The Changing Curricula of LIS Education in Southeast Asia

Abstract

LIS education in Southeast Asia is undergoing exciting changes. A newfound interest by LIS educators, in enhancing and modernizing the curricula, is occurring. Several factors are driving this. One is technology. Automated library management systems, online databases, websites, mobile applications, and more are all forcing LIS curricula to modernize. Another force is internationalization. As libraries in some SEA countries adapt to new, international standards and trends, libraries in neighboring SEA countries must either adapt as well or become incompatible. And still another force is new generations of library professionals. New LIS faculty in SEA countries, with exposure to training abroad, are bringing changes and ideas to reflect the new needs and opportunities of library environments. This chapter will reflect the author's own research, as well as library literature, in discussing the background, current status, and future outlook of LIS education in Southeast Asia.

Continuing professional development in Cambodia: Perspectives of different stakeholders

“…The library sector in Cambodia is still developing and includes the National Library of Cambodia and school, academic and special libraries (Hickok, 2020). The term ‘library’ is used loosely in schools to refer to a collection of books, a single shelf of books or a storage room with a few shelves of books (Hickok, 2019).…”

“…The academic libraries in the public and private universities are of varying capacity and quality (Hickok, 2019), although the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia’s (2010) ‘Minimum standards for accreditation of higher education institutions’ stipulates the provision of adequate resources to support teaching, learning and research. However, Hickok (2020) is of the opinion that academic libraries in Cambodia, although still far behind many other South East Asian academic libraries, are more developed than the other types of libraries in the country. The special library sector comprises a large number of libraries in government institutions and NGOs (Suon, 2009).…”

“…The CLA, which was established in 1996 as the Cambodian Librarians and Documentalists Association, was relaunched in 2013. 2 The association’s goals recognise the need for the continued capacity-building of library professionals in the country, and it has focused on conducting training programmes locally (see Appendix 1), as well as sending some members overseas for training (Hickok, 2019, 2020; Mao, 2011).…”

“…To summarise, CPD training has been ad hoc and informal, except for a few years since the relaunch of the CLA (Hickok, 2020). Although Plathe (1993) highlighted that fellowships for overseas training and training workshops offered locally were useful to nurture a core group of professionals for the short term, a more concerted approach was needed to develop the resource pool.…”

“…Cambodia was considered a suitable site for this study due to the lack of research on CPD in the country (Hickok, 2020; Mao, 2011). The only exception is a report by Jarvis et al (2006), who note that although libraries were included in a 2002 study of the publishing industry, certain useful data collected through a survey and interviews was not adequately analysed or reported due to resource constraints.…”