Life values of library and information studies students and faculty

Abstract

The study reported in this paper identifies the priority ranking of values held by faculty and by students enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs offered by the former School of Library and Information Studies at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, Australia.1

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Kuring-gai College of Advanced Ecudation was amalgamated with other institutions on January 1, 1990 to form the University of Technology, Sydney. As part of the amalgamation process, Kuring-gai College’s School of Library and Information Studies and Department of Communication Studies merged to form the School of Information Studies, University of Technology, Sydney.

The study replicates an earlier study conducted by Yerkey in the United States which investigated the terminal values held by library school students, faculty and library directors. The present study extends the Yerkey survey by gathering and analysing data on the instrumental values held by students and faculty.

Generally, the findings of the Yerkey study and this study are similar, although there are some differences in the ran kings of particular terminal values, which may be a consequence of the different cultural environments of the studies. The findings related to the ranking of instrumental values were found to be generally consistent with studies of values held by social science students carried out by Flinders University, Australia.

There are greater difficulties among rankings for instrumental than temrinal values among student groups, as well as between students and faculty. Although these differences do not appear to be great enough to be dysfunctional in the ecudational process, they serve to remind educators of the individual differences of the students in their programs.