Don't mention the "L"-word. En analys av biblioteks- och informationsvetenskapsutbildades karriärmöjligheter på den alternativa arbetsmarknaden.
(2007)Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
- Abstract
- This master's thesis is about alternative career opportunities for library and information science graduates. Ever since the beginning of our education we have been interested in working outside of the traditional libraries. Now that we are about to receive our degrees in library and information science we are doubtful if the competence we have obtained is enough to meet the demands of the labour market. The employment field we have been studying in this master's thesis is information management, since this is a field that we find comparable to library and information science. Our study involves a qualitative survey amongst recruiting companies to investigate how the recruiters value different educations, competences and personal skills... (More)
- This master's thesis is about alternative career opportunities for library and information science graduates. Ever since the beginning of our education we have been interested in working outside of the traditional libraries. Now that we are about to receive our degrees in library and information science we are doubtful if the competence we have obtained is enough to meet the demands of the labour market. The employment field we have been studying in this master's thesis is information management, since this is a field that we find comparable to library and information science. Our study involves a qualitative survey amongst recruiting companies to investigate how the recruiters value different educations, competences and personal skills when they employ staff within the field of information management. Our results show that the library and information science education is not highly esteemed. On the other hand, the informants rank the typical librarianship tasks such as managing information, information seeking, knowledge about information sources and media, knowledge intermediation as well as organizing, systemizing and structuring of information as very important skills. In our study the starting point is professionalization and Human Resource Management theories. Our analysis shows that the informants either are not aware of the content of the library and information science education or that they associate the word "library" with books and the library building, rather than information management. Our conclusions are therefore that the word "library" should be excluded from the educational title. This could open up a broader market for library and information science graduates and distance the education from its association with the library environment. It is conceivable that the status and image of the library and information science discipline would be enhanced if the educational title focused on information, communication and technology. These three keywords describe the content of the education better than the word "library", a term generally related to books and culture intermediation. A change of the educational title in this direction would work within the traditional libraries as well as on the labour market. If you as a library and information science graduate want to work outside the traditional libraries, our most important conclusion therefore is "Don't mention the 'L'-word"! (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1322704
- author
- Andersson, Maria and Strandberg, Diana
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2007
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- alternativa arbetsmarknader, alternativa karriärmöjligheter, bibliotekariens status, human resource management, kompetenser, marknadsföring, personliga egenskaper, professioner, the "L"-word, utbildningar, Documentation, information, library science, archivistics, Arkiv- och bibliotekskunskap, dokumentation
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 1322704
- date added to LUP
- 2007-06-20 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2014-04-11 14:16:47
@misc{1322704,
abstract = {{This master's thesis is about alternative career opportunities for library and information science graduates. Ever since the beginning of our education we have been interested in working outside of the traditional libraries. Now that we are about to receive our degrees in library and information science we are doubtful if the competence we have obtained is enough to meet the demands of the labour market. The employment field we have been studying in this master's thesis is information management, since this is a field that we find comparable to library and information science. Our study involves a qualitative survey amongst recruiting companies to investigate how the recruiters value different educations, competences and personal skills when they employ staff within the field of information management. Our results show that the library and information science education is not highly esteemed. On the other hand, the informants rank the typical librarianship tasks such as managing information, information seeking, knowledge about information sources and media, knowledge intermediation as well as organizing, systemizing and structuring of information as very important skills. In our study the starting point is professionalization and Human Resource Management theories. Our analysis shows that the informants either are not aware of the content of the library and information science education or that they associate the word "library" with books and the library building, rather than information management. Our conclusions are therefore that the word "library" should be excluded from the educational title. This could open up a broader market for library and information science graduates and distance the education from its association with the library environment. It is conceivable that the status and image of the library and information science discipline would be enhanced if the educational title focused on information, communication and technology. These three keywords describe the content of the education better than the word "library", a term generally related to books and culture intermediation. A change of the educational title in this direction would work within the traditional libraries as well as on the labour market. If you as a library and information science graduate want to work outside the traditional libraries, our most important conclusion therefore is "Don't mention the 'L'-word"!}},
author = {{Andersson, Maria and Strandberg, Diana}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Don't mention the "L"-word. En analys av biblioteks- och informationsvetenskapsutbildades karriärmöjligheter på den alternativa arbetsmarknaden.}},
year = {{2007}},
}