Den nya bibliotekariens kompetens : en studie av bibliotekarier utbildade i Borås, Lund och Umeå

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this Master's thesis is to investigate the new librarians' experiences and skills in the context of their present work situation and the ongoing debate about the librarian's professional identity and status. Further, the authors wanted to find out whether the new librarians' experiences and knowledge developed throughout their education correspond to the requirements of the employers. Finally, they try to assess theimpact of the "academization" of the library schools on the status of the profession. The data consist of an opinion poll. The investigation is based on questionnaires distributed as a web survey. 249 Swedish Library and Information Science students from Bor s, Lund and Ume who graduated in 1996 and 1998 were approached. 126 answered, yielding a response rate of 51 %. The analysis is based on literature studies combined with the answers from the respondents. New librarians have a different professional education than their older colleagues. The new academic programmes in Library and Information Science place more emphasis on information technology, which makes the new librarians suitable for jobs not only in different kinds of libraries but also in the whole information and communication sector. The result of the study is that a subsequent change in career paths will take some time for LIS students and librarians as well as the labour market to realise and implement. The profession carries with it lots of traditional expectations and conceptions and change is slow.