A worldwide quantitative review of the iSchools' archival education

Abstract

PurposeArchival studies have long been a critical part of information education around the world. This paper attempts to provide a worldwide overview of archival education among main information schools worldwide and find out their similarity and differences to suggest measures for the development of archival education.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative research is conducted including ten elements of the iSchools' archival education which are (1) geographical distribution, (2) names of degrees, (3) names of concentration/specialization, (4) names of academic units offering the programs, (5) levels of academic units offering the programs, (6) study mode, (7) credit requirement for program completion, (8) percentage of required credits, (9) capstone requirements and (10) other accreditations. Programs among different regions are compared.FindingsThe study found that 43 out of 96 iSchool members from 13 countries/regions offer a total of 45 master's level archival education, and most of them are from North America. Both similarities and differences among the schools are identified and discussed.Practical implicationsThis study’s findings suggest that iSchools may explore the possibility of organizing more conferences and forums to exchange ideas on archival studies and education issues. The iSchool community could contribute to this traditional field by attracting more members worldwide and cooperating with other accreditation organizations of archival education.Originality/valueMost research on archival education focuses on just regional or country-based issues, and scant research explores a global view.

Editorial: 40th anniversary: contemporary library research

“…This article also highlights the impact of contemporary technology on LIS curricula. Readers may also be interested in reading about similar trends in archival studies programs recently published (Ng et al , 2022; Li and Chiu, 2022).…”

A quantitative review of LIS programs accredited by ALA and CILIP under contemporary technology advancement

“…As new courses integrating information technology are introduced into LIS programs, competition has increased not only amongst LIS programs, but also amongst other departments within the same institution, especially when cross-disciplinary skills and topics such as digital humanities, marketing, knowledge management, web design and database management become expected of LIS graduates looking for employment (Markey, 2004;Moazeni, 2015;Ng et al, 2021;Li and Chiu, 2021). Although today's LIS programs have vastly been changed and such trends will continue, what constitutes current accredited programs or how accredited programs from different regions of the world differ from one another remains unclear (Tam et al, 2007).…”

“…As such, this review addresses such issues by performing a quantitative comparison of the accredited programs in two of the world's leading LIS accreditation bodies, the American Library Association (ALA) and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). Program and curriculum information openly accessible through the websites of the accredited institutions were extracted and processed using a combination of methods referenced from past research to ensure results are comparable and to contribute to the literature of LIS curricula (Hall, 2009; Markey, 2004; Yi and Turner, 2014; Li and Chiu, 2021).…”

“…Due to significant differences between the regions such as culture and language, efforts to compare LIS curricula on an equal basis face considerable hindrance (Li and Chiu, 2021). Realizing that, this review aims to compare LIS programs from two leading English-speaking accreditation bodies of the world, ALA and CILIP, to determine similarities, differences and trends as a starting point for such literature.…”

Editorial: Special selection on contemporary digital culture and reading

“…They summarized the findings into five themes to better interpret the meanings behind them. Li and Chiu (2022) reviewed iSchools' archival education system based on ten elements. They suggested that iSchools may explore the possibility of organizing more conferences and forums to exchange ideas on archival studies and education issues, which can attract more members worldwide and cooperate with other accreditation organizations of archival education.…”