Affiliations: Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK
Note: [1] Pursuit n. [Old French poursuite, the action or an act of pursuing.]
1.pur-suit The action of pursuing, chasing or following with intent to overtake or catch.2.pur-suit The action of following or engaging in something as a profession, business, recreation, etc. Content n. [Latin contentus, past participle of continere, to contain.]
1.content Satisfaction, pleasure; a contented condition.2.con-tent The sum or substance of what is contained in a document.
Note: [2] This paper was originally prepared to support a brief oral presentation in a panel discussion at the International Conference ‘Laboratory of Future Communication’ Berlin 26th–27th October 1998, and was circulated to participants. Another, somewhat modified, version has been accepted for presentation at the Third British Nordic Conference on Library and Information Studies, Boras, Sweden, 12th–14th April 1999.
Abstract: The challenge that faces Schools of Library and Information Studies is to identify what is distinctive about the LIS curriculum that can be used both to strengthen Library and Information Studies (LIS) education and to make sure that it is attractive to students who are not future librarians. Perhaps the chief barrier to positioning LIS education to make a major contribution to the information world of the third millennium is the notion that they are exclusively concerned with collections. In response, contemporary LIS education focuses strongly on access to information, whilst tending to de-emphasise collection-related matters. This draws on a long-established tendency within LIS, and could be characterised as the triumph of the information scientists, whose approach now dominates librarianship. Without diminishing the importance of this shift, it is possible to further demonstrate the distinctiveness of the LIS curriculum by placing a strong emphasis on the information content of documents and electronic information resources. At least six obvious existing areas of LIS curriculum deal closely with content and provide an ideal bridge between a formerly collection-dominated profession and the current one which deals increasingly with access to electronic resources. They are: assessing and filtering content; [re]intermediation between the user and technology; negotiating ethical and regulatory difficulties; designing user-oriented services; managing knowledge resources; creating value-added information packages.
