Developing digital libraries education: International perspectives on theory and practice

Findings are reported From a major international survey of LIS and computer science Faculty and websites, regarding digital libraries courses and curriculum at their institutions. Results of the study show that currently few schools are offering courses in digital libraries. While many schools have not developed DI courses, they are aware of the need to develop curriculum in this growing area of research and practice. In this paper, selected examples of current DL course offerings are also provided to illustrate the variety of current DI courses. The web-based Diglib Education Collaboratory being developed at Rutgers University is discussed as an example of collaborative efforts amongst faculty at disparate locations. From our experience teaching a digital libraries course, students currently enrolled in DL courses often have mixed, and only vague notions of both the nature of Dl's and the content of courses devoted to their study.