IT profiles and curricula for digital libraries in Europe

Abstract

This paper examines the roles and competences of digital librarians and the trends of education for digital libraries in Europe. It puts two questions: What are the IT (Information Technology) profiles for digital librarians? How should they be educated? The analysis is based on the results of the European project European Curriculum Reflections on Library and Information Science Education and the proceedings of two Workshops on digital library education, held in Italy in 2005. Three approaches to education for the digital library have been described: 1) the emergence of the concept of “memory institutions”; 2) the library approach to information and knowledge management; 3) the IT isolation from LIS (Library and Information Science) schools. The roles of the digital librarian together with the structure of a course in digital librarianship, covering learning outcomes , competences and teaching methods is proposed, but further research is needed.