Postgraduate studies in Librarianship and Information Science in Spain

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Muñoz-Cañavate, Antonio^{a; *} | Larios-Suárez, Verónica^b

Affiliations: [a] Departamento de Información y Documentación, Universidad de Extremadura, 06071 Badajoz, Spain | [b] Archivo Diputación Provincial de Badajoz, 06011 Badajoz, Spain

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Antonio Muñoz-Cañavate, Departamento de Información y Documentación, Universidad de Extremadura, 06071 Badajoz, Spain. Tel.: +34 924 286418; Fax: +34 924 286401; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: This paper reviews the history and current situation of postgraduate studies in Librarianship and Information Science (LIS) at the university level in Spain before and after the development of the Bologna Process’s European Higher Education Area (EHEA). It contextualizes the historical development of these studies, describing how official postgraduate studies in Librarianship developed in those Spanish universities which had traditionally offered the first-cycle or Bachelor’s degree LIS studies and which have instructors in this area. A distinction is made between the official postgraduate offer (which is regulated by Spain’s Ministry of Education) and the unofficial offer (which is governed by the separate regulations of each university). It is concluded that the Bologna Process has led to the consolidation of a range of official Master’s and Doctorate studies accredited by the ANECA, a government agency that certifies the minimum quality of the courses. However, there has been little renovation of the LIS content that was being taught before the appearance of the EHEA.

Keywords: Librarianship and Information Science, Spain, postgraduate

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-160087

Journal: Education for Information, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 153-169, 2017