessitated library and information professionals in general and library and information educators in particular to prepare themselves and meet the challenges of changing information scenario. Emergence, growth and popularity of knowledge society, digital libraries, library networks and consortia, content development in electronic environment, web based learning, knowledge commission and knowledge centers of which some of the new initiatives have been undertaken by Government of India have compelled to revamp and reorient library and information science education offered by schools of library and information studies in India. The paper discusses the present scenario of library and information science education in India, recent trends and developments in the library and information profession and more specifically the role of library and information science educators to address these issues and meet the challenges in the new millennium.

The study was conducted to find out how librarians perceive their readiness for the workplace after graduation and successfully passing the licensure examination for librarians. The results indicate that there are schools that consistently produce graduates who pass the licensure examination. The successful examinees perceive that the curriculum adequately prepared them for the examination and the workplace. However, they also perceive a gap between theory and practice. To narrow this gap they rec-ommend that libraries must conduct an orientation program for newly hired librarians, provide for grants to enable librarians to attend seminars, workshops, and visit other libraries. They also recommend changes in the curriculum to enable students to acquire competence in using information and communi-cations technologies, dealing with people, marketing and promotion, and business skills. All of the re-spondents found librarianship satisfying. They do not see themselves as leaving the profession in the near future.

Close to 3,000 courses, both required and elective, listed in each curriculum of the 45 ALA-accredited LIS masterâ s programs in the USA are analyzed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Based on the changes observed in the core, electives and particularly courses that appear being created recently, this study finds that more and more elective courses are offered in LIS education while the number of core requirements is reduced to as few as two courses. In either case, a wider range of subject topics seem being covered nowadays than in the pre-Internet era. On the other hand, approximately 10 percent of all the LIS courses sound new in that they are designed to deal with emerging subjects and latest de-velopments in the field besides reflecting the growing interdisciplinary nature of LIS. This research also shows that catalysts for LIS curricular transformations do not come from technology alone, but also originate from the cultural and societal dimensions. In other words, a holistic approach should be taken for enhancing LIS curricular contents to prepare information professionals for leadership in the time to come.

This is a juried paper (12 pages) presented at Session 5.2 titled "The Digital Environment: Online Libraries, Users and Systems" on Thursday, January 13, at the ALISE 2005 Conference, Boston, Massachusetts (Session Moderator: Charley Seavey). The main purpose of this study was to examine participating readers' text markings when they interacted with electronic documents during an active reading process. The readings took place in a private setting, where the readers read e-document for self-use, and in a document sharing setting where each document was shared among a group of students. Based on the results from descriptive and statistical tests, a user-marking taxonomy was derived, which led to the development of a framework for marking ontology. The proposed ontology can then be utilized by web searching agents to enhance the information retrieval capabilities of users working with digital library resources in a semantic web environment.

This presentation has 16 slides and is part of Session 7.1 - WebJunction: Your Gateway to Continuing Education - at the 2005 ALISE Conference. It summarizes the survey that was conducted among LIS students who either used WebJunction (WJ) or had interest in WJ resources. It underlines the potential of WJ for building the student liaison program, and suggests some rollout strategies for developing WJ into educational programs. "Web Junction is an online community where library staff meet to share ideas, solve problems, take online courses - and have fun."

This presentation was given in Session 3.1 on Wednesday, January 7, entitled "Forecasting the Future and Formulating Strategy", at the ALISE 2004 Conference in San Diego, CA. It contains a survey on PhD students in some LIS programs. The research analyzes the population of the students being surveyed: their background before entering a PhD program, their concentrations of research in the program, and their expectations for a job in varied fields. It finds that most of the students are not library science focused. Hopefully, the survey will be able to provide suggestions for LIS programs to reconsider their curricula and training strategies. Two files are presented here. The Powerpoint file (20 slides) is a concise version of the Word file.

Text in English and Chinese, with the presentation slides. / This paper summarizes the Education of Library and Information Science in China Nowadays in such aspects as general status, main courses, main research directions, and the problems in it, and put forward some personal opinions on the development of Education of Library and Information Science in China.

Library and information studies (LIS) education may be misreading the academic community's expectations. A program's viability may hinge on a counterintuitive premise, where the academic culture allows each discipline to create its own criteria for its own evaluation. LIS programs may have unwittingly assumed that adopting the scientific mode might gain them currency in the academic realm; yet there is little evidence that LIS programs had the prerequisite infrastructure to compete with a science discipline in terms of sustained funded research, teaching assistant and postdoctoral assistant services, laboratory equipment, and other resources. There is an irony that many LIS students and faculty do not come from the scientific disciplines, and this further inhibits their ability to compete in that arena. LIS program and faculty evaluators have used criteria from the sciences to measure LIS progress and to determine an individual's suitability for promotion. We contend that this application of inappropriate criteria has done unnecessary harm to LIS and the individuals in it. An examination of selected COA self-study responses and other sources indicates that LIS may misread the academic culture because LIS does not appear to be central to university governance. Finally, the waning of LIS's affiliation with libraries may do LIS irreparable harm. LIS's focus may need to be recentered on educating librarians.

This is a Plenary Session 4 - Working in Partnership: Priorities and Concerns for the Profession - presentation (in pdf format) on Friday, January 14 at the ALISE 2005 Conference. Professor Nicholas Belkin identifies some priorities for both education and research in library and information science.

This paper examines the challenges involved in understanding group dynamics when utilizing online teaching platforms, such as WebCT. When the student cohort involved is studying professionally oriented technical subjects, people who have prior knowledge of this professional area may exhibit be-haviors which overwhelm other students. In traditional face-to-face tutorial and workshop environments, teachers are able to interact with students, ensuring that they have a comfortable environment in which to contribute and learn. This may involve bringing them out of themselves when they appear intimidated and re-directing them when they threaten to dominate. Teachers can interpret body language and use their own body language and facial expressions as well as verbal comment to maintain a student-centered learning environment. It is much more difficult to influence the dynamics of online discussion. Our ex-perience at Curtin has shown that the potential for intimidation of students leading to their non-participation is stronger than in the classroom, especially when prior professional knowledge and experi-ence is involved. This outcome is opposite to expectations of web communication, usually believed to be an environment where people can overcome the constraints of their personality and participate in discus-sion more easily. Reasons this may occur will be examined together with techniques for ensuring that students are afforded an equitable learning environment.