1. Libraries & the LIT Programs
Deborah Kay
Seneca College
Profession (libraries) and how they influence our curriculum

2. Skill Areas LIT programs across Canada guided by:
CLA Guidelines for the Education of Library Technicians
The guidelines provide minimum competencies within eight areas: acquisitions, cataloguing and classification, selection, circulation, reference, interlibrary loans and other (keyboarding, repair, conservation, preservation, database management packages).

3. The Here and Now
LIT Programs provide skills that libraries are using now.
LIT programs don’t look into crystal balls and predict the future.
The future is now.
LTs are trained to perform the day-to-day operations of libraries and to be able to perform these jobs immediately upon graduation

4. Input from Libraries Employers Graduates
To prepare our graduates for the work that libraries are doing now, we need input from libraries.
Our two main sources are employers and graduates.

5. Updates to the Curriculum
Continuous process
Changes within subjects
Subject titles usually don’t change
It seems that now is always changing and that we are continuously updating our curriculum. There always are new resources being used by libraries.
If you look at the titles of the courses, however, you might not see thes changes. For example, at Seneca we have had the courses Database Searching 1 and Database Searching 2 for a very long time. The names have never changed, but the content certainly has. When the courses first started we were searching ERIC on CD-ROM and using Dialog. This year, Database 1 consists of searching databases through the EBSCO, Gale and ProQuest systems; Database 2 consists of searching databases in specific subject areas, with the addition of LexisLexis and Cedrom-Sni.

6. Happening Now – Library Skills
Job Ad Fall 2009
Key responsibilities:
Serials management
Acquisitions of books and serials
Cataloguing
Collections maintenance
So what are some of the main things that are happening in libraries right now that are shaping the curriculum in the LIT programs?
Well, core library skills still are very important. Here’s an example form a job ad this Fall requiring many of the core library skills taught in our programs.

7. Happening Now – Reference Skills
Job Ad Fall 2009
Interpreting users’ needs through reference interviews
Providing users with appropriate sources
Recommending electronic resources and guiding users in searching skills
Demonstrating the use of the Online Public Access Catalogue
As you may know, at one time seeing a job ad for a library technician that included reference skills was not common. Now, from the college libraries this job ad is very common. Many job ads from public and school libraries are requesting circulation and reference skills. The new kids on the block are university libraries. As anyone who attended Session 308 Librarians Off the Desk: Developing Paraprofessionals for Reference knows McMaster University Libraries now has a blended reference desk service. Other university libraries also are following suit.

8. Happening Now – Reference Skills
College libraries
Public and school libraries – Mix of circulation and reference
University libraries
New kids on the block

9. Happening Now – Instruction Skills
Instruction and reference go hand-in-hand
Increased importance is largely the result of electronic resources
Library catalogue
Research databases
In the previous job ad, you noticed the requirements of helping users with the searching of electronic resources and demonstrating the library catalogue. There is the one-on-one instruction during a reference transaction and the group instruction.

10. Happening Now – Computer Skills
There is so much!
Dolores Harms-Penner reviewed the skills that we are covering in our programs. Here’s the perfect example of our curriculum changing on a continuous basis. When the “Internet Applications” course at Seneca was first developed, libraries were using the Internet, but not the Web! Imagine how that course has changed over time to include web page creation, web searching and web 2.0 tools.

11. We can’t teach everything!
Job Ad Fall 2009
Troubleshoot and provide support for 75+ public and staff workstations and related software and peripherals
Update and implement ongoing development of the Library’s website
Assist with maintenance and troubleshooting of the Library’s collection management system
Although some libraries have the requirements listed in the job ad, we have to make decisions about how much we can teach. There are network technician programs, there are web design programs, etc. Where do the LIT programs stop. We have found that such jobs as the one here often are filled by LIT grads, who have previous computer education.

12. Happening Now – Soft Skills
Job Ad Fall 2009
Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills in order to communicate effectively with students, faculty, and staff.
Strong commitment to providing excellent customer service.
Ability to act independently and demonstrate good judgement as well as ability to multi-tasks and deal with changing work volumes.
The requirements that I am showing you here are repeated in some form in nearly every library job ad. The only thing missing from this job ad is team building.

13. Training Gaps Analysis for Librarians and Library Technicians, 2006
Skills required by employers for LTs
Interpersonal/people skills
100%
Organizational commitment
95%
Communication skills
93%
The soft skills also were identified as very important in a study conducted in 2006 that looked at how well the library programs were preparing their graduates for the workforce. Employers, graduates and current students were polled.

14. Training Gaps Analysis for Librarians and Library Technicians, 2006
Skills identified by employers as
difficult to fulfill when recruiting LTs
Ability to respond flexibly to change

15. The Future and our Grads
Skills will continue to change.
Grads have a strong framework to learn new skills.
Although we are training for NOW, our grads with their present skill sets are prepared to keep learning into the future.