African librarians need to embrace enormous changes in technology and in social and economic circumstances during the course of their careers, but the methods that the profession should use to renew itself are not clear. At present the emphasis is on the possession of diplomas and degrees, but there is no special reason to believe that adding a second (master’s) degree to a bachelor’s in LIS appreciably increases the professional expertise of an individual library worker. Furthermore, the PhD (now increasingly sought) is a research degree and of debatable relevance for most kinds of higher library posts. It is argued in this paper that continuing professional development (CPD) is more capable of delivering the necessary new skills and professional orientation. The profession, through its library associations, needs to discuss the problems of career development with policymakers; persuade employers to modify their qualification-based appointment and promotion requirements; and encourage and support professional associations in providing more CPD opportunities.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89709
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2015.0037
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2013 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
