This document discusses the need for interdisciplinary research and education between Library and Information Science (LIS) and Computer Science (CS) to address the gap in skills and knowledge for digital libraries. It notes that while LIS schools have added some technical courses, the core focus remains on descriptive and procedural knowledge rather than interdisciplinary approaches. The document proposes a "workshop model" used at several conferences to bring together LIS and CS experts to develop coordinated and interdisciplinary curricula. It identifies areas where each field could benefit from the other, such as LIS learning about interdisciplinarity and CS learning about user needs. The document concludes by announcing future participation in an iSchool conference and publication of related papers and textbooks

1. Closing the gap: interdisciplinary perspectives on
research and education for digital libraries
Anna Maria Tammaro (University of Parma)
Vittore Casarosa (ISTI-CNR, Pisa)
Donatella Castelli (ISTI-CNR, Pisa)
IRCDL, Roma
February 1st, 2013

3. GAP

LAM common educational curricula needs

System librarian, digital librarian, end user librarian
– Shortage of IT skills

CS and LIS differences in scale, services, coverage

CS to provide access to the world information

LIS to organize the information needed by selected community

4. LIS change

LIS schools have responded to the impact of IT in the
workplace by simply adding technical subject

LIS core is service ethic, descriptive and procedural
knowledge of information resources and their use

Current efforts in research have been focused on
improving our capacity for better managing
repositories, for preservation and for building
infrastructures for searching, accessing and re-using
networked digital resources

Not interdisciplinary research and education (Coleman
2002)

5. Action points

1. From a “Library model” to a “Digital Library model”

2. To take into account the interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary aspect of Digital Library

6. Workshops model
Using a “workshop model” which has been run and iteratively
refined at five major international conferences

Need for interdisciplinary curricula development

A coordinated approach to digital library research combining
expertise of LIS and Computer Science

7. 5 Workshops

2005 Parma “Information Technologies profiles and
curricula for libraries”, Delos, ELAG, University of
Parma

2008 Aarhus ECDL ““The Web versus Digital Libraries:
time to revisit this once hot topic”

2010 Parma “Education and Research in Digital
Libraries” DL.org and International Master DILL

2011 Berlin TPDL “Linking Research and Education in
DL”

2012 Zadar LIDA “Can Research help Education in
Digital Libraries?”

8. Ideas
1) Possible synergies of research and education in the field of
digital libraries

CS needs to know about policy, quality, user profiles,
legal aspects

LIS needs to know about interdisciplinarity
2) Focus on the educational needs of the new librarians

Critical review of the roles of the information
professionals

9. To be continued....

Partecipation to the iSchools Conference in Texas next
February 12th, 2013

Publication of paper and textbooks with the integration of the
two approaches

10. Thanks of your attention!
Contact

annamaria.tammaro@unipr.it