Losing the quality battle in Australian education for librarianship

Abstract

The author asserts that something is wrong with university-based education for librarianship in Australia. Librarianship does not have a clear disciplinary identity in universities. The lack of differentiation between the roles of technicians and professionals clouds the issue. For these and other reasons, education for librarianship in Australia is suffering. Comparisons are made with the United States and Canada. Some suggestions for improving the quality of university-based education for librarianship, based on increased cooperation among departments of information studies, are made.