Computer methods in the teaching of library and information studies

Abstract

Courses in library and information studies (LIS) departments in universities and polytechnics in the UK began to involve computers early, and now make heavy use of them. However, only a very limited amount of specifically pedagogic software is used, and the amount of this in use has actually fallen as PCs have replaced the use of institutional mainframes. Most of the schools now concentrate on giving students hands-on experience of packages that they are likely to encounter in their future careers, the packages falling into two groups: general office systems, such as word processors, spreadsheets and DBMS; and commercial library and information systems, such as online information retrieval systems and library housekeeping packages. There is potential for the introduction of pedagogic software developed for other disciplines, and of LIS teaching software developed abroad, especially in the USA.