Librarians in the new Europe: training and education needs of librarians working in national libraries

Abstract

Librarianship has always revealed an ability for co-operative efforts across national boundaries. Scholars have always sought learning wherever it might be found and they have now been joined by researchers in the sciences and industry as in the humanities. International librarianship is a more realistic concept today than at any time in the past because of its heavy dependence on information systems and technology. Both the historical and technical aspects of internationalism affect national libraries. Their special features, the antiquity and size of their collections and their academic environment have led to an emphasis on in-house training and to a lack of staff mobility. But national libraries also have responsibility for national bibliographies, authoritative cataloguing records and the curation of non-print materials. The increasing role of information strategy systems/information technology (ISS/IT) has brought into national libraries a new professional staff whose influence has permeated a conservative environment. The need for the academic, scholarly research librarian remains, but to this must be allied the librarian trained within and for the profession in general. The synthesis has occurred in printed books departments and is developing increasingly in rare books, manuscript and cartographic divisions. Such development is essential if national libraries are to play a full part in collaborative, resource-sharing schemes and in networked systems.