筑波大学
知的コミュニティ基盤研究センター
Research Center for Knowledge Communities
University of Tsukuba

筑波大学知的コミュニティ基盤研究センターシンポジウム2006

ネットワーク時代の新しい情報学教育の潮流
Proceedings of 2006 Annual Symposium of RCKC筑波大学知的コミュニティ基盤研究センターシンポジウム 2006

～ ネットワーク時代の新しい情報学教育の潮流 ～New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked
Information Society
Proceedings of 2006 Annual Symposium of RCKC

March 9, 2006
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

筑波大学知的コミュニティ基盤研究センター
Research Center for Knowledge Communities (RCKC)
University of Tsukuba

序言ネットワーク時代の新しい情報学教育の潮流
ネットワーク時代における新しい情報学教育の潮流を探るため，海外の情報学，図書館情報学分野の大学院から教員を招き，それぞれの地域での情報学教育の動向に関する報告をお願いし，多様な視点からの意見交換と情報共有の場を作るために，国際シンポジウムを開催いたします．
このシンポジウムでは，アメリカの情報学分野の大学院による新しい連携組織である
i-Conference Schools の主要なメンバー校であるピッツバーグ大学，ミシガン大学，カナダ・ブリティッシュコロンビア大学の情報学，図書館情報学分野の大学院のリーダーを招き，北米における状況の報告をお願いしております．また，台湾，韓国，シンガポー
ル，タイ，オーストラリアからも図書館情報学関係の学部・大学院から教員を招き，この地域での状況の報告と意見交換のためのパネル討論などを計画しています．このように北米とアジア太平洋地域を結び，情報学教育分野の新しい潮流と将来に向けた方向について，参加者とともに意見交換と情報共有を進めたいと思います．なお，本シンポジ
ウムは 2005 年度筑波大学国際連携プロジェクトの支援を受けて開催しています．
（知的コミュニティ基盤研究センター：センター長田畑孝一，教授杉本重雄）

筑波大学知的コミュニティ基盤研究センター シンポジウム 2006
～ ネットワーク時代の新しい情報学教育の潮流 ～2006 年 3 月 9 日 10:00-17:30
筑波大学春日キャンパス情報メディアユニオン 2F ホール
プログラム
10:00 開会
午前の部：北米における情報学教育
講演
・Ronald L. Larsen（ピッツバーグ大学情報学研究科, アメリカ）
・Gary M. Olson（ミシガン大学情報学研究科, アメリカ）
・Edie Rasmussen（ブリティッシュコロンビア大学, 図書館・アーカイブ・情報学研究科, カナダ）
12:00 昼休み
13:15 午後の部 1：アジア太平洋地域および日本における情報学教育
パネル：アジア太平洋地域における図書館情報学教育
パネリスト
・Hsueh-hua Chen（国立台湾大学図書資訊学系, 台湾）
・Sung-hyuk Kim（淑明女子大学文献情報学科, 韓国）
・Schubert Foo（ナンヤン工科大学コミュニケーション・情報学研究科, シンガポール）
・Graeme Johanson（モナシュ大学情報技術学部, オーストラリア）
・Kulthida Tuamsuk（コンケン大学, タイ）・司会：杉本重雄（筑波大学図書館情報メディア研究科・知的コミュニティ基盤研究センター）
15:15 休憩
15:45 午後の部 2：アジア太平洋地域および日本における情報学教育
パネル（つづき）：アジア太平洋地域における図書館情報学教育
講演
・根本彰（東京大学教育学研究科）
17:00 Closing

目 次
序言
プログラム
目次

第１章 シンポジウム講演資料（Symposium Proceedings）
Foreword and Program“Centripetal or Centrifugal Forces at Play? − Emerging Directions in Information Research and
Education”
Ronald L. Larsen(School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburg, USA) ……………………………… 1“The School of Information at the University of Michigan”
John King and George Furnas; Gary M. Olson(School of Information, University of Michigan, USA) ……………………………………… 5“Applying the i-School Model: a Case Study in Archival Education”
Edie Rasmussen(School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada) … 17

“The Development of LIS Education in Taiwan – A Case Study of National Taiwan University”
Hsueh-hua Chen
(Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan) ………… 19“The New Directions for LIS Education in Korea at the Age of the Networked Knowledge Society”
Kim, Sung Hyuk
(Department of Library and Information Science, Sookmyung Women’s University, Korea)……… 27“Development in Information Science Education at the School of Communication of Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore”
Schubert Foo(School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological Univ., Singapore) ………… 30

“Discerning the Future of Information Science Education Through Community Networking
Research”
Don Schauder, Graeme Johanson, and Kirsty Williamson(Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia) …………………………… 37“Changing Trends in Educating the Library and Information Professionals in Thailand”
Kulthida Tuamsuk(Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Khon Kaen University, Thailand) ………………… 39“Library and Information Science Education in Japan: Some Observations from the LIPER Project”
Akira Nemoto(Gaduate School of Education, University of Tokyo, Japan) ………………………………… 42

第２章

知的コミュニティ基盤研究センターの研究活動
Research Activities in RCKC (in Japanese)

組織の概要……………………………………………………………………………… 48
知の共有基盤研究部門（杉本重雄，森嶋厚行）
Organization and Interoperability of Community Knowledge
Shigeo Sugimoto and Atsuyuki Morishima (RCKC) …………………………… 50
知の表現基盤研究部門（中山伸一，真栄城哲也）
Formation and Representation of Community Knowledge
Shin-ichi Nakayama and Tetsuya Maeshiro (RCKC) …………………………… 55
知の伝達基盤研究部門（永田治樹，歳森敦，松林麻実子）
Communication and Collaboration in Knowledge Communities
Haruki Nagata, Atsushi Toshimori, and Mamiko Matsubayashi (RCKC) ……… 60
知の環境基盤研究部門（磯谷順一，梅田享英，水落憲和）
Media and Technological Bases for Community Knowledge
Junichi Isoya, Takahide Umeda, and Norikazu Mizuochi (RCKC) ……………… 65

第１章

シンポジウム講演資料

Symposium Proceedings

Foreword
New Directions for Information Science Educationin the Networked Information Society
Our information environments have changed drastically during this decade since theexplosion of the Web in mid-1990's. Library and information science schools have been affectedby this drastic change and are seeking new directions for education for the future. The annual
symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities (RCKC), University ofTsukuba, focuses on the new directions of information science education at LIS schools in the
North America and the Asia-Pacific Region.
The symposium has invited a number of distinguished speakers from library andinformation science schools in North America and Asia-Pacific countries. The speakers willbring up-to-date information about trends in education at the library and information scienceschools in their countries or regions.
This symposium is planned to provide a forum for participants from information scienceschools in different environments to bring their experiences and to share information and ideas
about information science education for the networked information society of today and thefuture.
(Koichi Tabata, Director of RCKC and Prof. Shigeo Sugimoto)Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked
Information Society
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan
http://www.kc.tsukuba.ac.jp/symposium2006/
Program
10:00 Opening
Morning Session : Information Science Education in North America
Talks
・Ronald L. Larsen (School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA)・Gary M. Olson (School of Information, University of Michigan, USA)・Edie Rasmussen (School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, Univ. of British Columbia, Canada)
12:00 Lunch
13:15 Afternoon Session 1 : Information Science Education in Asia-Pacific and Japan
Panel: Library and Information Science Education in Asia-PacificPanelists
・Hsueh-hua Chen (Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan)
・Sung-hyuk Kim (Department of Library and Information Science, Sookmyung Women's University, Korea)
・Schubert Foo (School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
・Graeme Johanson (Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia)
・Kulthida Tuamsuk (Khon Kaen University, Thailand)
・Shigeo Sugimoto (Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, Univ. of Tsukuba, Japan),Moderator
15:15 Break
15:45 Afternoon Session 2 : Information Science Education in Asia-Pacific and Japan
Panel: Library and Information Science Education in Asia-Pacific (continued)
Talk
・Akira Nemoto (Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo, Japan)
17:00 Closing

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Centripetal or Centrifugal Forces at Play?
− Emerging Directions in Information Research and Education −Ronald L. Larsen
Dean and Professor
School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA

The rapid evolution and ubiquitous deployment of
information technology telegraphs a future of newhorizons in research leading to capabilities
unimaginable today. It is my intention to share withyou some directions this research may take, informedby the insights of participants in a workshop sponsoredby the US National Science Foundation.
Beyond the research directions, though, I will also
consider potential implications of that research.
Tensionsarise
from evolving visionsforinformation-intensive services, and we in higher
education, industry and government need to consider
adaptations that may be required to achieve the desired
outcomes suggested by these visions.
As we explore visionary futures and possibilities,
there are forces that emerge that introduce tension,
sometimes seeming to pull us apart. But recognizingthese forces and responding appropriately cantransform them, or our perceptions of them, into forcesthat bring us together. An exploration of the nature ofthese forces may help us understand how to cope withthem.
Research is rarely done for the pure purpose ofknowledge discovery; it is driven by needs andpriorities. These priorities have a number of dimensions
to them. Many of us like to think of research as anintellectual process to advance knowledge andunderstanding, but that is not all it is. It frequently
aspires also to advance societal and cultural prosperity,preserve lessons of the past, explore potential futures,and provide economic security. And it also seeks toensure safety and national security, and understand theimplications new research discoveries have on existing
practices, processes, systems and infrastructure andtheir impact on society.
Underlying all of these objectives is information.
We are rapidly becoming an information-intensive

global society. While the discovery of knowledge andunderstanding is fundamental to advancing the frontiersof science and engineering, we also depend on industry
to transform new knowledge into services, andgovernment to set effective policy regarding economic
and cultural prosperity. Technology directly impacts
our safety and security. It enables us to detect threats
and understand opportunities – it enables us to organize,
extract and interpret the information that is vital to oursurvival.
Two years ago, Professor Howard Wactlar(Carnegie Mellon University) and I organized aworkshop for the US National Science Foundation to
explore future needs and to propose directions forresearch in digital libraries1. Digital libraries alreadyprovide a foundation for information and information
services that is transforming research, scholarship, andeducation. The workshop was centered on a deceivingly
simple model, but one that was entirely sufficient tounderstand current needs and to explore visionary
futures. The model consists of three primary
components: users, information, and interaction.
Users interact
with information throughrepositories; repositories are carefully architected
entities in which information is organized, stored, andindexed. Users interact with repositories in several
ways. They interpret their information needs in terms
relevant to the repository and its contents. They query
the repository and retrieve relevant information,
manipulate that information in order to extract resultsthat are meaningful for them and abstract or aggregate
the information into forms responsive to the initial need.
They may return a value-added interpretation of theinformation to the repository.
1

Larsen, R., and Wactlar, H., “Knowledge Lost inInformation,” Report of the NSF Workshop on Research
Directions for Digital Libraries, June 15-17, 2003, Chatham,MA, NSF Award No. IIS-0331314,
http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~dlwkshop/report.pdf−1−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But this is too abstract a characterization of users’interactions with repositories. We need to penetratethese activities deeper in order to understand futureneeds, challenges, and opportunities. I suggest four
fruitful directions that directly serve users:
•
•
•

•

Management of individuals’ personal libraries,
Collaboration among information user
communities,
Semantic interpretation of user intentions,otherwise known as “Do What I Mean”(DWIM), andCognitive completion through anticipation ofneeds based on user context (what’s been seen;
what’s been done,) and correction of simple
but non-trivial errors.

Regarding the information, itself, several basic functions
will be considered:••••

Capture of new information (from remotesensors, for example),
Discovery of relevant information andinformation sources,
Analysis of information,
Transformational capabilities to makeinformation more useful and more usable forpeople.

Capture involves the real time reception and ingest of
potentially large volumes of data. Discovery addresses
the ability to extract information automatically, or“read” the information in its emerging context. Analysis
is the interpretation of new information in the context
of prior information. Transformation applies tocustomization of distinct tasks for particular users, and,again, context is vital. One user may prefer to examine
text to understand data. Another user may need to see it
rendered pictorially, while a third may derive greater
value from a spreadsheet, graphic, or chart. Imagine asystem that could automatically ingest a vast body of
raw material and not only organize, cluster, or rankorder it, but also detect the biases that may be present,
whether they derive from instrument calibration or theintellectual interpretation of a human. Imagine theability to automatically detect what may have been theintention behind an author’s particular writing. Imagine,further, the ability to identify that which is novel,
unique, or simply different among subsets of
information and, particularly, newly received
information.
Question-answering systems have been the subjectof research for at least 30 years, yet effective question

answering remains a major challenge. Current question
answering systems can handle factual information, butthey have yet to deal effectively with more abstract,
conceptual information. Within and beyond question
answering, we need to understand how individuals use
information in terms of patterns and levels of
abstraction. And then we need to be able to manipulate
those patterns and abstractions, always within theuser’s context.
One of the reasons Bangalore has become soimportant over the past decade derives directly from theunrelenting pace of technology that is resulting in“digital domination”. Each of us now carries anddepends routinely upon a multitude of devices that owe
their existence to digital technology. Computers control
our automobiles; we fly in fly-by-wire airplanes; andembedded computers even operate our refrigerators andtoasters. Computing is now ubiquitous and sensory
networks are widespread. Digital devices are literally
distributed everywhere throughout our society. Despite
our dependence on computing, we continue to complain
about information overload. And this frustration is
likely to continue because the pace of technology
advancement will continue to exceed society’s ability
to absorb it. We cannot expect quick, simple answers to
reduce this sensation of information overload.
While technology advances briskly, society evolves
more slowly. We have yet to develop a threat-resistantinformation infrastructure despite a lengthy andincreasing record of attacks on that very infrastructure.
We feel threatened as individual humans by theubiquitous surveillance systems designed to protect us.
And we hear increasingly about new concerns such as“information pollution” that are poorly defined andeven less well understood. There is an irony here. It
appears that recurrent failures of technologicalquick-fix solutions to address technologically-induced
problems fuel accelerated searches for such solutions.
Intellectual property is on the agenda for
discussion at this conference. It will be interesting to
see what progress is reported, as the participants in the
NSF workshop expressed little encouragement in thevexing search for global solutions to the intellectual
property issues with which we are wrestling today. The
occurrence of this conference in Bangalore stands asevidence of the intense competition for global
information products and services.
But let us get back to this vision ofcontext-dependent services focused on humans.
Consider a supporting framework based on three
dimensions: information, technology, and society.

−2−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In higher education, we tend to isolate ourdisciplines along these axes. Issues of information
technology are typically taken up under the auspices ofcomputer science and engineering, electricalengineering, or telecommunications. Topics regarding
the management, organization, utilization, andpreservation of information are more likely to beaddressed in library science. And when it comes tosocietal impact, the liberal arts, business, and law
typically step forward. As long as the issues are
separable, disciplinary isolation may be sufficient. But
over the past couple of decades, we have seen greater
independence among technology, information, andsociety that suggests a need for greater interdisciplinary
research leading to new ways of thinking about theseissues.

Interdisciplinary interaction is emerging to addressthese new challenges. Collaboration among scholars
and practitioners in library science, computer science,and engineering has evolved the discipline of
information science. Information science can bevisualized as residing on the plane defined by the
information and technology axes; it seeks effective,
human-centric solutions for information-intensive
domains. The three axes also define two other planes:
namely those defined by the information and society
axes and by the society and technology axes. These
planesprovidefurther
opportunitiesforinterdisciplinary collaboration addressing issues such as
the management and accountability of public records,
information ethics, and the role of technology insociety.
But I suggest that new interdisciplinary researchchallenges reside beyond the planes defined by pairs ofaxes, in the space defined by all three. The systems of
today are not only technologically complex, but arealso information intensive and deeply embedded in oursocieties’ infrastructures. They cannot be developed
effectively in a mono-disciplinary vacuum. We need tounderstand how all of the pieces fit together andmutually interact, in order to design systems that are
not only technological successful but are also
appropriately sensitive to the societal constructs inwhich they operate.
Take information assurance, an area of increasing
importance around the globe, as an example. Viewed asa technological problem, solutions such as
cryptography, steganography, key management, andintrusion detection come to mind. Viewed as an

information issue, other terms come to mind:
identification, authentication, provenance, and access
control, to name a few. Viewed from a societal
perspective, yet another set of terms emerges:
confidentiality, privacy, integrity, and authority. Can
one effectively address information assurance without
embracing all of these concerns in a total solution? Isuggest that one cannot. But when one does, conflicts
arise from norms held by constituents in differing
disciplines.
Natural tensions arise in a number of areas.
Consider values, for example, where to some, strengthis derived from information access, while for others
power is founded on information control. Goals arealso subject to conflict. For some, safety and security
accrue through limits to access and protective locks oncontent. (Consider, for example, the “need to know”
criterion for access to classified information, or thecurrent fascination with digital rights management.) On
the other hand, justice and accountability are foundedon principles of dialogue and debate, for which accessto information is critical. Models provide another areaof tension. Information access provides richly rewarded
business opportunities, but public access to informationis also a societal responsibility. Democracy, itself, isfounded on principles of information access. Tension
over models is further exacerbated by economics.
Information is expensive to produce, but it is very
inexpensive to replicate, deliver, and distribute. And
finally, there are issues of ethics. What does it meanfrom an ethical standpoint to manage information in theworld today? There are those, given the experiences of
the recent past, who would argue that ethics is trumpedby the realities of a brutal world. A compelling
alternative view is that ethics is motivated by therealities of that same world.
The increasing need for interdisciplinary researchand collaboration spanning information, technology,
and society, and the recognition of deeply rooted
tensions emerging from such interactions among thedisciplines has fostered a new dialogue among leading
institutions of higher education in North America.
Some of these schools (currently eighteen in the US
and Canada) have organized themselves into a
consortium of information schools, or I-Schools, toaddress these issues directly.
There is similar interest in Asia, to which thisconference bears witness. Collectively, we are striving
to illuminate and provide greater clarity to the role ofan I-School in the 21st century. We believe that
I-School’s have a crucial role in the education of
professionals to lead society through the difficult and−3−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

complex transition to a global information society.
I-Schools’ mission aligns with higher education’s
historic role of conducting the fundamental researchnecessary to derive underlying principles and theories
leading to accurate understanding, effective policy, andefficient practice.
I-Schools attempt to focus on issues that bringcritical questions into better focus, such as the tension
between intellectual property protection and fair use.
They seek a better understanding of the implications ofalternative system design strategies such as open
extensible systems versus proprietary closed designs,
both of which have proven to be viable but withdifferent costs and different effects. They explore issuesof information security versus accessibility and theresulting implications on public policy. They study theforces that lead to a preference for the expedient rather
than the ethical. They consider issues of information
secrecy,andrequirements
forappropriate
accountability through records management.
As I-Schools position themselves for the 21st
century, a careful balance is needed to uphold thelong-standing and durable traditions of higher
education while responding to the rapidly evolving
challenges confronting society. I-Schools are not ivory
towers. Those of us who are their faculty cannot live ina cloistered domain of academic isolation. We live inand are part of the world. Nor can we address thebreadth of vital issues without the help of others. We
must leverage each individual’s and each school’s
strengths; the problem space is so large that no school
has the possibility of making more than a very small
contribution. We are learning to leverage our local
strengths, and to network our global resources to build
larger capabilities. We are learning to apply principles
of globalization to the education of our students. We
are experimenting with out-sourcing to leverage thestrengths of our peers and with in-sourcing to capitalize
on local strength. Ultimately, we strive to build
networks of excellence that span state and nationalboundaries to build a global educational capacity.
Strategic partnerships are vital; they must include
not only institutions of higher education but also
government and industry. International partnerships
offer exciting opportunities to extend the I-School
vision globally and to develop educational applicationsof out-sourcing, in-sourcing and collaboration aroundthe world.
The I-School mission is to educate information
professionals who will create systems that integrate
people, information, and technology to create effective
solutions for a global, information-intensive society. It
is a mission that is beyond the scope of any one
institution, but one that is achievable through thecollaborative efforts of partners around the world. It isnecessary, it is timely, and it is happening.

−4−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The School of Information at the University of Michigan*John King1) and George Furnas2)
Speaker: Gary Olson3)
1)

Dean and Professor
Associate Dean and Professor
3)
Associate Dean and Professor
School of Information, University of Michigan, USA2)* This document was written in the Fall of 2003 on behalf of the School of Information by John King and George Furnas. It
appeared as the introduction to a strategic assessment report written by the faculty and staff of the school.

The University of Michigan’s School ofInformation (SI) is a bold attempt to come tofundamental terms with the Information Age. The
School’s mission can be summed up succinctly:“Bringing information, technology and people together
in more valuable ways.” The School is committed tomaking information and information technology
increasingly valuable to human welfare. This challenge
requires addressing intellectual problems that are noveland difficult, and changing institutions in academia andin society at large. The principal strategic objective of
the School is to confront these problems decisively andbe leaders in responding to them.
The School began this campaign when Daniel
Atkins assumed the role of Dean in 1992 and began
assembling the resources required. In a short time the
School secured significant financial backing from
University of Michigan President James Duderstadt andfrom the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Dean Atkins built
a stellar group of faculty drawn from the University ofMichigan and beyond. He led the effort to consolidate
the vision that created a new school from various
historic roots. The new school was different from many
academic programs in its breadth of mission andintellectual scope. Most important, the School
embraced an integrated view of the issues of
information. Information connects across space andtime in sophisticated and contingent ways. Accordingly,
the School was conceived as a non-departmentalized
enterprise focused on an integrated learning model withmultidisciplinary foundations. The result has been arich portfolio of research and instructional capacities
that breaks new ground, spanning disciplines.
SI’s vision is that of a heterogeneous andmulti-disciplinary faculty tied together by sharedinterests and a common commitment to professional
education and research related to information. The
integrated vision provides the master narrative of the
School, but it is embodied through practicalspecializations in Library and Information Services(LIS), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Archives
and Records Management (ARM), and Information
Economics, Management and Policy (IEMP). These
serve as formal professional specializations within the
integrated Masters of Science in Information (MSI)
degree program, and they help organize activity within
the School and establish identifiable linkages toprofessional communities outside the School. They
have become strong mobilizing forces without erodingor threatening an integrated vision. An important
strategic challenge remains the maintenance ofappropriate balance between integration and thepractical utility of specialization. This is particularly
true with respect to the School’s Ph.D. program and in
the building of the faculty.
The School is not alone in its belief that
information is important, a critical area of research andtraining. In the years since SI’s development began,several dozen such schools have emerged from avariety of disciplinary beginnings. The name “Schoolof Information” is no longer strange and puzzling; it is
now seen as representative of an intriguing andpowerful notion that is gaining salience in all walks oflife. An institutional transformation is under way inhigher education focused on the study and design of
information and information technologies. Key
discriminating factors among these new programs are
the degree to which they successfully pursue aninterdisciplinary view of the problems, and theircommitment to the goal of improving human welfare as−5−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------a result of their efforts. SI’s goal of leadership rests
primarily in these discriminating factors.
In the sections that follow, we attempt to provide asense of the spirit of the School as captured by key
intellectual signifiers. These are used to frame theessential tension embodied in the SI enterprise, as
illustrated by two creation myths about the School’s
origins. From these creation myths a story emerges
about the struggle to balance the practical need for
professional education with the intellectual challenge ofthe integrated vision and the ethic of human service.
This struggle gave rise to the school’s professional
degree curriculum for the Masters of Science inInformation, or MSI, and from this struggle a numberof important lessons were learned. These lessons shape
the strategic challenges facing the School.

Figure 1. Borromean Rings

Intellectual Signifiers and the Spirit of the
School
It is difficult to capture the spirit of the School ofInformation by examining faculty bios, curricula,
student profiles, and descriptions of research projects(e.g., as available on the School’s website1). Each ofthese makes a contribution to the whole, but the spiritof the School is found in the ongoing intellectualinteraction among its members. Over the course of ten
years, a set of intellectual signifiers have emerged that
capture different aspects of the spirit. They can befound in white papers, minutes of meetings, descriptive
literature, and handouts from classes. Four are
particularly important:
Borromean Rings.
Borromean rings (Figure 1) are a set of three rings,
interlocking such that the removal of any ring causes all
three to separate. The three rings represent the School’s
primary foci of people, technology, and information.
The interlocking nature of the rings signifies the factthat value can only be created when the entire set ispresent and integrated. SI embodies the dual goals of
understanding and improving the phenomena
represented by the interlocked rings.
Pasteur’s Quadrant. (Figure 2)
This idea is taken from Donald Stokes’ 1997 bookof that name2. Stokes replaces the traditional distinction

Figure 2. Adapted from Pasteur’s Quadrant (Stokes, 1997)
between basic and applied research with a dynamic
model that characterizes the challenge of humanunderstanding as the embodiment of both. His ideal isLouis Pasteur, the 19th century polymath whose work
is characterized as use-inspired basic research. The idea
embodies the SI faculty’s view of research in theinformation realm.
Core and Cloud.
This concept, suggested in Figure 3, refers to theinteraction of some kind of core with a larger, relevant,but less tightly coupled cloud surrounding it. The idea
has gained currency in discussions of the future of theuniversity.3 SI’s implementation has two different but
related meanings. One refers to core ideas related to
information that are surrounded by a larger cloud of
relevant ideas. The other refers to a core of individuals
engaged in the quest for understanding andimprovement, surrounded by larger community of
individuals who interact with, benefit from, andcontribute to the core.

1

www.si.umich.edu
Stokes, Donald. Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science andTechnological Innovation. Washington, DC. Brookings
Institution Press, 1997.

2

3“The core and the cloud – a cardinal in cyberspace,” in The
Economist, (1997).
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creation is fictional; in fact, the tension arises because
both are fundamentally accurate, yet they are at odds inimportant ways.

Figure 3. Core and Cloud
Connect!
This is drawn from E.M. Forster’s dictum about the
duty of the writer to engage the passion of life, and has
been appropriated for a variety of purposes in which an
existential call to action is appropriate.4 Within SI thecall to action focuses specifically on the need toconnect the core and the cloud with respect to both
ideas and people.
These signifiers taken together suggest a powerfulunderlying tension that characterizes the School ofInformation. The Borromean Rings embody the tension
between the separate rings and the unity of the set.
Pasteur’s quadrant lies at the tense intersection of
fundamental and use-based ambitions for knowledge
generation. The core and cloud model carries thetension inherent in distinguishing the core from thecloud (and both from the rest of the world). The
admonition to connect arises from the difficulty of
establishing ties between the multiple communities
represented in the core, the cloud, and the larger
environment. This pattern of tension can be seen mostvividly by examining the School of Information’s
evolution over the past decade.

The Essential Tension
The School of Information embodies compelling
new ideas about information in the context of a long
institutional legacy. It is impossible to separate these
aspects of the School, but the relationship between
them has often been tense. This tension can be captured
by what we call “creation myths” regarding the
School’s emergence. This metaphor does not suggestthat either of these characterizations of the School’s
4

In fact, the quote is “Only Connect,” but it is commonlychanged in practice to “Just Connect.” The original is in
Forster’s 1910 novel, Howards End: “Only connect! That was
the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and thepassion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen
at its highest.”

The first creation myth is that the School ofInformation was an entirely new academic program
designed to pull together multiple perspectives on the
topic and synthesize them into a new construction. Thisendeavor could have been carried out in several
different ways, but the way chosen at the University ofMichigan was to build the School on the foundation ofa pre-existing academic program, the School ofInformation and Library Studies (SILS). SILS was bothavailable for the purpose and already included
important components of the new venture. The result
was a replacement of SILS by SI, carrying forward
selected aspects of SILS but representing afundamentally different enterprise.
The second creation myth is that the School ofInformation represents an outgrowth of the 70 year oldacademic program called the School of Information andLibrary Studies. This program had focused on key
aspects of the information realm, but various factors
made it desirable to expand the School’s portfolio
significantly. The opportunity to do this came when agroup of faculty with skills in the new areas agreed tojoin the School and add their strengths to the effort. The
result was a natural evolution from SILS to SI, adding
important new dimensions to the SILS tradition thatwarranted the contraction of the School’s name tosimply the School of Information.
Few in the SI community subscribe completely toeither of these characterizations, but nevertheless, they
denote significant tension regarding the School’s origin
and destination. The tension took two forms. One was
the inevitable political turmoil that accompanies radical
change in the structure and direction of academic
programs. The other was the challenge of synthesizing
multiple disciplinary perspectives into a coherent
intellectual endeavor. These tensions might havedestroyed the venture, but in fact, the desire to grapple
effectively with the latter helped overcome the former.
SI evolved from a bold and somewhat fractious
endeavor into a bold and cooperative endeavor throughthe creation of the school’s new professional education
program.
The SI community was united by several sharedbeliefs. One was belief in an increasing need for
information professionals, skilled practitioners who
understand the complexities of the information realm
who can help individuals and organizations deal with

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those complexities in reaching their objectives. This
was not surprising, given that this professional bias wasembodied in the SILS enterprise and in the fields fromwhich new faculty came: management, public policy,
engineering, computer science, and so on. Anotherbelief was that the information realm could not be
understood and improved only through the creation ofpillars of academic excellence in sub-specialties related
to information. There was a critical need to find the
deep connections between the fundamental ideas
embodied in each of the sub-specialties. This proved to
be an extraordinary intellectual challenge. It often
seemed that the traces of the deep connections would
dissolve into a dark abyss without the necessary
scaffolding to discover or create the deep connections.
The resulting endeavor, which might be described as
scaffolding the abyss, emerged as a fundamental andongoing mission of the School. 5 Finally, both thecreation of information professionals and the effort toscaffold the abyss had to be motivated by the desire to
improve human welfare. This led to the embodiment of
the concept of service learning in both instruction andresearch that proved to be a strong motivator for
excellent faculty and students to join the School.
The interaction of these beliefs was as important as
the beliefs themselves in the emergence of the SI of
today. SILS was a going concern with a highly
regarded professional Masters of Information andLibrary Studies (MILS). This program formed astarting point for the vision of the information
professional, but that vision went considerably beyond
the MILS curriculum. The goal was to create a bold
new curriculum that embodied both the quest for the
deeper connections between aspects of the information
realm, and the commitment to service learning. The
early efforts at scaffolding the abyss were applied to theevolving curriculum for the 48 unit Masters of Sciencein Information, forcing the faculty to think throughmany of the difficult challenges the scaffolding effort
itself entailed. As the new curriculum was implemented

5

The authors of this report created the phrase “scaffolding
the abyss” in an effort to evoke some sense of the challenge.
On review of the report, several thoughtful colleagues raised
concerns about the use of this phrase, providing persuasive
arguments against it. (e.g., an abyss is too empty, a scaffold is
too temporary, nouns are not verbs) In the end, they agreed
that it could be used, but they still had concerns. This
controversy illustrates quite nicely the dilemma of theendeavor itself. All SI faculty understand the endeavor, but
none can describe it succinctly in a manner that theircolleagues will accept. Territory that can only be addressed
through allusion and that has no real name is probably a good
definition for a frontier.

on a student body that was substantially unchanged
from the 36 unit MILS program, the difficulty of
conveying the complex ideas the curriculum contained
became clear. This forced a re-thinking of major
aspects of the curriculum, and often, major aspects ofthe scaffolding effort. In the mean time, theimplementation of the service learning concept in theform of the school’s Practical Engagement Program,forced students to test their curricular experiences
against real-world problems, which brought yet more
information to the curriculum-scaffolding nexus.
On top of this already daunting challenge was theinevitable institutional dynamic of trying to change agoing concern in real time without stopping. To use theexample of the electrician who handles live electricalcircuits, the SI faculty had to “work it hot” while trying
to persuade prospective students to join the endeavor,
to teach them once they were in the program, tomanage their practical engagement and directed field
experience efforts, and to help them find meaningfuljobs upon graduation with an MSI degree that no
employers had heard of before. When all that was
accomplished, the students had to demonstrate highlevels of performance and accomplishment to justify
the investment SI had made in creating the newprogram, and to provide an example to prospective
students that the MSI was a smart degree program topursue. The elapsed time to accomplish this was aboutfour years, from implementation in 1997 to the firstclear signs of success in 2000. That was a time oftension for the SI community, and for the stakeholders
in the SI venture at the university level and beyond. As
the evidence of the effort’s success mounted, it became
clear that long-term challenges were just beginning.
Those challenges are grounded in the learning
experienced during the development, implementation,and follow-through in the MSI program that embodies
the notion of the information professional, informed
through the scaffolding effort, and imbued with theethos that comes from service learning.

What We Learned
The learning that came out of the emergence of SI
is as complicated to express as the experience itself wasto endure. Nevertheless, the learning can besummarized in a few key observations.
Lesson One: It can be done.
The first thing we learned was that it can be done: itis possible to create a bold new program informed by
the intellectual effort of scaffolding and embodying the−8−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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ethos that comes from service learning. Moreover, it ispossible to do this while “working it hot,” transforming
an existing instructional program in profound ways
while maintaining remarkable professional continuity.
The SI faculty were unwilling to discard or bypass key
professional elements of the old SILS model, in part
because they represented important career trajectories
for students, and in part because the faculty believedthat SI could provide valuable intellectual leadership to
those professions.
There was considerable discussion in the creationof the MSI over whether the degree should be offered
as an undifferentiated and unified pedagogy, or anumbrella with a strong core that branched into
specializations. In order to increase the attraction of thestrange new MSI degree to students familiar with more
traditional degree offerings, it was decided to offer one
degree with specializations in sub-areas such as libraryand information services and human-computerinteraction. The deep ambitions of the scaffolding effort
were incorporated in a set of “foundation” courses
required of all students, typically taken in the first yearof the program. The specialization classes would build
upon the foundations.
This was a calculated risk; it was not clear whether
professionally-oriented students would embrace thecomplexities inherent in the emergent scaffolding
project. In fact, many students are frustrated by thefoundations courses initially, preferring to moveimmediately into courses more germane to their chosen
specializations. However, by the time the students
graduate and move into professional jobs, that view iscompletely reversed and the foundations are held to be
the most important part of the program. The
foundations courses have the effect of destabilizing
student professional sensibilities in constructive ways,
breaking down old models and introducing a new
flexibility of thought. There is much migration by
students among the specializations while they are in the
program, as well as boundary crossing after graduation.
Students following the Library and Information
Services specialization take positions in areas neverpreviously seen to be part of the library world, whilestudents following the Human-Computer Interaction
specialization take positions in libraries. The so-called“Tailored” specialization, in which students constructtheir own program, has been one of the fastest-growing
options in the past few years. The MSI students appear
to grasp the underlying notion of the scaffolding effort,
even if they are not directly participating in it.
Lesson Two: The accompanying need for institutionalchange.
The second thing learned was that changing thepedagogical thrust of education in the information
professions requires simultaneous change in the larger
institutional realm of the professions. This lesson waslearned quickly upon the launch of the MSI program in
1996. The SILS professional Masters in Library andInformation Studies (MILS) had long been ranked at
the top of accredited librarianship programs. The
American Library Association’s Committee on
Accreditation had scheduled the re-accreditation review
for the MILS for 1997. The relatively simple solutionof seeking accreditation only for the libraryspecialization within the MSI degree was antithetical to
the whole idea behind the new degree. The School
worked with ALA on an innovative scheme to accredit
the entire MSI degree, thereby broadening the scope ofwhat might constitute professional training inlibrarianship and enabling students with much broader
training to take positions that required a graduate
degree from an ALA-accredited program. Five-year
accreditation for the entire MSI program was granted
by ALA in 1998. This was the first time ALA had donesuch a thing, and the action sparked considerable
controversy among traditionalists. In the end, however,
the innovation prevailed: in 2002-2003 the ALA
re-accredited the MSI for a full seven years,
specifically noting SI’s leadership in broadening thefield of library education.
This story about librarianship is important becausethat field was the first among the information
professions to achieve strong institutional status(around the turn of the 20th century), but this kind of
institutional change has been replicated in various ways
in other professional areas related to SI. Computerscience and management information systems programs
have been around since the 1960’s. They have beenstable within their respective institutional homes,
typically engineering and management schools, butthey also have long been rather isolated intellectuallyand confused with respect to their professional standing.
These programs have been criticized for becoming
increasingly inward-looking, narrowing their fociinstead of embracing the rapid expansion of theintellectual and pedagogical aspects of the information
realm. The 25 or so ARM programs in North America
are embedded as sub-specializations in LIS programs or
history departments. SI is the first school to offer
graduate education in ARM that is on par with otherspecializations. The larger ARM community iswatching this development with interest. The younger
field of HCI, in contrast, has wandered from one
possible institutional home to another, finding difficulty−9−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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in establishing legitimacy in programs such asengineering, computer science, management, or
psychology. SI has taken important institutional
leadership roles in all three of these areas. SI faculty
serve on the boards and direction-finding committees ofkey professional society boards such as the Computing
Research Association that represents Ph.D. granting
computer science and engineering departments in North
America, and the Association for Information Systems
that includes most of the information systems faculty inmanagement schools. The HCI community has watched
the evolution of HCI in SI, and a number of strong HCI
groups have begun to emerge in the information
schools evolving along the lines of the SI model. Thisinstitutional leadership extends to the realm of national
and international policy, where SI faculty are active inshaping the information agendas in the National
Science Foundation and other US agencies, and in thedevelopment of information policy in Europe and Asia.
Lesson Three: Such an ambitious venture requires
appropriate resources.
A third major lesson concerns the importance ofadequate resources for such an ambitious venture. The
University of Michigan and the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation made very substantial financial investmentsin the SI venture between 1992 and present. This
enabled the School to assemble key faculty and begin
the difficult process at the curricular-scaffolding nexus
before it was necessary to show large enrollment
increases. In this way, the School was able to create theinstructional vision first and then attract students to it,
rather than the more common but less effective practiceof trying to co-evolve a pedagogical vision and rapid
student growth. It also enabled the creation of
infrastructure in the areas of student services,
instructional computing, and teaching innovations thatwould have been impossible otherwise. Financial
resources helped bring together other key resources,
such as a heterogeneous faculty who brought with themdiverse views of how to achieve academic strength.
These included a strong focus on research and doctoral
education, and innovative ideas for balancing teaching,research and service in effective ways. The School’s
sponsored research funding grew dramatically, fromvirtually nothing to the point where SI, despite being
the second smallest of 19 Schools at the University ofMichigan, was ranked seventh in total research funding.
Adequate resources have also been essential in enabling
SI faculty to play influential roles in the areas ofinstitutional leadership noted above. It is no surprisethat resources are vital for the success of the SI
endeavor. The subtle and important lesson has been in
the importance of focusing resources on efforts tochange the context of the School’s vision within which
the text of its instructional, research and service
endeavors will have meaning.
Lesson Four: Intellectual integration and growthrequire direction setting and hard choices.
The fourth thing learned is that the scaffolding
enterprise is fraught with persistent and vexing
difficulties, but that progress can be made if care istaken to avoid some things and seek others. In
particular, it became clear that the most serious threat tothe scaffolding effort was a set of deeply embedded
institutional biases within the academy itself. At theheart of the scaffolding effort is the need to relax
parochial disciplinary views of the information realm
and cross intellectual borders without guidance on how
to do so. The biases of the academy run contrary to this,preferencing relatively narrow disciplinary foci andspecialization within rather than across fields. These
biases are evident in the administrative structures of theacademy, but a far more pernicious problem is thedegree to which they are instantiated in the academy’s
reward structures. Doctoral students and junior faculty
are socialized to avoid intellectual challenges thatdepart from the norm, to treat interdisciplinary work asa threat to career success, and to be skeptical ofscholarly ventures that do not appear to have a solid
disciplinary home. These do not scare off ambitious
scholars who see the opportunity to make a quick
victory of some modest challenge, but the challenges inthe scaffolding effort are not modest and victory cannot
come quickly. Only a sustained effort taking years andperhaps decades will yield the desired results. The
danger is that the scaffolding effort will default to theprevailing biases of the academy, and thereby wither
away. To avoid this risk, it is necessary to construct a
set of countervailing forces that work against thesedefaults.
On the positive side, it has been found that thescaffolding effort is greatly enhanced by the reflective
practice inherent in teaching in the MSI program,conducting research in the spirit of Pasteur’s Quadrant,
and maintaining focus through the notion of the
Borromean Rings. At a practical level, this has found
its form in a pattern that can be described by combining
these signifiers as follows: The core-and-cloud model
provides a tactic whereby connections can be made in
the spirit of Pasteur’s Quadrant, aimed at further
understanding information, technology and people inthe model of the Borromean Rings. This pattern can bethought of in two ways. In one, the focus is on the ideas
themselves: some ideas are core and others are cloud,
but all connect in the effort to gain understanding of−10−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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with one another if the School is to understand therelationship among information, technology, andpeople in the fundamental sense, and to improvepractice at the intersections. This duality arises because,
to a large extent, in the academy people are associatedwith a corresponding cluster of ideas. As a result of thisassociation between people and their ideas the core andcloud problem becomes in part a social management
problem. Noting this link explains how intellectual
goals of the school convert to a tactical path – social
management of a social core and cloud of personnel
and institutions.
This articulation is not a blueprint for thescaffolding effort; it is itself reflective, arising from aprocess of double-loop learning over the past 18
months that we call Intellectual Integration and
Direction Finding.6 This process has brought together
SI faculty and doctoral students in an attempt tosynthesize what we have learned and to figure out how
we have learned what we have learned.
The final, and perhaps most immediate learning
arising from this endeavor is the realization that there
are two powerful issues that will enable or constrain the
SI venture over the next few years: size of the venture
and co-location of the participants. Each of theserequires some explication.

The Matter of Size
Organizational size is a dominant, if not thedominant, factor affecting organizational structure andbehavior. This was established beginning in the 1950’s
in work by Peter Blau, Richard Schoenherr, John Child,
Derek Pugh, and others. In general, increasing size iscorrelated with increased organizational formalism, job
specialization, standardization, and decentralization.
Increasing size often is associated with decreasedorganizational flexibility and ability to innovate as anorganization. Size appears to overshadow strategic
management decisions, use of technology, and otherfactors also believed to be important in shaping
organizational structure and behavior. This view of the

6
The notion of reflective practice is drawn from Donald
Schon; the idea of double-loop learning is taken from Chris
Argyris.

dominance of size has been reinforced over several
decades of research.
SI’s organizational vision is that of a heterogeneousand multi-disciplinary faculty tied together by sharedinterests and a common commitment to professional
education and research related to information. Thisvision is at odds with any plan to grow the size of thestudent body or the faculty beyond some threshold. The
faculty have decided that SI should not grow above thesize feasible for a single academic department ofheterogeneous, multi-disciplinary faculty members. By
maintaining a single department, the School’s faculty
and leadership will be required to find common groundamongheterogeneous
views
and
traditions.
Departmentalization is a particularly serious risk to the
SI vision because it facilitates what Donald Campbell
has called the “ethnocentrism of disciplines” that
results in subgroups of faculty clustering aroundrelatively homogenous interests that do not interact
much with other subgroups. In addition, separate
departments will necessitate a taller hierarchicalstructure with greater formal decentralization. The
faculty estimate the upper bound for faculty in asingle-department school like SI to be in the region of
40 to 45. Assuming customary student-faculty ratios forstrong graduate programs in research universities, thistranslates into a total student FTE of below 500.
Size affects nearly every other factor of SI’s
strategic planning. Given the School’s current size of
about 28 FTE (depending on how one counts), an upperbound of 40 to 45 means that the School will grow by
about half. This seems like significant growth until it isremembered that the absolute number of faculty atbuild out is still quite small. Adding 14-18 faculty does
not allow very many options for branching into entirely
new areas of endeavor, given that any major new
initiative will probably require hiring between three andfive faculty. We can imagine perhaps one or two new
initiatives. Constrained size also affects the School’s
revenue picture with respect to tuition. The Universityof Michigan budget model attributes tuition paid by
students in a school to that school. This is of particularimportance in a school like SI where a majority of thestudents pay out-of-state tuition that is substantiallyhigher than in-state tuition (e.g., $22,000/year vs.
$7,000/year). Any upper bound on student FTE in the
School’s main instructional program, the MSI, has
effects on both the total tuition revenue possible and on
whatever economies of scale are associated with tuition
revenue. Of course, size also affects important issues
such as long-term facility planning.

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Constrained growth need not impair the School’s
ability to have a significant impact on the University ofMichigan or on the field of information. SI subscribes
to the notion that the School’s impact need not be, andshould not be, simply a matter of its size. A key
organizing ideology of the School is that the greatest
impact will come from our singular level of integrationand the intellectual scaffolding the school will provide
to other, more disconnected enterprises. We aspire to be
the school that ties things together. This is SI as “core”.
The impact on others will be through “cloud”
relationships: strategic partnerships with otheracademic enterprises, both within the University ofMichigan and elsewhere, which do not necessitate
substantial growth in the School’s faculty or student
levels. A good example of this thinking is the School’s
current efforts to create innovative undergraduate
education opportunities by working in partnership with
the University of Michigan’s Literature, Science, and
the Arts (LS&A) college, and with private four year
colleges that are part of the Michigan CollegesFoundation (MCF). The School’s extensive dual degree
programs at the masters level, as well as its
participation in the University of Michigan’s Museum
Studies graduate program and its evolving Science andTechnology Studies program provide examples of thisstrategy. The faculty have discussed both joint masters
and Ph.D. degrees as possibilities, as well. There arechallenges regarding the budget model and appropriate
allocation of work effort related to this strategy thatneed to be considered carefully, but for the moment thestrategy is manageable.
By following a strategy of limited growth SI puts
itself in a somewhat different category than a numberof similar schools at other universities. A relatively
common model has been to start with a solid but small
graduate program, and add an aggressively growing
undergraduate program. Given the popularity of such
undergraduate programs, growth is usually rapid. Someof these schools have grown from a few hundredundergraduate majors to more than two thousand in ashort period of time. The faculty in these schools findthemselves beset by major workload and management
problems related to the undergraduate programs, andlittle time to think through serious questions ofintellectual and pedagogical direction. At the same time,
however, the strategy of partnership gives SI the
opportunity to participate in a wide variety ofeducational ventures without necessarily having tocommit to large enrollments and all that entails.

The Matter of Co-Location
The challenge of integration depends critically on
close interaction among the faculty, staff and students.
The long-term development of the School depends on
growth to build-out of the instructional programs, andcontinuing growth in the research programs. SI has
grown dramatically since the days of SILS, but the
space available to accommodate these functions has notgrown nearly as quickly. In an effort to assist the
School, the University’s senior leadership provided
additional facilities, but also ended up splitting the
School down the middle. Half of the School is in WestHall on Central Campus (called SI West) and half is in
the School of Information North (SI North) building on
North Campus, four miles away. SI West has
approximately 75% of the School’s faculty, 50% of the
School’s administrative staff, 80% of the School’s
computing support staff, all of its MSI instructional
operations, and the only rooms capable of hosting large
School events. SI North has 25% of the School’s
faculty, 50% of the School’s administrative staff, 20%of the School’s computing support staff, and most of
the School’s sponsored research and Ph.D. activity. SI
North has no classroom or instructional laboratory
space (building code restrictions make such uses
prohibitively expensive) and the largest classroom in SI
West can accommodate only one half of the students in
SI’s largest classes. To meet instructional needs, SI
must use borrowed space from other schools in about adozen buildings on North and Central campuses. No
other academic program at the University of Michigan
is split in half in this manner. Yet, given that thefundamental strategy of the School is to create a tightly
connected interdisciplinary core, no other program is be
more strategically vulnerable to such a split.
This condition, if not remedied, can fundamentally
cripple the School in ways that will do permanent
damage and foreclose key opportunities the School now
still has open. The university leadership is mindful of
the School’s plight, and progress has been made instarting a process that will, hopefully, lead to
identification of a permanent solution. There might bemore than one possible solution to this problem. The
School has considerable research expertise in the areaof collaboration technology, and is in a good position to
discover experimentally whether technology-assisted“distance independent” operations are genuinely
workable, and the faculty are willing to undertake suchan experiment. However, there is no guarantee that theexperiment will be successful, and there is considerable
empirical research to suggest that it will not be. If the
School undertakes such an experiment, it must do so−12−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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with a contingency plan that provides for co-locatedspace if the experiment fails.

Working Within Constraints
The size and co-location issues can be thought of as
constraints, one imposed upon SI and the other imposed
by SI upon itself. They are currently critical, but they
are contingent on other factors and that might betemporary. In the case of size, the constraint isself-imposed by the SI faculty in order to enable
continued success with the vital scaffolding project
while maintaining a coherent instructional venture that
embodies the ethos of service learning. In time, theSchool might evolve mechanisms that ensure continued
progress without the constraint on growth. The problem
of co-location (or, lack hereof) is a result of the
University’s difficult facilities problems. This problem
must be temporary or the SI venture is likely to fail, atleast with respect to the scaffolding effort. It is likelythat SI will continue as a going concern even if theco-location problem is not solved, but it is very
doubtful that the faculty who will be key to thescaffolding challenge will remain in the School. The
result of failure on the scaffolding effort will be a major
opportunity loss for the School, for the university, andfor the whole field of information. These constraints
govern all that follows in this report.

The Key Challenges
The learning mentioned above allows the synthesisof key challenges into a set of four, over-archingthemes. Each incorporates components that stand alone
as issues in their own right, and that are discussed
individually in Part II of this report. Detailed
understanding of these components requires reading inPart II. The objective of this section is to identify thethemes that tie the components together and that
represent the most serious issues confronting the
School at this time. Each is identified by its
engagement with the intellectual signifiers discussed
earlier.
Challenge 1: Managing and Extending Substantive
Vectors of Action
Intellectual signifiers: Borromean Rings, Pasteur’s
Quadrant.
The landscape of information is vast, but the Schoolof Information is small. There is no way that the
School’s faculty can cover all aspects of the realm. The
spirit of Pasteur’s Quadrant requires engagement withthe practical, and practical matters require some degreeof specialization. The specializations within the MSI
program are robust, and the faculty have to some extent
organized themselves and their research around thosespecializations. Given that the School has imposed
upon itself a significant size constraint, growth of any
kind will be limited. It should be assumed that thefaculty will grow by somewhere between 14 and 18
members over the next six to ten years. Some faculty
hires will be needed to strengthen existing areas of
specialization and focus, and to work on the scaffoldingthat yields the links among them. A number of faculty
positions will remain available after this isaccomplished. The School must devise a process for
managing and extending its substantive vectors ofaction that balances the practical needs to focus on
specific issues with the broader need to engage
fundamental problems arising from those specificissues that aid the scaffolding effort.
Challenge 2: Sourcing and Producing Intellectual
LeadershipIntellectual signifiers: Borromean Rings, Pasteur’s
Quadrant, Core-and-Cloud.
The School of Information is like every otheracademic endeavor in that it must hire new faculty,
including junior faculty. It is also, by choice, engaged
in the effort to produce new intellectual leaders throughits Ph.D. program who will take positions in otherprograms. An enterprise such as SI creates an important
symmetry in the challenges of sourcing new talent andproducing new talent. The issues arise out of the threatof academic defaults noted earlier. Traditionally,
doctoral students are socialized from the start to bestrong in some established disciplinary tradition. This
makes it relatively easy to evaluate their strengths andcontributions, and to place them in appropriate
academic positions when they complete their studies.
On the sourcing side, SI seeks the best junior faculty
available from doctoral programs. Many if not mostwill come from established disciplinary traditions thathave relevance to the SI vision. When they become
junior faculty in SI, the senior faculty must guide themin the pursuit of their career aspirations. The unusual
vision of SI, especially around the scaffolding effort, is
at odds with the disciplinary training most doctoral
students receive. The senior faculty face a serious
conundrum, trying to balance the extent to which theyencourage junior faculty to pursue their disciplinary
strengths in ways that yield relatively straight-forward
evidence of career progress and preserve marketability
in more traditional programs, or to pursue cross-cutting
work that is more difficult to use in establishing career
identity and that might not be marketable outside SI or−13−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

similar schools. Ultimately, this translates into the
problem of evaluating the academic performance of
junior faculty around the tenure decision. SI must
determine how best to nurture its junior faculty toachieve the School’s broader vision without
jeopardizing the careers of junior faculty.
The same general problem arises with respect toSI’s doctoral students. These students are selected on
the basis of their aptitude and willingness to pursue thebroader SI vision, but there are as yet relatively few
models of doctoral education that encompass thatvision, and there are comparatively few academic
positions that do so. Ideally, SI doctoral graduates will
be able to go into a variety of traditional disciplines andbring complementary advantages because of their
unusual training. There is no question that the students
SI recruits are intellectually capable of doing this. It isless clear that the SI faculty have developed the rightstrategies for accomplishing this. There are a growing
number of information schools similar to SI that are
beginning to hire new faculty. SI doctoral graduates are
already competing successfully for those positions. The
objective of the SI doctoral program is not merely tohave its graduates compete for initial appointments. It
is to produce doctoral graduates who become leaders intheir fields. The SI doctoral program is still evolving,
and the mechanisms to produce graduates who doachieve such leadership are still being constructed.
Challenge 3: Serving and Transforming the Learning
Community
Intellectual signifiers: Pasteur’s Quadrant, Core-andCloud, Connect.
SI’s primary engagement with a learning
community is the MSI program. It accounts for the
majority of the School’s students, and demands themost attention of the faculty’s instructional resources.
The program has undergone some remarkable changes
during its evolution. In addition to the substantive
changes from the MILS degree to the MSI degree
mentioned earlier, the student population pursuing thedegree has changed significantly. Prior to 1996 most of
the School’s graduate students were Michigan residents
and many were part-time students. Today, most of the
School’s graduate students are from outside Michigan
and are full-time students. There are still important
challenges and changes to be found in the MSI program,including improvement in selectivity and developing
ways to ride out changes in the professional job
markets that all professional schools must deal with.
Still, the apparatus is in place to manage these.

A more interesting challenge is found at theundergraduate level and in the realm of what is usuallycalled “continuing education.” The SI faculty have astrong interest in undergraduate education, despite thedecision to constrain growth in part by not starting an
undergraduate degree program. SI has alreadydeveloped a number of innovative programs at theundergraduate level, in partnership with other academic
units that offer undergraduate majors. Ultimately, SI
seeks to influence key aspects of undergraduate
education without offering an undergraduate major.
There are a number of exciting ideas for accomplishing
this, but there are also difficult challenges in sorting out
whether, when and how to pursue such ideas. Similarly,
there are a large number of practicing information
professionals from traditional fields such as
librarianship that need and desire educational
opportunities to expand their intellectual perspectives
and upgrade their professional skills. SI has not offeredsuch opportunities because it has been so preoccupied
with the challenge of building a strong MSI program,developing courses in the undergraduate arena, andlaunching a new Ph.D. program. The challenge iswhether, when and how to begin offering some kind ofcontinuing professional education of the sort that only
SI can offer.
Challenge 4: Mobilization, Voice and Audience
Intellectual signifiers: Core-and-Cloud, Connect.
The SI vision is not merely to create an importantand exciting new perspective on information. SI mustalso work hard to mobilize the audience that needs tohear the SI vision, and to develop the right voice forarticulating that vision. There are a large number of
relevant audiences, represented by academic journals,
conferences, scholarly and professional associations,academic programs, and funding agencies. In addition,
there are audiences on the praxis side, including
employers of SI graduates and users of SI researchfindings. Were SI an established academic venture withwell-established audiences, the task of connecting tothese audiences would be a simple matter. Instead, SI isan emergent enterprise working at the frontier ofthought and action. One might say that its largest
audience is those who are as yet unidentified.
Establishing ways to mobilize such people is a major
challenge.
SI has found voice in a variety of ways that deserve
mention. One, of course, is the performance of the
School’s graduates. Another is through the leadershipof the School’s faculty in important direction-setting
efforts in the larger community. SI faculty have played
important roles as leaders in professional and scholarly−14−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

associations, government funding agencies, and others
relevant to the information realm. SI has also foundvoice through important demonstration projects andprocesses such as the creation of the Internet Public
Library, the initial development of the University ofMichigan CourseTools and WorkTools infrastructure,
support for the Journal Storage Project or J-STOR, andits projects to preserve functionality of software
executables held in archives. It is a challenge todevelop effective ways for balancing the School’s voice
across such channels.

Strategic Questions
The following strategic questions arise from theforegoing narrative. This list is meant to be illustrative;
it is not intended to be exhaustive.
• What is the feasibility of SI’s aspirations to leadat the broad conceptual integration level?
• Does the consequent strategic choice to staysmall and tightly knit make sense?
• Do the difficulties of the school being
geographically split constitute a serious threat?
• What does integration mean? What questions
would it answer?
• Is it reasonable to seek an answer by examining
the structure of the problem of bringing People,
Information and Technology (PIT) together inmore valuable ways?
• What is the detailed structure of the PIT nexus?
• How do we further understand the structure ofthat nexus?
• What are the cross cutting threads and dynamics?
• How do we bring major intellectual traditions to
bear?

−15−

• Can we, for example, reconcile the valid insights
of post-modernism with the valid contributions oflogical positivism/empiricism/rationalism?
• What specific content is needed?
• What kind of special intellectual expertise will
help with the integration?
• What pillars of excellence will best help us findthe deep understanding, the cross cutting themes?
• Which groundings in practice will most ensure
valuable Pasteur’s quadrant positioning?
• How do we create effective socio-intellectual
processes for our mission?
• What kinds of people need to come together tothe problem and why?
• How do they each fit in? Who should each talk to
and why?
• Does the core and cloud model seem reasonable
in this context?
• What core/cloud structures will be most useful?
(Suggestions for what is in the core? What is in
the cloud?) Content? Social processes?
• How do we build a vital core? How do we build ahealthy cloud?
• What structures and processes do we set up to
work against centrifugal defaults? (To make thecore of the cloud robust attractor, instead of anephemeral overlap?)• What new professional specializations will beneeded?
• In solving the problem in the world, what
institutions need to be changed and how can wehelp change them?
• How can we help the interdisciplinary tenure
process? Can we find better interdisciplinary
evaluation metrics?
• How do we foster new forums for non-standard
idea exchange – new journals, conferences?

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendices
Appendix A: SI Mission Statement (first developed in 1996)−16−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applying the i-School Model: a Case Study in Archival Education
Edie Rasmussen
Director and Professor
School of Library, Archival and Information Studies
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
edie.rasmussen@ubc.ca

While the i-school phenomenon as an innovative
force in information science education has been well
publicized, the i-school group is not the only
educational identity which has coalesced around theframework of schools of library and/or information
science and related fields. With significantly lessfanfare, a core group of schools with archival studies
programs has emerged within this environment over thelast 20 years. Like the i-schools, this group claims aunique identity, a common set of goals and problems,and a range of interests that goes beyond traditional
library and information science, and overlaps withfields not traditionally associated with library andinformation science.
In order to determine whether the i-school model
has commonalities with other initiatives in LIS
education, we need to determine the characteristics ofthe model. What distinguishes an i-school? There havebeen a number of criteria put forward, many of them
pragmatic such as the administrative reporting structureor the number of research dollars received annually.
However it is more useful to consider the i-schools
from a conceptual rather than a fiscal perspective. For
instance, Von Dran has been quoted as saying that
“information schools are focused on how we go about
creating,
transmitting,collecting,organizing,preserving, and retrieving information” and that “Thei-School concept grew from the recognition that thetraditional disciplines of information science, computerscience, and IT are increasingly overlapping in today's
digital, information-age society” (Ascione, 2005).
Similar claims can be made in the field of archival
studies. According to the Society of American
Archivists (SAA), “Archivists are the professionals
responsible for the identification, selection, protection,organization, and description of archival records andpapers, and, eventually, for their accessibility to anyuser”---a definition with considerable commonality offocus with that given above. The SAA notes further thatrecords and papers encompass “documentary evidence
produced by organizations and individuals in all media(paper, digital, audio, and visual) and in any format.”(Society of American Archivists, 2003). This isconsistent with the i-school’s emphasis on a digitalsociety, and suggests a relationship to computer scienceand a reliance on information technology.
Archival education has undergone a revolution overthe past thirty years. Formerly, programs in archival
studies were usually found in history departments andtaught by adjunct faculty (Yakel, 2004). In the late1980’s programs began to develop within MLIS degree
programs in schools of library and information science.
At one institution, the University of British Columbia, aseparate Master of Archival Studies (MAS) degree wascreated to parallel the MLIS degree, but morecommonly archival studies appeared as a specialized
track within the MLIS. Archival associations began todemand a higher standard for professional education.
The Society of American Archivists developed a set ofGuidelines for a Graduate Program in Archival Studies,
which recommends a minimum of 18 credits of corearchival courses (SAA 2003). While many LIS
programs offer a few courses in archival studies, often
taught by adjuncts, as of 1999 only 11 programs offered
six or more courses to reach this recommended level(Cox, 2001). In a study conducted in 2001, 16 LIS
schools identified themselves as hosting archival tracks(Bastian and Yakel, 2005). What has emerged is a coregroup of LIS schools with two or more full-time faculty
who have a background and/or degree in archival
studies, preparing graduates at the master’s level for
careers as professional archivists. These schools
include several of the i-schools, for example theUniversity of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan,
University of Texas at Austin, and University ofToronto.
While the primary location of archival education
has moved from departments of history to library and−17−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

information schools, the field of archival studies haschanged in other ways as well, driven by the impact ofdigital technologies. The electronic environment hascreated new challenges for archivists and archival
educators. Critical issues such as digital preservation,authenticity of electronic records, archival metadata,and standards and techniques for electronic records
management need to be resolved through research anddevelopment.
Largescale,
nationallyandinternationally funded research involving the archival
community has begun to appear. Examples of major
studies are the NHPRC-funded ‘Pittsburgh Project’(“Variables in the Satisfaction of Archival
Requirements for Electronic Records Management”) at
the University of Pittsburgh, and the SSHRC-fundedInterPARES (“International Research on Permanent
Authentic Records in Electronic Systems”) Project at
the University of British Columbia. This type ofmultidisciplinary research aimed at resolving
technology-related problems is relatively new to thefield
An advantage arising from the placement ofarchival studies programs within LIS schools is anincreased emphasis on research in a multidisciplinary
environment. The research culture in archival studies isfurther strengthened by the presence of PhD programsin these schools. The growing number of PhDs who
obtain their degrees through study and research inarchival studies has created a new faculty model forarchival studies programs, and helped to fill positions
within the increasing number of programs (though there
is still a severe shortage of academically-trained facultyin archival studies). Many of these new faculty have abroader research perspective through their awareness ofrelated areas such as digital metadata, user studies, andhuman-computer interaction, areas which have not
traditionally been part of archival training. As Yakel(2004) notes, recent graduates tend to be more
technologically aware than the earlier generations ofarchivists that they are working with. And, because of
their education in schools offering MLIS programs,
they are more cognizant of the contribution and overlapof related fields such as history, library science,
information science, information technology, records
management, and digital libraries
How well does the i-school model match current

developments in archival studies programs? As noted,
the i-schools and the a-schools share some of the same
goals: a desire to differentiate themselves from thelarger group, a potential for interdisciplinarity, aconcern with the impact of technology on the field ofstudy. One difference may be that archival studies, likelibrary and information science, has largely maintained
the link to the physical institution, while the i-schoolmodel suggests a broader perspective on function rather
than form. Another is that the archival studies programs,
while forming a cohesive and interactive group, havenot been as concerned with identifying themselves as aunique entity in the broader community.

References
Ascione, Laura (2004). ‘i-schools’ expand concept ofIT education. eSchool News online.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/pfshowStory.cfm?A
rticleID=5905&CFID=7304967&CFTOKEN=6818752
2
Bastian, J. and Yakel, E. (2005). ‘Are we there yet?’
Professionalism and the development of an archival
core curriculum in the United States. Journal of
Education for Library and Information Science 46(2);95-114.
Cox, Richard J. and Duff, W. (1997). Warrant and thedefinitions of electronic records: Questions arising fromthe Pittsburgh Project. Archives and Museum
Informatics 11(3/4): 223-31.
Cox, R.J., Yakel, E., Wallace, D., Bastian, J.A. andMarshall, J. (2001). Archival education in North
American library and information science schools.
Library Quarterly 71(2): 141-194.
Society of American Archivists (2003). Guidelines fora Graduate Program in Archival Studies.
http://www.archivists.org/prof-education/ed_guidelines.
asp
Yakel, Elizabeth (2004). Educating archival
professionals in the twenty-first century. OCLC Systems& Services: International Digital Library Perspectives.
20(4): 152-154.

−18−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Development of LIS Education in Taiwan –A Case Study of National Taiwan University
Hsueh-hua Chen
Professor
Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
sherry@ntu.edu.tw

1. Introduction
The evolution of information network andinformation technology had changed our daily life andproduction pattern, and also caused a big influence on
the LIS education. There are nine universities offering
Library & Information Science in Taiwan’s higher
educational system1, among them six for undergraduate
program, seven for master degree program, one for
Ph.D. program, and two for on job master program.
In this paper, we first introduce the LIS educationof National Taiwan University, including the degree
program from undergraduate to Ph.D., and the two
curriculum program – knowledge management
curriculum program and digital library curriculum
program. Then we give a comprehensive point of viewto see the overall LIS course development in Taiwan’s
six undergraduate programs. These analyses can give usa clear understanding of the changing and thedeveloping of LIS education in Taiwan.

2. LIS Education of National Taiwan University
2.1 History
The Department and Graduate Institute of Library
1

Nine universities in Taiwan offers LIS program: (1) Dept.
Library & Information Science, National Taiwan University(B.A., M.A., Ph.D., on job M.A.); (2) Library Informatics
program, Dept. Adult & Continuing Education (B.A.), andGraduate Institute of Library & Information Studies (M.A.),
National Taiwan Normal University; (3) Graduate Institute of
Library, Information & Archival Studies, National Chengchi
University (M.A.); (4) Graduate Institute of Library &Information Science, National Chung Hsing University (M.A.);(5) Master Program of Digital Library, Degree Program ofElectrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Chiao
Tung University (On Job M.S.); (6) Dept. Library &Information Science, Fu Jen Catholic University (B.A., M.A.);(7) Dept. Information & Library Science, Tamkang University(B.A., M.A.); (8) Dept. Information & Communications, Shih
Hsin University (B.A., M.A.); (9) Dept. Library & Information
Science, Hsuan Chuang University (B.A.).

and Information Science of National Taiwan University(NTU-LIS) opened in the fall of 1961, with a class of
25 undergraduate students. The master’s program wasestablished in 1980, the doctoral program was
subsequently added to the Graduate Institute in 1989,
and the on job master’s program was offered in 2003.
The original intention of the Department at
beginning was to nurture the professionals to thelibrarianship. With the fast development of information
technology, however, the user’s information needs andthe search strategies vary from day to day in theinternet era. Therefore, the Department’s teaching andresearch scope was expanded from library science tosome related areas, such as information science,teaching technology, and knowledge management. In
order to adapt these changes, the Development ofLibrary Science was renamed as Library & Information
Science in 1998 to continuously nurture the main forces
for the librarianship and other different kinds ofinformation service institutions. Moreover, for the
purpose of increasing the continuous professional
training channel and enhancing the abilities of higher
library managerial personnel, the Department offered
the on job Master program in 2003.
For over 40 years, the Department has educatedindividuals to work in libraries, information agencies,
and other information professions. Academic
excellence has been a hallmark of the Department since
its founding.
2.2 Faculty
The NTU-LIS now has nine full-time and twelve
part-time faculty. The faculty of the Department havemade significant commitments and are dedicated to thefollowing research and teaching areas: library andinformation science theory, audio-visual material
production, cataloging and classification, reference
services, user studies, network communications, andcomputer technology.
The faculty members of the Department haveactively participated in research projects funded by the−19−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

information science degree will have tocomplete all M.A. programs’ required courses(including their prerequisite courses, if any). To
earn the Ph.D. degree, students must obtain 24
credits of course work with a passing grade of B
in addition to 12 credits applied to dissertation
research and writing, and publish at least two
papers on major journals. A comprehensive
examination, a dissertation proposal, and a thesis
examination are also needed.

National Science Council, Ministry of Education, theNational Bureau of Standard, and the Research
Development and Evaluation Commission. The current
research projects of the faculty particularly focus on
information retrieval, digital library, bibliometrics
control, and information-seeking behavior.
2.2 Degree Program
NTU-LIS is the only one in Taiwan currently
offering continuous courses and degrees ranging from
B.A. to Ph.D. The Department emphasizes both theory
and practice in designing its courses that train thestudents to have a basic knowledge of library collection
development, information organization, reader services,
reader education in relation to traditional libraryservices. At the same time, the Department also
combines professional knowledge in related fields suchas information science, psychology, sociology, masscommunications, management, etc. to cultivate future
information professionals. The required credits andrules related to the courses offered by NTU-LIS are as
follows.
(1) Undergraduate program.
The primary objective of this program is to
educate library and information science
beginning professionals. To earn the B.A. degree,
a student must obtain a minimum of 139 creditsof course work, including 30 credits required by
the University, 61 required (including 6 credits
for the second foreign language) and 28 elective
credits for the major subject specialty, and 20
elective credits from other departments.
(2) The M.A. degree program.
The master’s program needs two to four years ofstudy. Students must obtain 30 credits of course
work with a passing grade of B in addition to 6
credits applied to thesis research and writing.
Students also have to complete both acomprehensive examination in two specialized
fields, and a master’s thesis and oral
examination.
(3) The on job M.A. degree program.
It needs two to six years of study. Students mustobtain 24 credits of course work with a passing
grade of B in addition to 6 credits applied tothesis research and writing. Students who do nothave library & information science B.A. degree
will have to complete three prerequisite courses.
(4) The Ph.D. program.
The program needs at least two years of study.
Doctoral students who do not have library and

2.3 Knowledge Management Curriculum Program
Library & Information Science has been working
on the acquisition, organization, storage, anddissemination of people’s recorded knowledge for along time. LIS professionals are specialized inmanaging information and knowledge. Consequently,
we pay close attention to the development andeducation of knowledge management (KM). Since KM
is a cross-disciplinary concept, people with mono
education background are unable to maximize thefunction of KM. Because of this, NTU-LIS and otherthree departments — Department of Business
Administration (NTU-BA), Department of Information
Management (NTU-IM), and Department of Computer
Science & Information Engineering (NTU-CSIE) —had worked together to propose a “Knowledge
Management curriculum Program” with an aim to
educate and train all-round knowledge management
professionals.
The program was passed in the National Taiwan
University’s educational administration meeting in
December 2000 and began to recruit students in
September 2001. The curriculum is shown in Table 1.
In view of the interdisciplinary and versatiletraining for KM professionals, we designed thecurriculum consisting of three domains: “Resource”,“Management”, and “System” and stipulated thatstudents must take the core courses of each domain toestablish essential concepts about knowledge
management approached by different disciplines. It is
our hope that other colleges and universities can draw
up similar programs to educate skillful KM
professionals, who will play the role of catalysts toimprove Taiwan’s competitiveness in the businessworld and other fields so to gain a “favorable terrain”(or winning edge) in the competitive era of knowledge
economy.
2.4 Digital Library Curriculum Program
Since 1996, National Taiwan University began“NTU digital library and museum (DL/M) project,” thedigital library research projects – they included−20−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phase

CourseFundamental

Introduction to Knowledge Management
Knowledge Organization
Indexing and Abstracting
Resource
Information Retrieval (from Library Science
Domainapproach)Business Information Service (including Industry& Business Library)
Organizational Behavior (including
Organizational Learning)
Management Human Resources Management
DomainDecision Support System
Advanced
Project Management
Knowledge Economy
Knowledge Management Systems
Advanced Knowledge Management Systems
Artificial Intelligence
System Domain Information Retrieval & Extraction (fromComputer Science approach)Natural Language Processing
Database Management
Practical
Special Topics in Knowledge Management

Mandatory or
Selective
M
M
S

Credit
2
3
2

S

3

S

3

M

3

S
S
S
S
M
S
S

3
3
3
3
3
3
3

S

3

S
S
M

3
3
2

Table 1. The curriculum of NTU “Knowledge Management curriculum Program”
NSC/AS/NTU Digital Museum Initiative in 1998,
NSC/AS National Archive Digitization Project in 2000,
IDLP with US and China in 2001, NSC National
Digital Archives Program (NDAP) from 2002 to 2006,
CCA National Repository of Cultural Heritage from2002 to 2007 – have provided million digitized cultural
materials for education and public consumption.
Furthermore, these research projects created a lot oftechnical and domain’s “know-how” that needs toretain and educate to the followers.
In this context, Prof. Hsueh-hua Chen wassponsored by Ministry of Education Advisory Office toplan the “Digital Library curriculum Program” course
framework. Now it is almost finished and will begin torecruit students in six universities in September 2006.
The “digital library curriculum program” consists ofthreeparts:
fundamental
courses(including
applicational courses), advanced courses, and practicalcourses. The curriculum framework is shown in Fig. 1.
2.5 Achievements of Graduates
After graduating from the department, students canpursue further study of library & information science orof other domains, such communication, management,
and information-related graduate schools. Students canalso gain the qualification of officials to become
professional librarians. Students who are interested inpractical business can go to work as well.
Regardless of whether they are in the country or not,30% of our graduates serve in libraries after graduation,
the largest proportion among the alumni. Most of themwork in university libraries. Those who work in theinformation, computer and electronics industries
account for 10%, the second largest portion. Others
may work in universities, the government, commercialorganizations, the news media, financial and insurance
corporations, schools, and so on. Indeed, this reveals
that the range of the career choices of our graduates iswide and diverse.

3. The LIS Education in Taiwan
Library & Information Science studies the creation,sorting, managing, and transferring of information. The
main abilities of the LIS professional personnel are to
manage the whole life cycle of information – its origin,dissemination, acquisition, properties, classification,organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation and use –called ODAPCPSRIU (pronounced O-DAP-COS-RIU)2. Therefore, we analyzed all the undergraduate LIS
2Charles Curran. “What do Librarians and Information
Scientists do? They ODAPCOSRIU in the I&OEM.”
American Libraries (Jan. 2001): 56-58.

−21−

Fundamental

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Common Core Course
Introduction to Digital Library

Arts Domain

Education Domain♦ Performing arts
♦ Architecture arts
♦ Digital arts
♦ Design arts
♦ Communication arts
♦ Cultural arts

♦ Language♦ Arts and humanities♦ Social science♦ Natural science

Practical

Technical

Applicational

Liberal Arts Domain♦ History♦ Literature♦ Humanities♦ Archaeological

Digitalizing
techniques

Data Analysis andSystem Design

Multimedia
designDigital Content andTechnique

Digital Content
Industry♦ Photography♦ Color management♦ Text/Audio/Image/Video data
digitalizing♦ Audio/Video datatransforming andrestoration♦ Image processing♦ Audio/Video editing♦ Audio/Video
streaming
techniques♦ Digital source
materials analysis♦ XML technology♦ Introduction to
Metadata♦ Metadata system –design andapplication♦ Naming system♦ Visualization design– theory and practice♦ Visual psychology♦ Webpage design♦ Interactive
human-computerinterface♦ Interactive
multimedia♦ 3D animation♦ Introduction todigital library system♦ Databasemanagement♦ Information retrieval♦ Audio/Video
retrieval♦ Multimedia
technology♦ Digital rights
management♦ Watermark
technology♦ Data mining andautomatic learning♦ Modeler andpanorama♦ Analysis of digitalcontent industry♦ Value-added ofdigital library♦ Digital resources &IPR♦ Pricing strategy♦ Asset appraisal♦ Licensing &marketing♦ Project management♦ User behavior
analysis♦ Digital publishing &digital learning

Special topics in digital library

Figure 1. The curriculum framework of “Digital Library Curriculum Program”
professional courses of Taiwan’s six university
departments according to ODAPCPSRIU framework toreview whether the training of our LIS education is
sufficient for the needs. The course classification ispresented in Table 2 and commented as follows:
1. From the “origin” part of information life
cycle viewpoint, each department has opened
mandatory courses about library science,
information science, and computer science.
Most departments have also opened Databasesystems and computer programming toenhance the students’ information ability. We
may note that most of the courses about the“origin” are just introductory, and lay stress on
the information technology in comparison withlibrary science.
2. In the “dissemination” part of information life
cycle, all the departments have opened
mandatory course about computer networks
and communications. SHU, giving emphasis to−22−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

reflect these changes.

communication technology, has also opened“journalism”, “communication and society” as
the mandatory courses.

6. At the “storage” aspect, several departments
has opened “introduction to media” asmandatory course and “archival management”
as selective course.

3. In the “acquisition” part, all the departments
except SHU have opened “collection
development” as mandatory course. However,thecoursesabout
theinformation“acquisition” in each department are too
scanty to give further study for the students.

7. In the “retrieval” part of information life cycle,
most departments have opened “information
retrieval” and “library automation” asmandatory course, and some departments haveopened “information seeking behavior” asselective course to let the students have deeper
understanding about users’ information
searching characteristics.

4. The number of the opened course about
information “properties” is the most between
all parts of information life cycle. They
include the general reference resources, special
resources in different academic topics,
resource formats, users and libraries. Some
departments also opened intellectual property
rights and library laws related courses.

8. At the “interpretation” aspect, mostdepartments have opened “reader services” or“reference services” as the mandatory courses.
But SHU has not provided such course for the
students.

5. There are many courses provided for the“classification” and “organization” parts of
information life cycle. In recent years, somedepartments have opened “subject analysis”
and “information organization” instead of
traditional “cataloging and classification”
course.
Moreover,since
information
technology has highly influenced theclassification and organization methods,
several departments have opened “datastructures”,“automatics
indexing
andabstracting”, and some related courses to

9. In the final “Use” part of information life cycle,
the departments have provided “librarystatistics”, “information psychology”, “systemanalysis” or “information seeking behavior” asmandatory or selective courses. In the last
three parts of information life cycle –users’
retrieval, interpretation and use – thedepartments seem to provide comparatively
fewer choices to the students.

Table 2. Curriculum analysis of Taiwan LIS related undergraduate grogram—Using ODAPCPSRIU classification method

OriginLIS, NTU

LIS, NTNU

LIS, FJU

ILS, TKU

IC, SHU

LIS, HCU♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to(M) ♦ Introduction of
Library andesthetics
Library and
Library and
Library
Library Science
Information
Information
Information
Informatics♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to
Science
Science
Science
information
Computer Science ♦ Introduction to
Computer Science ♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to♦ Introduction to
Computer Science
Computer Science
Computer Science
Information♦ Database
Information♦ Introduction to
Systems♦ Database System ♦ Introduction to
Management
Science
Database
Technology
System♦ Introduction to♦ Operation System
Management
Communication
Database Systems
System♦ Library History♦ Publishing and♦ Algorithms♦ Publishing and the ♦ Theory and(S) ♦ Planning andpractice ofMarketingBook Trade
producing AV♦ Homepage Design♦ Library History
photographymaterials♦ Electronic♦ Computer
Chromatics
Publishing♦ Computer
Programming
Program Design♦ System Analysis ♦ Library Instruction♦ Photography
and Design♦ Database Systems♦ Multi-media♦ Multimedia♦ Visual arts
Technology and♦ Digital image
Application
processing♦ Digital Imaging♦ Digital video
and Animation
processing♦ Computer
Animation−23−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dissemination

LIS, NTU(M) ♦ Introduction to
Communications♦ Computer
Networks andCommunications

LIS, NTNU♦ Network
Resources
Application
Techniques

Acquisition♦ Collection
Development

Properties

IC, SHU

LIS, HCU♦ Communication
Technology and
Library♦ Communicationand society♦ Journalism♦ communication♦ Introduction tocommunication
technology♦ Computer
Networks andCommunications♦ Electronic
Commerce♦ Electronic
publishing♦ Computer
Network andCommunication♦ Collection
Development♦♦ Collection
Development♦ Collection
Development♦ Library Selection
and Acquisitions♦ Library Selection
and Acquisitions(S)♦ Reference(M) ♦ Reference
Resources
Resources♦ Internet Resources♦ Non-book
Materials

Classification♦ Introduction to
Computer
Networks

ILS, TKU♦ Building andApplication of
Scholarly
communities(S)(M) ♦ Collection
Development

LIS, FJU♦ Reference
Resources♦ Network
Resources♦ Introduction to♦ Non-bookIntellectual
Materials
Property Rights
Management♦ Introduction to♦ Literature ofInformation
Humanities andSources
Social Sciences♦ Literature of
Sciences andTechnologies♦ Network
Resources andApplications♦ Reference♦ Selection andresources
Acquisition of
Library Material♦ Periodical
Management♦ College andUniversity
Libraries♦ School Libraries♦ Public Library♦ Laws Library♦ Children's Library♦ Administration ofInstructional
Media Center♦ Medical Libraries♦ Chinese Reference
Sources♦ Western Reference
Sources♦ Literature of the
Humanities♦ Literature of theSocial Sciences♦ Public Libraries♦ College andUniversity
Libraries♦ Government
Publication♦ Serials Publishingand Management♦ Literature of the
Science♦ Measurement and
Evaluation of
Library♦ Children
Literature♦ BusinessInformation
Services♦ Library andInformation Law
and Legislation♦ Chinese
Classification and
Cataloging♦ Western
Classification and
Cataloging(S) ♦ Introduction toChildren's Books♦ Law Materials♦ Literature of theSocial Sciences♦ Reading and
Library♦ Literature of the
Humanities♦ Scientific andTechnical
Literature♦ BusinessInformation
Services♦ Library
Information Law♦ Public Libraries♦ University
Libraries♦ Library Field
Work♦ Children andteenagers’ books♦ Resources of the
Humanities♦ Resources of theSocial Science♦ Resources of the
Natural Science♦ Resources of the
Educational
Science♦ Resources of theBusiness
information♦ Introduction toIntellectual
Property Rights♦ Periodical
Management♦ Information
Resources in
Humanities♦ Resources of theSocial Science♦ BusinessInformation
Service♦ Health Sciences
Information
Service♦ Public Libraries♦ University
Libraries(M) ♦ Cataloging andClassification♦ Subject Analysis♦ Subject Analysis♦ Cataloging andClassification♦ Issues ofCataloging andClassification♦ L.C. Classification ♦ Cataloging andClassification(S) ♦ AutomaticClassification andIndexing−24−♦ Network System
Planning andSetting♦ Classification

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LIS, NTNU

♦ Book &(M) ♦ Information
Information
Organization
Organization♦ The Study of♦ Indexing andChineseRetrieval
Bibliography♦ Cataloging andClassification♦ Research Methods
and Thesis Writing♦ Data Structures♦
Data Structures(S)♦ Bibliography♦ Automatic
Indexing and♦ Knowledge
Abstracting
Management♦ AutomaticClassification andIndexing♦ The Study ofWestern
Bibliography♦ Introduction to
(M)
Media

LIS, FJU

ILS, TKU

IC, SHU

LIS, HCU♦ Information
Organization♦ Bibliography♦ Object-oriented
Programming♦ Cataloging andClassification♦ Indexing and
Abstracting♦ Chinese
Bibliography♦ Knowledge
Organization♦ Bibliography♦ Data Structures♦ Issues ofCataloging andClassification♦ The Study ofChineseBibliography♦ Cataloging andClassification♦ Indexing and
Abstracting♦ Special topic of
information
value-added andservice♦ Knowledge
management♦ Introduction todigital media♦ Indexing and
Abstracting♦ Introduction toMedia(S) ♦ Archival
Management♦ Archival
Management♦ Archival
Management♦ Information
Storage andRetrieval(M) ♦ Information
Retrieval♦ Library
Automation♦ Indexing andRetrieval♦ Database Retrieval ♦ Library
Automation♦ Library
Information
SystemUse

Interpretation

RetrievalStorageOrganization

LIS, NTU♦ Information♦ Information needs ♦ Information(S) ♦ Information
Seeking Behavior
Storage andSeeking Behavior
and Seeking
RetrievalBehavior♦ Computer
Application in
Library♦ Reader Services♦ Library♦ Reference(M) ♦ Interpersonal
Management
Services
Communication♦ Libraryand Reader
Management♦ Library
ServicesManagement♦ Reference
Services♦ LibraryManagement♦ Information♦ Library Media(S)
Centers andServices
Services♦ Cognitive
Psychology♦ Statistics(M) ♦ Library Statistics ♦ Information
Psychology♦ Archival
management♦ Introduction to
Media♦ Information
Storage andRetrieval♦ Archival
Management♦ Information
Storage andRetrieval♦ Internet Resources
Retrieval &Application♦ Library
Automation andInformation
System♦ Information♦ Information
Seeking Behavior
Seeking Behavior♦ Introduction to
information
services♦ Introduction to
Information
Retrieval♦ Library
Automation♦ Reader Services
and Reference
Services♦ Selected Readings
on Library Science♦ LibraryManagement♦ Information♦ Library Statistics♦ Information needs ♦ Systems Analysis ♦ Information(S) ♦ Information
Psychology
Seeking Behaviors ♦ System Analysis
Psychology
and Seeking♦ Information
Behavior
Seeking Behavior ♦ Library Operation♦ Library Marketing♦ Library Marketing
Evaluation♦ Cognitive♦ Information♦ Information
Psychology
Seeking Behavior
Seeking Behavior−25−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

management
curriculum
September 2002.

Students who possess the professional knowledge
and ability of Library & Information Science notmerely suit to work in the substantial library but also
contribute to more other working places, such as
information developing center, media center, special
library, knowledge management department, and otherbusiness units. We found that the Taiwan’s LIS
education have recognized these fast changes of outerworld, tried to modify the mandatory and selective
courses of the degree program, and combined the LIS
with other academic domains to develop different kindsof curriculum programs to enlarge the LIS application.
They include:
1. As mentioned above, NTU-LIS, NTU-BA,
NTU-IM, and NTU-CSIE have proposed a“knowledge
management
curriculum
program,” and begun to recruit students in
September 2001.
2. Because The Department of Library andInformation Science of Shih Hsin University(SHU-LIS) is under the College of Journalism
and Communications, it was renamed to
Department
ofInformation&
Communications (SHU-IC) in 2001.
3. FJU-LIS has combined with the Department ofChinese (FJU-CH), the Department of History(FJU-HIS), and the Department of Philosophy(FJU-PHI) to open the “Chinese ancient books

program”

in

4. Degree Program of Electrical Engineering andComputer Science of National Chiao Tung
University was opened on-job master programof “Digital Library” in September 2002.
5. Prof. Hsueh-hua Chen has invited ten
professors of seven universities to meet
together planning the “Digital Librarycurriculum Program” that is sponsored by
Ministry of Education Advisory Office. In
September 2006, this curriculum program will
begin to recruit students in six universities.

4. Conclusion
As reviewing the undergraduate courses provided
by the six universities, we found that the mandatory
courses were similar, and the opened selective courses
were limited to the teachers’ professional specialty. In
addition to the SHU that has transformed to
information & communications, each department has
no significant characteristics. The Taiwan’s LIS
education should rethink its goal, focus the target
market, and plan more competitive programs for the
students.

−26−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The New Directions for LIS Education in Korea at the Age of
the Networked Knowledge Society
Kim, Sung Hyuk
Professor
Department of Library and Information Science, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea
ksh@sookmyung.ac.kr

1. Introduction
Fifty years have passed since the Department ofLibrary Science was established for the first time in
Korea by the US Education Missionary of Peabody at
Yonsei University. During the last fifty years, thelibrary science education has changed dramatically interms of quantity and quality. Quantity indicates thenumber of the departments of Library and Information
Science (LIS), the number of students, the number oflibrarians, and the number of Master and Ph.D
programs, all of which have increased at an extremely
rapid rate. Quality implies the adjustment of term
‘Library Science’ to ‘Library and Information Science’and the change of the curriculum and education of LIS
to adapt in this age of distributed intelligence. This
paper will present an analysis of the current status of
LIS education and suggest future directions for LIS
education in Korea at the age of the networked
knowledge society.

2. Analysis of the current status of LIS
education
As of the year 2006, there are thirty two LIS
departments in universities and seven LIS departments
in junior colleges in Korea. Twenty four LIS
departments have the master program while eleven LIS
departments have the Ph. D program, and sixteen LIS
departments have the master program for librarian
education (for school libraries) in graduate schools of
Education among 32 departments. It is significant toreview in which colleges the LIS department has been
included within a university. Originally, the LIS
department was included in the college of humanities,
then moved to the college of social science, andsubsequently to the college of information science
within the last 10 years in order to adapt to the era ofdigital environment. This shows that LIS education in
Korea has been greatly affected by information andcommunication technology (ICT), and consequently it
has raised issues on which area of study LIS belongs to.
However, most professors in the LIS department in
Korea do not have technology-oriented educational
background but a humanity-oriented educational
background.
Let us analyze the curriculum in terms of the LIS
major study. The LIS curriculum has changed anddeveloped continuously to reflect ICT and distributed
intelligence. Since 1995, university education system in
Korea has transformed from a department-oriented
system to a division-oriented system (grouping related
departments as a division). It indicates that if any
student took 36 credit hours (12 courses) in the LIS
department, he or she can receive a B.A. degree in LIS
studies.
The LIS curriculum can be divided into thefollowing groups: information organization, reference
service, library administration and management,
information science, bibliography, and archive. These
groups reflect various fields of LIS such as libraryscience, information science, bibliography, and archive.
As ICT has come to enable technology in the age of
networked knowledge society, the number of reference
service and information science related courses has
increased, but the number of courses in other areas
decreased gradually. It demonstrates that information
science related courses, such as programming language,
Internet information processing, information network,
information retrieval, data base management system,
library automation, and digital library became moresignificant than other courses; this trend will continue
in the future to keep up with the changing roles oflibrarians in the age of networked knowledge society.
Archive related courses such as government document,archive management, preservation and maintenance,archive evaluation, and information media have also
appeared since the Korean government made the law of
pubic document management in 1999.
We have realized that the current LIS education in
Korea is in crisis in terms of ICT and of the identity and−27−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

deficiency of professors who specialized in ICT.
Moreover, our curriculums are still concentrating onlibrary-oriented courses, and the library-related
occupations are still one of the major job markets in
Korea. Therefore, there is a great need for developing a
new model of LIS education in Korea towards the
direction of becoming competent in digital content
processing technology which will maximize practicaluse of technology at this current age of distributed
intelligence.

3. New directions for LIS education in Korea
The target materials to be studied in the LIS
education are data, information, and knowledge. As thedefinition and difference between the terms are notclear, we often use these terms interchangeably.
Theoretically, data can be obtained and measured fromobservations or experiments while information can beacquired through analysis of the data, and knowledge
can be extracted through understanding of theinformation. As data, information and knowledge
increase exponentially, it is impossible to handle andprocess these materials manually. Therefore, the new
direction for LIS education in Korea is to focus on theautomatic processing of data, information andknowledge. The automatic processing means that amachine or an agent can extract meanings of contents,
classify them into semantically related topics, browse
and display the retrieved results by semantic
relationship on query. Hence, automatic processing isvery closely related to semantic technologies such as
semantic web, OWL and RDF, ontologies, web services,
data integration, semantic modeling, knowledge capture,
ontology engineering, semantic brokers, and so on.
WWW is one type of digital libraries, and informationon the Web is not for machines but rather for humans.
This is the reason why Sir Tim Berners-Lee has
proposed the Semantic Web, and W3C is developing
various standards related to semantic processing on theWeb, such as RDF, RDF(S), OWL , and SWRL.
In our time of distributed intelligence, it is essential
to process the materials in automatic methods. The
machines or agents should understand the semantics
including syntax and structure of these materials. As thetarget materials are highly distributed andheterogeneous on Internet, Intranets or libraries and onother media, the integration of the materials still
remains as a barrier to be overcome in the near future.
We have to consider how to solve this barrier in the
curriculum of the new LIS education system.
To solve semantic problems and to integrate
distributed and heterogeneous digital contents, it isnecessary to design information architecture to process

by machine. It is a similar notion as in architecture asarchitects make preliminary drawings and design
proposals to build bridges, houses, and other types ofbuilding. LIS curriculum should include semantic
processing related courses such as technology of
information structuring, information modeling,
semantic web technology and ontology, as well as theinformation integration related courses such as
information reasoning, metadata and XML technology,
and knowledge representation and visualization.
When LIS students graduate from universities, theyreceive the Certification of Librarian by the law in
Korea. The certification is necessary for job
qualification in all the libraries in Korea. Consequently,
the library-oriented courses, such as cataloging andclassification, reference services, bibliography, libraryadministration and management, are also significant inorder to receive the certification. Furthermore, thepreservation and archive related courses must be
reflected in the LIS curriculum because these are thenew emerging fields of study in this present era of
networked knowledge society. It is important toconsider how we can balance these emerging fields inthe LIS curriculum.
Eventually in the future, data, information andknowledge will be converged into digital contents, andthese digital contents will be used at any time, any
place and by any device. Ubiquitous society, pervasive
computing and ambient culture will be within oursights. Therefore, professors and students in the LIS
department need to take charge of these fast changing
information and environments, concentrating on how
the LIS education and curriculum can follow and reflect
these changes as the new directions for the LIS
education.

4. Conclusion
As mentioned before, we are in the age ofdistributed intelligence or networked knowledge society.
Most of data, information and knowledge are born
digitally or through printed materials converted into
digital form. These resources need to be transformedfromhuman-readable
digitalresourcestomachine-understandable and machine-processable
digital resources for automatic processing. Therefore,
integration and interoperability between heterogeneous
information need to go across systems, media, andcommunities of interest. Therefore, the LIS educationand curriculum is obliged to reflect the demand forautomatic processing of digital resources.
As physical boundaries between information media
and various nations are no longer significant in the
future, suitable international collaborations in the LIS−28−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

education will be a vital means for the new directionsof LIS education. For this reason, I would like topropose an organization that incorporates LIS
departments in the Asia-Pacific and that promotes
collaboration, communication and various types of
exchange in experiences, curriculum, students andprofessors.

References
Mills Davis, “Semantic Wave 2006, Part-1: Executive
Guide to Billion Dollar Markets”, A Project10X Special
Report, January 2006, www. Project10x.com.
T. Berners-Lee, J. Hendler, and O. Lassila, “TheSemantic Web”, Scientific American, 2001.
University Bulletins of LIS Department, 2005

−29−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Developments in Information Science Education
at the School of Communication of Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Schubert Foo
Associate Dean and Professor
Division of Information Studies, School of Communication and Information
Nanyang Technological University, 31 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637718
assfoo@ntu.edu.sg
This paper provides an update of information science education at Nanyang Technological University through its
Master of Science programme in Information Studies (IS). The program, which started in 1993, has undergone four
curriculum revisions to keep it abreast with the demands of IS which is facing constant changes as a result of rapid
evolution of Internet and multimedia technologies, pervasive and exponential growth and use of digital informationon the Web, and the demands to equip IS graduates with increasingly diverse interdisciplinary skills to function
effectively in today’s information landscape. The paper also outlines typical challenges faced and explores some ideas
and trends that are likely to prevail in IS education in a networked information society of today and the future.

INTRODUCTION
Established in 1993, the Division of Information
Studies (hereafter referred to as the “Division”) has
seen the substantive growth from a modest pioneer
intake of 22 students in 1993 for its flagship part time
Master of Science programme in Information Studies(MSc(IS)) to an annual intake of around 215 full timeand part time students in her current offering of three
Master of Science programmes in Information Studies,
Knowledge Management (MSc(KM) - introduced in2002), and Information Systems (MSIS - introduced in2005).
The Division originated from the School of Applied
Science that was established in 1998. The School was
subsequently re-organized into two schools with theDivision being part of the new School of Computer
Engineering in 2000. The Division was subsequently
incorporated into the School of Communication Studies
in 2001 as part of a university restructuring exercise.
The School subsequently changed its name to the
School of Communication and Information in 2002.
The original programme in 1993 is part of aconcerted effort to spearhead the Singapore economy
into the information age and is therefore a part of the"manpower infrastructure" development programme totransform Singapore into an Intelligent Island. The
programme complements the last 15-year emphasis on
the technological infrastructure in Singapore byconcentrating on the information content and its

organisation, storage and retrieval, and the delivery andmanagement of user-oriented information products,
systems and services. The 1993 curriculum attempted
to provide a generic degree enabling graduates to workin a wide range of information intensive environments
but more specifically in a library environment, albeit afast changing library environment. Specifically, it was
the de-facto programme to prepare professional
librarians for the transformation of the Singapore
library system through the formation of a new statutory
board, National Library Board of Singapore as outlinedin the Library 2000 Report (1994). Since the inceptionof the programme, an estimated total of 750 MSc(IS)graduates have been trained.
The evolving information and knowledge-based
economy, with an increasing emphasis on the importantroles of information and knowledge, resulted in asituation of constant change that posed a significant
challenge to educators to ensure that the curriculum andtraining is constantly reviewed, and kept abreast ofdevelopments and needs of the industry. In a span of adecade or so from 1993 to 2004, the information
studies (IS) curriculum at Nanyang Technological
University (NTU) has undergone four revisions,
including a significant one in 2000.
This paper outlines the key developments andchanges in the IS curriculum from its conception todate, identifies some challenges faced and solutions
adopted by the Division, and finally, trends andpossibilities for the future.

−30−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INFORMATIONS STUDIES CURRICULUM:
1994 - 2006
Key Curriculum Developments
Table 1 shows a summary of the evolution of the IS
curriculum since its introduction in 1993. Appendices 1
to 5 outline the curriculum structure over the years. As
can be seen, the curriculum has constantly evolved tomeet the changing environment and needs of industry.
Commencing from a more structured and highlyprescribed 6 core and 2 elective subjects plus
dissertation in the beginning, the first curriculum
revision in 1998 introduced flexibility by changing thismix to 4 core and 4 elective subjects plus dissertation.
The 2000 revision was a major one that changed theexisting two-tier structure into a three-tier structure offoundation, basic competency and specialized subjects,
and the introduction of an additional subject as a newrequirement. With an expanded range of revised andnew subjects, areas of concentration with specialization
were also introduced to help streamline students into
areas of different vocation where they can opt to select.
This is to ensure that students in these areas are given acollective mix of related subjects to enable them tofunction effectively upon graduation in their respective
vocations. Technology and its application were also
further integrated in all the subjects in the curriculum. It
is noted that some of these areas of concentrations are
stand-alone Masters programmes in other parts of theworld. The small demand of placements in Singapore
and the limited manpower resources in the Divisionnecessitate this form of offering at that point in time,
whilst attempting to serve the various informationindustries.
The subsequent 2002 revision attempted to better
streamline the areas of concentrations to better focus
and serve the needs of these industries that are now
better identified and cultivated.

Table 1. Evolution of NTU MSc(IS) Curriculum since 1994
Year
1994

1998

Key Features•
Two tier structure with 6 core subjects
and 2 elective subjects (chosen from a listof elective subjects) plus Dissertation•
Total number of Academic Units (AUs) =30 (equivalent to 30 credit hours)•
Two tier structure with 4 core subjects
and 4 elective subjects (chosen from a listof expanded elective subjects) plus
Dissertation•
Total number of AUs = 30 (unchanged)

Remarks¾ Original curriculum designed to primarily train
library professionals for Singapore¾ Majority of subjects are prescribed with limited
choice of electives by students
¾

¾
¾

¾

2000

•

•

Three tier structure with 3 core subjects,
2 electives (Group A) and 4 electives(Group B) (chosen from a list of elective
subjects) plus Dissertation
Total number of AUs = 33 (increased by
3 AUs from 1998)

¾

¾

¾
¾

−31−

Revision of current subjects and introduction of
IT subjects and orientation to cater todevelopments in Internet (search engines) andWeb (hypertext) technologies.
Reduced core subject requirements and expanded
elective choices for students
Electives allow specialization in three major areasof (1) Information products and systems
development; (2) Information service
management; and (3) Knowledge management incorporate organizations.
More emphasis placed in the electronic
environment for information seeking and use(products and services)Significant revision to introduce a new 3 tierstructure of foundation subjects, basic
competency subjects and specialization subjects
Introduction of new policy to allow electives(Group B) to be chosen from other Masters
programmes at NTU.
Additional subject to keep abreast withinternational 33 credit hours for IS curricula.
Introduction of two major areas of concentration:
Information Management and Systems (wherestudents can specialize in Internet and multimedia

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2002

•

No change in curriculum structure or
AUs – maintenance of a three tierstructure with 3 core subjects, 2 electives(Group A) and 4 electives (Group B)(chosen from a list of elective subjects)
plus Dissertation, and 33 AUs.

¾
¾

¾

2004

•

•

¾

¾

¾

2005

2006

No change in curriculum structure butwith introduction of Coursework andDissertation option, and Coursework
Only option. For the latter, students doanother 2 electives (Group B) in lieu ofDissertation including a compulsory
subject Critical Inquiry in Information
Studies.
Total number of AUs remained at 33.

?

¾

¾

¾

−32−

based information systems, Information systems
and product development, Document and records
management, and Knowledge management), andLibrary and Information Services (wherestudents can specialize in Public libraries,
Academic libraries, School libraries and media
resources, and Corporate information services).
For each area and specialization, students are
guided with a choice of prescribed electives(Groups A and B).
Curriculum streamlined in terms of subject
offerings.
Revamped areas of concentration to provide
better focus and training. A total of five areas ofconcentration are offered: Archival informatics,
Information management, Information
systems, Library and information science(LIS), and School media resource management.
As before, for each area of concentration,
students are guided with a choice of prescribed
electives (Groups A and B).
The Division introduced a new part time MSc
programme in Knowledge Management (which
was spawned from the 1998 knowledge
management specialization). The MSc(KM)
program is also one of the pioneer programmes in
KM education in the world.
Minor revamp in subject offerings. A new subject
Professional Seminar is offered in place ofInformation Users & Society. A new subject“Critical Inquiry in Information Studies” isoffered to cater to the coursework only option.
No change to the five areas of concentration.

The Division introduced a new part time MSc
programme in Information Systems (MSIS which was spawned from the 1998 and 2002
information systems specialization). The program
is jointly offered with the School of Computer
Engineering, NTU.
The Division is working on the introduction of a
new undergraduate programme in Information
Studies in future
The Division intends to offer the full time
programme for both MSc(KM) and MSIS in thenear future.
Cross listing of subjects in the IS curriculum withother Masters curriculum (such as MSc(KM) andMSIS) to encourage students to broaden theirscope of learning and take subjects of relevanceto their needs across the university.

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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DIS's MSc Programmes: Number of Applicants and Places Offered
900
776

800

720

670

700

700

650

600
500

420

400

320

300

220

200
100

50 22

65 55

75 55

90 56 110 60

1993

1994

1995

1996

72

77

90

100

1998

1999
Year

2000

2001

215

166

147

156

2002

2003

2004

0

Note:

1997

2005

MSc(IS) offered since 1993. It is available in both part time and full time basis.
MSc(KM) introduced in 2002 on a part time basis
MSIS introduced in 2005 on a part time basis.
Figure 1. DIS MSc Programmes: Number of Applicants and Places Offered

Student Intakes and Growth
The intake for the MSc(IS) started with modest
rises in the formative years of the programme but
gathered momentum with the substantial growth from1998 to 2001 as shown in Figure 1. The highest number
of applications peaked in 2001 with 720 applicants
vying for the 100 places that were offered that year. It is
likely that the 2000 curriculum revision and active
marketing of it played an important contributory role inachieving this renewed interest in the programme. This
intake number of 100 for IS students was increased by
10% in 2002 and thereafter and capped at the new levelof around 110 subsequently, while the two new Masters
programmes in Knowledge Management andInformation Systems were introduced in 2002 and 2005
respectively. The Knowledge Managment programme
has an annual intake that average 45 part time students,
and the Information System programme started with afirst intake of 46 part time students. In the last NTU
academic year commencing in July 2005, there was a
total of 776 applicants, with 215 places being offered(114 for Information Studies, 55 for Knowledge
Management and 46 for Information Systems). There
are plans to introduce full time programmes forKnowledge Management and Information Systems in
the near future.

Some Challenges
Appended in this section are some challenges in IS
education noted over the years. They are by no means
exhaustive and some are probably similar andexperienced by other institutions as well.
Typical information science education departments
are small. This is also true of NTU. The Division
started in 1993 with 1 Masters programme, 6 full time
faculty, 2 support staff and 22 students. Now, it has 3
Masters programmes, an annual intake of 215 students,
and about 350 active students at any one time. This is a
result of the 3 Masters programmes that are offered ona two-year part time basis. This work is currently
managed by 13 full time faculty, 2 adjunct faculty,
around 10 part time lecturers on a semester basis, and 4
support staff, including a Graduate Programmes
Manager. Even with these numbers, it has always beena challenge to carefully plan the subject offerings every
semester and ensure that as many subjects arefeasibility offered according to the curriculum
structure.
The full time faculty workload is heavy, with eachfaculty typically teaching two subjects per semester.
Besides teaching, there is substantial work associatedwith dissertation supervision and faculty’s own−33−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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research. On top of that, faculty is often involved withinstitutional building activities (or administrative
duties) and other Division and School initiatives. The
appointment of adjunct faculty and part time lecturers
were both strategic and necessary. Such staff provided
much of the industrial experience to make the subjects
more relevant and form part of the manpower resource
management to support the programmes. They would
have a minimum of a Masters degree and worked forseveral years in the relevant area prior to being
appointed. They may also be involved withco-supervision of students’ dissertations with full time
faculty. Full time faculty acts as “buddies” to these staff
when they first join the Division, and would co-teachwith them for at least one semester before they manage
the classes on their own.
Likewise, the introduction of the coursework-only
option in the 2004 revision is strategic and aligns withsome other existing IS programs. Students are now able
to opt for this option and replace Dissertation (Project)with two other subjects. One of these subjects, namely,“Critical Inquiry in Information Studies”, iscompulsory and the other can be chosen from the list ofelectives. This subject can be thought of as a variationof the Dissertation (Project) but with more instructional
and time structure, and done in a group. In this subject,
students are given an overview of how to design andconduct a simple research study (project) for practicalapplication on a selected topic in the areas of
information services and systems. It covers study
design, preparation of proposals, intellectual property
and ethics. Students are introduced to the main types ofresearch methods, with a more in-depth examination ofa few useful methods, to address information
service/system problems. The introduction of thisoption has provided more flexibility to students, better
matches their academic ability and interests, and at thesame time, helped reduce faculty dissertation
supervision workload.
Learning with the aid of new technology has
brought about another challenge. Many educational
institutions are using education tools in the form of
e-learning in course delivery. Kumar (2004) argued thatonline teaching and learning would become more
effective through incorporating multimodality incontent delivery which involves presentation of
information in different modes of representation (e.g.
visual, textual, audio). Multimodal presentations are
known to stimulate and utilize the whole human brain(Thomas, Kellogg & Erickson, 2001) allowing more
opportunities for erudition, creativity and thegeneration of ideas. We now see a trend fromlecturer-centeredtostudent-centeredlearning
approaches (Stansfield, McLellan & Connolly, 2004).

With the lecturer’s role becoming that of a facilitator in
the learning process, students actively participate andcontribute to their own learning (Lee & Tan, 2004). As
a result, students view things differently, more criticallyand creatively (Pan, 1999). The characteristics andattributes of online learning make it an ideal learningmode that can complement traditional learning modes.
In this respect, the Division has been using NTU’s
Blackboard e-education environment since its
introduction in 2000 to support delivery andmanagement of courses. In a short span of time of 4 to
5 years since its introduction, NTU has witnessed
quantum growth in the adoption of e-learning with over
90% of the courses heavily using it (Lee & Tan, 2004).
Known
asedveNTUre,
thiscustomized
environment is used by faculty to allow dynamic
content to be delivered digitally through the University
wired and wireless networks to all students anytime,
anywhere on a variety of devices. It complements the
traditional lectures through several e-learning tools
including discussion forums for collaborativeknowledge sharing, personalized learning, dynamic
content delivery and other automated teaching tools,
including a plug-in tool to detect plagiarism in students’work. As such, a multimodal approach, comprising
face-to-face instruction and the use of e-learning tools
for content delivery and collaboration, has been
adopted for teaching courses in the IS curriculum. Thishas posed a challenge to less IT savvy faculty resulting
in spectrum of differing adoption time and facilities
offered by the new environment. Nonetheless, thesesystems are constantly being improved and made moreuser-friendly so that we can expect the learning time tobe reduced, and the tool to be used more productively
and effectively to enhance the educational experienceand learning by students.
Differing class sizes continue to pose a challenge tofaculty resource management and teaching assignments.
Due to the structure of the curriculum that encompasses
both core and elective subjects, class sizes can range
from the whole cohort of 110 students for core subjects
to as few as 10 students or lower for specialized
elective subjects. In the academic year of 2005, theDivision offered a total of 34 subjects across two
different semesters. This number of subjects excludes
those offered in the Knowledge Management andInformation Systems programmes. While small classes
are typically cancelled if they fall below a thresholdvalue, some of these are still conducted on an exception
basis since these are still needed to support the key
courses in the various areas of concentrations. A
solution that the Division is currently exploring toovercome this challenge is to form strategic alliancesand partnerships with other IS educational institutions−34−

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to support the conduct of small classes through the useof online learning or short term faculty exchanges. The
earlier is probably more practical for courses that are
non-laboratory based.

TRENDS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIESStudents and industries will continue to expect anddemand more. Existing technologies will continue to
evolve and improve and new technologies will emergethat have the potential to change the education
landscape further. In such a climate of constant change,
IS educators are in for an exciting future. We sharesome ideas in this section and envisage a number ofpossibilities.
An even more broad-based interdisciplinary
programme will be demanded in future. Market forces
will dictate flexibility to allow students (our customers)
to tailor a curriculum of their choice to meet their needs,
so that the traditional structured curriculum willsubsequently have to co-exist with a student
customized one. At a recent strategic retreat of the
National Library Board of Singapore (in which theauthor is a Board Member), it became clear that there
will be future demands for hybrid digital librarians who
have skills that covers areas of library and information
science, digital media and technologies, information
systems and knowledge management. An opportunity
presents itself to the Division to offer a new generic
Master of Science programme in Information wherestudents can customize their curriculum from theexisting 3 Masters programmes that are currently now
on offer.
A networked information society presents natural
opportunities for virtual collaboration, and opens up
many avenues of potential cooperation for educational
institutions to leverage on individual strengths, and to
make collective resources available for students across
such collaborative possibilities. The Division is alreadyworking with a number of partner institutions in UnitedStates, New Zealand, Mauritius and Thailand to explore
avenues of cooperation in online learning, joint degree
programs and other forms of educational training andexchanges. As with the formation of consortia among
the library communities, consortia among universities
and IS schools will emerge and grow. A current
example of such a collaborative network is Universitas
21. Established in 1997, Universitas 21 currently has 18
member universities from 10 countries. Its purpose is to“acilitate collaboration and cooperation between these
universities and to create entrepreneurial opportunities
for them on a scale that none of them would be able toachieve operating independently or through traditional
bilateral alliances” (http://www.universitas21.com/).

Among its many objectives, three are of particular
relevance to the context of this paper. First is thefacilitation of a framework within which the transfer of
information, good practice and expertise contributes toprogrammes of institutional self-improvement. Second
is the encouragement of individual member universities
to internationalise the student experience andfacilitation of collaborative efforts to support thisaspiration. Third is in the form of collaboration inleading global e-learning operations.
Another area of development to monitor andengage in is the evolution of new e-learning initiatives.
In NTU itself, new features are constantly being
introduced to ‘humanize’ edveNTUre by making thee-learning more interesting, interactive and engaging
for the students. Here, the goal is to add more humanelements for effective “high tech – high touch” deliveryof online contents (Lee, Tan & Goh, 2005). Some of therecent e-learning initiatives introduced by the NTU
include the following (Majid, Foo & Chaudhry, 2005):−35−

o Distance Education: NTU is seriously considering
implementing distance education for certain
academic programmes. It currently houses a highlyinteractive state-of-the-art distance learning facility
known as the Smart Classroom with facilities forhigh-end video conferencing and a suite ofcollaborative tools. This facility has beensuccessfully used in NTU to support the distancelearning
SMA(Singapore-MIT
Alliance)
programme in conjunction with the National
University of Singapore (NUS) and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (refer
to http://web.mit.edu/SMA/ for more information).
The Division is currently exploring with the
University of Mauritius and other universities in the
Asia-Pacific region to offer selected courses in the
Masters program via its distance education facilities.
While distance learning is nothing new but anestablished and accepted mode of learning in many
countries, it is still at the infancy stage in Singapore
due to its small land area that have resulted in
traditional face-to-face instruction in almost all
institutions.
o PresseNTUr: This facility allows faculty tointerlace a video presentation and synchronize itwith a set of presentation slides. It enables faculty
to quickly and easily create their teaching contents
either by using a talking head or their own facethrough using a digital camera. The end result is aninteractive digital media product. The utilization of
the product is entirely in the control of students
who can vary the pace and replay sections so as toNew Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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tailor to their own learning preferences and abilities.
Another advantage of this system is the live
delivery of presentations onto PDAs which students
can view on the campus or anywhere through theInternet.
o Breeze: This Macromedia content creation tool
allows converting PowerPoint slides into a low
bandwidth format of the Macromedia Flashanimation. It also allows voice narration to besynchronized with the PowerPoint slide delivery.
o Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs): The Centre
for Educational Development in NTU in
collaboration with the School of Communication
and Information is in the process of implementing ataxonomy system aimed at building a better course
management system. This system will enable staff
to deposit learning objects in a repository organized
to facilitate use and reuse for constructing lessons,presentations, and other documents. This system is
expected to improve the use, reuse, and profuse oflearning objects. Research is also being actively
pursued by the Division’s faculty in this researcharea of RLOs. It is currently developing a prototype
reusable learning objects management system
known as ReLOMS to address the problem ofusability and reusability of learning objects ine-learning systems (Theng et. al., 2006).

CONCLUSIONS
An update of IS education at the School ofCommunication and Information is given in terms ofcurriculum revisions, challenges faced, trends andpossibilities for the future. Improvements andinnovations in technologies, industry needs and moresophisticated and demanding students’ and employers’
expectations will no doubt keep IS educators on theirtoes, propelling them to explore new ventures andcreate new opportunities and solutions to this graduallyshrinking networked world. The key to continued
success hinges on being proactive, and constantly
adapting, collaborating and innovating.

References
Kumar, M. (2004). A critical discourse in multimedia
design: A pedagogical perspective to creating engaging
online courseware. E-journal of Instructional Scienceand Technology, 7(2). Available online at
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol7_no2/F

ullPapers/CriticalDisc_MM.htm
Lee, C.S. & Tan, T.H. (2004). Implementing andsupporting campus wide e-learning services.
Unpublished paper. Singapore: Centre of Information
Technology Services, Nanyang Technological
University.
Lee, C.S., Tan, T.H., & Goh, W.S. (2005). The next
generation of e-learning: Strategies for media rich
online teaching and engaged leaning. Unpublishedpaper. Singapore: Centre of Information Technology
Services, Nanyang Technological University.
Library 2000: Investing in a learning nation. (1994).
Report of the Library 2000 Review Committee.
Singapore: SNP Publishers Pte Ltd. Available online at:
http://www.nlb.gov.sg/CPMS.portal?_nfpb=true&_page
Label=Library2010#Library2000
Majid, S., Foo, S., & Chaudhry, A.S. (2005).
Leveraging E-learning system for effective teaching of
knowledge management. Proc. International
Conference on Open and Online Learning (ICOOL),
Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa, July 5-7.
Pan, D. (1999). Helping students learn in the IT age.
CDTL Brief, 2(2): 1-2. Singapore: National Universityof Singapore, Centre for Development of Teaching and
Learning.
Stansfield, M., McLellan, E., & Connolly, T. (2004).
Enhancing student performance in online learning andtraditional face-to-face class delivery. Journal of
Information Technology Education, 3(2004), 173-188.
Available online at
http://jite.org/documents/Vol3/v3p173-188-037.pdf
Theng, Y.L., Suputra, D., Lek, L.K., Halim, A., Goh, D.,
Foo, S., Chaudhry, A., Khoo, C., Na. J.C., Tan, M., &Wu, P. (2006). ReLOMS : Designing for effective use
and reuse of learning objects for e-learning systems. To
appear in Proc. Asia-Pacific Conference on Library &Information Education and Practice (A-LIEP),
Singapore, April, 3-6.
Thomas, J. C., Kellogg, W. A., & Erickson, T. (2001).
The knowledge management puzzle: Human and social
factors in knowledge management. International
Business Machines (IBM) Systems Journal, 40(4),863-884. Available online at
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/thomas.pdf−36−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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Discerning the Future of Information Science Education ThroughCommunity Networking Research
Don Schauder, Graeme Johanson* and Kirsty WIlliamson
Faculty of Information Technology
Monash University, Australia* Speaker (Director, Centre for Community Networking Research)

Background and aim

Research projects analysed

The presentation begins with an overview oflibrary and information studies education in Australia
as reflected in accreditation processes for libraryschools by the Australian Library and Information
Association – ALIA (http://www.alia.org.au/education).
It then considers a range of community-oriented
research projects based at one of Australia’s
university-based information science schools, that ofMonash University, to discern emerging trends that
may have relevance to the future of LIS education, andsuggest what implications these may have for the
ALIA and similar bodies of knowledge for LIS
professional education, and the curricula that embody
these.
The research projects cited have been conducted inconjunction with a range of partners by two researchgroups at Monash University:

Cluster 1: Collaborative technologies and e-research.
Two major, linked research and development projects
based at Monash University are the focus of this theme.
The ARROW project (Australian Research
Repositories Online to the World) identifies and tests‘software or solutions to support best practiceinstitutional digital repositories comprising e-prints,
digitalthesesandelectronic
publishing’(http://arrow.edu.au). The closely related DART
project (Dataset Acquisition Accessability &Annotation e-Research Technologies) deals with the
integration of digital repository technology into the
day-to-day practice of research communities – local or
global - helping them create, capture, organize, use
and share often vast quantities research data
(http://www.dart.edu.au).

••

Centre for Community Networking Research CCNR (www.ccnr.net), andInformation and Telecommunication Needs
Research Group - ITNR
(www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/itnr).

‘Communities’ as conceptualised in the work of
CCNR and ITNR include local and virtual
communities, communities of knowledge and memory,and communities of practice. Research projects
referenced in the paper fall into the following clusters:••••

Collaborative technologies and e-researchUser-centred design and the knowledgecommons
Social network analysis and community-basedorganizations
Community knowledge, civil society ande-democracy.

Cluster 2: User-centred design and the knowledgecommons. Under consideration in this cluster of
research projects are how the concepts of user-centred
design and the knowledge commons affect futureplanning for libraries, museums and publicbroadcasters, and the communities they serve. For the
library sector specific studies deal with challenges for
public libraries presented by the aging the ‘baby
boomer’ generation of public library users; and therepositioning of tertiary education libraries as more
active elements in the public knowledge commons.
Some of this work includes comparative study ofAustralia and Singapore.
Cluster3:Socialnetwork
analysis
andcommunity-based organizations. In concert with theinternational Community Informatics Research
Network – CIRN (http://www.ciresearch.net), which
Monash University helped to found, there is a strong
focus on the uptake of information technology by local
communities. This cluster of projects includes:−37−

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Neighbourhood Houses (local venues for informal
education and personal support); rural community
based organisations (comparison of Australia and
Italy), and collaboration between small business,
community-based organisations, local government,
and universities for ICT capacity building inouter-suburban regions.
Cluster 4: Community knowledge, civil society ande-democracy. This cluster of research projects has
considerable cross-over with the previous three in thatthey focus on the creation and sharing of knowledge
and memory by communities as an essential
foundation of personal and civic freedom. Much ofthis work, including two national consultations with
Australian civil society, has been undertaken as input
to the successive UN/ITU World Summits on the
Information Society and to the development ofAustralian government policy on the information
economy. Also included here are projects in e-culture:
specifically the ‘Trust and Technology’ project dealing
with Australian Indigenous Oral Knowledge in relation
to archival institutions, and the development of
VICNET, the civic Network of the state of Victoria.
Other projects in this cluster relate to the developmentof Vietnam as a knowledge economy; domain-naming
and power relations in Internet governance; andinternational e-commerce dispute resolution.

integrate with the entire continuum of knowledge
creation, sharing and use by communities of all kinds;and how knowledge institutions can engage with
communities in a continuing, sustainable cycle ofuser-centred service design and re-design.
Within this broad concern about the nature andextent of engagement by libraries and other knowledge
institutions, some vital topics insistently present
themselves. These suggest a checklist against which
official LIS statements on body of knowledge andrecommended curriculum content, such as that of
ALIA, can be assessed. These include:
•

•

•

•

•

Resulting checklist for information sciencecurricula•

In comparing major issues that arise from suchresearch with the current ALIA LIS body ofknowledge, it is clear that many long-standing featuresof LIS education remain highly relevant. The major
frontier appears to be in how far and in what ways
libraries and other knowledge institutions, and theprofessionals who staff them, can more closely

•
•
•
•

−38−

The changing nature of the social contract as it
impacts on, and is influenced by, information,
ICTs and intellectual property
The phenomena of complexity andinterdependence as major issues in continuous
user-centric service design
The ‘ever evolving, ever mutating’inter-relationship between action by stakeholdersof knowledge institutions (notably including
their professional staff) and the social structures
which both support and constrain such action
The engagement of knowledge institutions withthe whole process of information andinformation creation, organisation and sharing,
not just acquisition and distribution.
The power inherent in the making and breakingof categories: metadata and the phenomenon of‘Ama-Google’
The bases for sustainability in informationenterprises
The relationship between information and profit
The relationship between information andlearning
The grail of ‘seamlessness’
Information practice, personal empowerment
and social justice locally and globally.

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
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Changing Trends in Educating the Library and Information
Professionals in Thailand
Kulthida Tuamsuk
Associate Professor and Vice President for Acedemic and International Affairs
Information and Communication Program
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand

Professional education in library and information science in Thailand attracted a great deal of attention in the last
decades and continues to do so even today. The aim of this paper is to present a historical perspectives on thechanging trends regarding the education of library and information professional in Thailand. In addition, the paper
will describe issues library and information schools in Thailand must address in order to prepare the library andinformation professionals to meet the continuous changes in the information world.

Historical Overview
Library and information science education in
Thailand can be traced to 1951 when the first formal
library training program, a Diploma in Library Science
was introduced at Chulalongkorn University supportedby the Fulbright Foundation. Later, a Bachelor degreeof Arts in Library Science was offered in 1959
(Attakorn&
Nandhivajrin,
1988).
Between1970s-1980s, due to the national policy on the
expansion of public libraries at provincial and districtlevels, as well as the development of libraries insecondary and elementary schools to support teaching
and learning, there was a great demand for libraryeducation in the country. The bachelor degree in libraryscience had become an entry degree level of the library
profession. Many universities, began to offer thebachelor degree program in library science, including
Thammasat University (1964), Chiang Mai University(1967), Khon Kaen University (1970), Ramkhamhaeng
University (1971), Prince of Songkhla University(1974), Slipakorn University (1982), Srinagarindwirot
University (1983), and Mahasarakham University(1983) (Tantavirat, 1996).
In 1964, the first Master’s degree program in
Library Science was offered at Chulalongkorn
University, followed by Srinagarindwirot University
offered in 1967 and Mahasarakham University offeredin 1982. In 1986, the first Master’s degree program in
Library and Information Science was offered at
Thammasat University. The term “information” hasbeen widely accepted and included in the names of the
programs, both bachelor and master’s programs in theprofessional field since then. The universities thatoffered the master’s program in library and information

science included Prince of Songkhla University (1991),
Ramkhamhaeng University (1992), Khon Kaen
University (1994), and Chiang Mai University (1995)(Surasieng & Tuamsuk, 2002).
The undergraduate programs emphasized on
producing librarian practitioners for various types oflibraries. Most libraries in Thailand usually had one
professional librarian with undergraduate degree.
Therefore the graduates were trained in both theoreticaland practical works in all library functions. Courses
covered such the familiar library traditional subjects ascollection development, cataloging and classification,reference services, and library management. For the
master’s programs, the objective was to provide further
education for professional librarians. The courses
therefore were designed for those who already had
library backgrounds. The course subjects mainly in linewith library works but put some advancements oremphasized in more specific areas such as children
library services, public library, science information
resources and services, serial management, etc. The
knowledge and skills in management and research wereagreed the essential competencies for those who
finished master’s degree programs.

Current Trends
In the past five year has seen several changes inlibrary and information education in Thailand.
Although library educators claimed the development of
information technology was a major impact on changes
in library and information education, decreasing
enrollment presented another factor. Fewer students
perceive library and information science as an−39−

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economically attractive profession. Expected beginningsalaries balanced against the requirements in subject,language, and technical skills have prompted many
prospective candidates to enroll in other programs thatpromise them a greater return for their education
investments, such as information technology, businessadministration, and service industry areas. The numberof enrollments decreased from 50 to less than 40 per
year at Khon Kaen University. Only a few students
decided to undertake major in library and information
science at Chulalongkorn University, Thammasat
University and some other universities where thesystem allowed students to choose their majors in thesecond year of the undergraduate studies.
Weir (2000) said that, “one of the real difficulties
facing library schools today is image. The term
‘librarian’ connotes an antiquated understanding ofwhat we do and inadequately represents ourcapabilities.” This is probably also true in the case ofThailand. The studies of needs for continuing education,
as well as the expectations of employers on the libraryand information professionals reported some interesting
issues that caused changes in curriculum as follows(Manmart & Sinbuathong, 2003; Inban, Tuamsuk &Sarawanawong, 1999):
•

•

•

•

•

the increasing demands for continuing educationin library and information science of those who
employed in the private sectors, and most ofthem did not have library backgrounds;
an increasing number of library and information
degree holders who had jobs in the workplaces
other than libraries;
a decreasing number of students in library andinformation science programs preferred to workin the library;
the degree name with the term “information”
and/or “technology” in it would be more
attractive for potential students, and provide
better opportunities to get satisfactory jobs.
the students need to be equipped with knowledge
and skills of technology and its usefulness tosociety as a whole, and they should be able tokeep their knowledge and understanding ofintegrating technology and other forms of
information process to serve their clientele andto make decision or solve problems.

information management. The concept became widely
acceptable to most universities formulating curriculathat related to all the information professions. Many
courses in computer and information technology havebeen added and/or integrated into most curricula.
Example of technology-oriented courses are
information technology, information storage andretrieval, database management, digital libraries,
information services, and information systemdevelopment, etc. (Surasieng & Tuamsuk, 2002).
Due to the national policy on strengthening
research products in the country through doctoral study,
the Corporative Research Network (CRN) Project was
introduced by the commission of Higher Education,
Thailand. Khon Kaen University has been selected tobe the core university of the CRN in library andinformation science. Under this CRN Project, the studyof the needs for development of human resources inlibrary and information science at the doctoral degreelevel was conducted in 2002 (Tuamsuk, 2002). Then,the first and only PhD program in information studies
was opened at Khon Kaen University in 2003. This
PhD program is a multidisciplinary-based program.
Courses have designed so that the students withdifferent backgrounds will be able to conduct theirdoctoral research in information studies that are
applicable for their specialties and their future
academia. Research study areas are ranging frominformation management, knowledge management,
information
systemdevelopment,
technology
applications, and information in the contexts of socialand economical changes, etc.

The Future Challenges

At present there are 14 public universities that offered
the undergraduate program and 10 public universities
that offered the master’s program in library andinformation science. The names of the programs arevaried including library and information science,
information studies, information science, andInformation is becoming a critical factor for workand life in the twenty-first century. Everybody willneed skills to retrieve and manage information to getalong. Many will probably find the large quantity of
information overwhelming and seek education or
assistance in improving their information retrieval andmanagement skills. We have opportunity to mold our
future. Shall we take an active role in constructing it; orshall we let others chart the course for us?
When we look at the future of library andinformation science education the primary question
before us is, how will library schools prepare
themselves to meet those new challenges. In order tomeet these changes it is necessary that library schools
should look into their external and internal
environments. Library educators of the future musthave a good understanding of the coming situation of
the 21st century and beyond. Their students need to be−40−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

equipped with knowledge and skills of technology andits usefulness to society as a whole (Abdullahi, 200?).
Weir (2000) suggested that traditional library skills
still have a place but we must also seek out andencourage other characteristics and skills. These
include:1. Adaptability – Information professionals must
be able to cope with constant change
2. Creativity – resolving many changes will
require ingenuity and lateral thinking
3. Willingness to take risks – Not a characteristic
normally associated with librarians
4. Self-starters – Much of the responsibility for
self-improvement will fall to the individual
5. Project management skills and change
management skills – Both essential in today’senvironment
6. Interpersonal and communication skills –Librarians are the ‘human face’ of technology
for many people and, as we progress to be
managers, we need good people skills to help
both staff and clients adjust to the changes
facing them
7. Sense of humor – Last but not least, this is as
essential component of any jobs!

Attakorn, Krittiya; Nandhivajrin, Joy, M.L. (1998).

Tantavirat, Knid (1996). A status report on educationand training of library and information personnel in
Thailand. Lib Sci J (Chulalongkorn University) 16(2): 18-30.
Surasieng, Montatip; Tuamsuk, Kulthida (2002). A
curriculum analysis of the master of library andinformation science programs in Thailand. KKU Lib &Info Sci J 20 (2): 15-31.
Weir, Aileen (2000). The information professional of
the future: what skills will be needed and how will
they be acquired?
http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2000/proceedings, lastmodified 9 Nov. 2000.
Manmart, Lampang; Sinbuathong, Piyapak (2003). The
needs for continuing education at master degree level of
Library and Information Science. KKU Lib & Info Sci
J 21 (3): 76-87.

Abdullahi (200?) also suggested the issue concerning
the humanistic skill. Information professionals of the
future should be able to promote effective humanrelations through information to individuals, groups,
organizations, and different people. As more and moresociety will be dominated by the use of technology,
library students must have the education and skills ofworking with different people of diverse backgroundand be sensitive to their needs.

References“Education for librarianship.” In Encyclopedia ofLibrary and Information Science, Vol.43. New York:
Marcel Dekker. pp. 279-300 (1988).

Inban, Pimpa; Tuamsuk, Kulthida; Sarawanawong,
Jutharat (1999). Job characteristics and competencies of
personnel engaging in information services according
to the opinions of the administrators of government andprivate organizations. KKU Lib & Info Sci J 17 (3):169-8.
Tuamsuk, Kulthida (2002). The needs for developmentof human resources in library and information scienceat the doctoral degree level in Thailand. KKU Lib &Info Sci J 20 (3): 12-22.
Abdullahi, Ismail (200?). Educating the nformation
professional for the twenty first century.
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~felsing/ala/abdullahi.htm
l.

−41−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Library and Information Science Education in Japan: Some
Observations from the LIPER Project
Akira Nemoto
Professor
Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo, Japan

1. Introduction
The LIS education system in Japan is complicated.
It is isolated from both the international LIS
environment and the national college and university
educational environment. It is difficult to understand
not only for foreigners but also for most Japanesepeople except librarians and those concerned withlibraries.
Japanese governments and companies adopted thebureaucratic model of nineteenth century European
Continental countries in the process of modernizationin the Meiji Era. That system has been maintained until
now.1)
Librarians have tried to adapt the model by locating
their professional roles within the bureaucratic system
for 50 years but it is not always easy to mix
bureaucracy
andprofessionalism.
Thereisself-contradiction in the Japanese LIS educational
system.
Recently, however, the model has been changing
into a more professional one, little by little. Some of theorganizational principles of Japanese society are underreconstruction. We now need to reinvent the Japanese
LIS educational model.

2. Historical development of Japanese
LIS Education
2.1 Public Library Law (1950) and shisho training
programs
In Japan, there are two legal certificates oflibrarianship.2)(1) Shisho 司書 (public librarian certificate)(2) Shisho-kyoyu 司書教諭 (teacher certificate specificto school library management)
The Public Library Law (1950) was enacted during
the post-war educational reformation period. The law
defined shisho as a librarian with a college education

who had finished a training program for a 20
credit-points course (which means 300 hours training),
which can be provided only by colleges and universities.
The MEXT (Ministry of Education, Science, Sports,
Culture and Technology) Ordinance set down the
curriculum of the course. There are more than 10 suchcourses each year.
2.2 School Library Law (1953) and shisho-kyoyu
training programs
The School Library Law (1953) was enacted in theyear after Japan became independent again. Under thelaw, shisho-kyoyu is defined as a teacher who hascompleted the 10 credit-points (150hours) training
program. The MEXT Ordinance set down the
curriculum. Colleges and universities can provide thecourse for students who have finished or are taking theteacher certificate course.
2.3 Librarian Training Programs at colleges anduniversities
These two kinds of training courses were designed
originally for in-service students. Shisho training
courses were considered to be for students who were to
be career librarians. As the School Library Law, in
principle, imposed on every school a duty to have a
shisho-kyoyu, there was a need to quickly train many
shisho-kyous to support more than 30,000 schools. Bothcourses were considered temporary during thetransitional period.
The system has, however, continued for half acentury. Over 250 colleges and universities provide
shisho training courses. Over 100 colleges anduniversities (especially teacher training colleges)
provide shisho-kyoyu training courses. The curricula ofthe training courses have not changed. We do not haveformal librarian training curriculums for colleges anduniversities.

−42−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Current situation of LIS Education in Japan
3.1 Japanese bureaucracy
Japanese society has been a bureaucratic society
where generalist bureaucrats are dominant withingovernments and companies. Professional librarians, if
they exist, are liable to be located in marginal positions
in governments, local communities, schools anduniversities.
In general, when students graduate, they search thejob markets. I think legal education, economics
education and even engineering education at theundergraduate level are not considered special or
professional education in Japan but rather kinds ofliberal education. LIS professional education has beendifficult to locate at college and university educationlevel. Shisho courses are considered inferior.
Recently, this pattern has been changed. Graduate
professional education has been introduced (e.g. law
schools, business schools). Continuing education at thegraduate level has started in various occupational fields.
3.2 Information science programs
The computer industry has been considered as anational strategic one. It has been called theinformation industry. So computer science has beencalled information science in Japan.
In the last 10 years, liberal arts education, which
was first introduced as a one or two-year curriculum forundergraduate students in the postwar period, has been
nominally changed into information science education.
This has meant the curriculum has tended to become
more interdisciplinary.
At the University of Tokyo, there are several
information science courses.
(1) Department of Information Science, Facultyof Science. (Undergraduate program ofcomputer science)(2) Graduate School of Information Science andTechnology. (Graduate program for computerscience and engineering)(3) Graduate School of Interdisciplinary
Information Studies. (Inter-faculty cooperative
curriculum for journalists, computer designers,
computer artists, etc.)(1) Shisho training—over 250 universities andcolleges providing it;(2) Shisho-kyoyu training—over 100;
(3) Undergraduate education (LIS major)—under 10;(4) Graduate education (continuing)—under 5;(5) Graduate education (research)—under 5.
Many programs are very small-scale. There are justfour universities of more than 5 faculty members which
provide (3) and (4)/(5) programs -- University ofTsukuba, Keio University, Surugadai University andAichi-shukutoku University.
Another characteristic is isolation; isolation fromother countries, from other academic disciplines andeven from the library profession. Librarianship may
have been isolated among academic disciplines inforeign countries, too, but it has have been backed upby the library profession.
There are no national educational standards for
LIS education except shisho and shisho-kyoyu
curriculums, which are independent and minimum
standards for each curriculum. We don’t have a national
association for LIS education. There is a Library
Science Education Division of the Japan Library
Association (JLA) and the Japan Society of Library andInformation Science (JSLIS). They have a membershipsystem. There are many teachers at shisho andshisho-kyoyu courses who are not members of thesebodies.
At Faculty/Graduate School of Education,
University of Tokyo, we provide two LIS education
programs; shisho-training course for undergraduates
and a research program for graduate students. One
associate professor and I teach the programs.

4. Three year study of the LIPER Project4.1 Goals and methodologies

These are not typical programs but demonstrate
something about the diversity of information scienceeducation in Japan.
3.3 LIS education at Japanese universities

There are five types of LIS education at colleges
and universities.

LIPER (Library and Information Professionals
Education Reform) is a research project aimed at
restructuring of LIS education in Japan. The name istaken from the KALIPER Project of ALA-ALISE,
1999-2000. We invited Professor Joan C. Durrance of
SI of University of Michigan as a main guest andspeaker at the 50th anniversary of JSLIS in 2003. She
had been a chair of the advisory board of the KALIPER
Project.3)
She emphasized, in her speech,. the importance of
putting LIS educational programs within broad
information environments and especially responding to−43−New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

information users’ needs 4) I agree with her in general,but I think what we need most is a ‘Williamson Report(1923)’ in Japan. It determined professional libraryeducation at graduate level in universities in the US
from 1930s to 1950s. There is an 80 year time lag
between US and Japan!
The LIPER project has continued under thesponsorship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science (JSPS). The funding source is the central
government. With the cooperation of members of the
JSLIS, there are about 20 participants.
The goal of the project is two fold, as follows:(1) Assess the performance of education and training
systems and curriculums.
(2) Clarify the scope of professional skills andknowledge required by those working at libraries
and related organizations, considering the roles
and functions of educational and training
institutions, and developing guidelines for future
education and training systems.

4.2 Research process and results
There are four working teams which survey,
through interviews and questionnaires, and analyze thecondition of job markets and job descriptions andemployers’ expectations of the curricula, andeducational systems. We held three open symposia tolisten to librarians and LIS educators. We invited LIS
education specialists from China, Taiwan, Singapore,
and Thailand to help us understand the actual state of
LIS education and exchange opinions. This was very
helpful to our understanding of our own situation in
Japan (Fig. 1).
In February (2006) we published the final report of
the LIPER Project.5) It consists of five parts;
Part I Research summaries
Part II Proposals
Part III Research papers
Part IV Proceedings and abstracts of conferences
Part V Research materials

LIPER : Library and Information Professionals and Education Renewal
Research Group for Restructuring Japanese LIS Education System

CILIP

JSPS
Grant in Aid

Japanese Society of Library and Information Science(JSLIS)(2002)

２００３

KALIPER
Report２００５

２００４
Translations

LIS Education in E&SE Asia
Seminar(1998-2000)
Prof. Durrance Speech

2nd
Symposium
Independent studies

Working Team of LIS Education

1st Symposium

Working Team of University Libraries
Working Team of Public Libraries

Working Team of School Libraries
Research Process

Figure 1. LIPER Research Process

−44−

Final
Report3rd
SymposiumNew Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Interim report of the LIPER research results
was presented last August at the IFLA World Library
and Information Congress, Oslo.6)
In the final report, problems with the shisho
curriculum are pointed out:

– Lack of course hours– Shortage of digital and multimedia technology– Lack of consideration for users’ information
behavior– should be more competitive with each other and/or
other disciplines and professions
We recognize the need for radical reconstruction of
the LIS system butut the system is so deeply rooted in
the current social organizational system that it is noteasy to change. We need a strategy to differentiate what
we can achieve with and without changing laws andordinances and initiate what are easy and effective
things to do first.

– Duplication of course content– Irrelevance to actual job sites– Difference between the size of job market and the

5. LIPER Proposals

number of certificate holders– Inadequacy for training academic, school, and/or
special librarians

5.1 Planning of graduate education and changing
shisho curriculum

The last things are the more difficult to resolve.
4.3 Directions for restructuring of LIS education

We prepared three proposals for the LIS educationand library community. These are rather easy to put into
action.

– Design of graduate education curriculum– Shift the shisho curriculum to be the core basics

We think that LIS education;of the curriculum– has a common base for the different kinds oflibraries– should be at the higher educational level– should have wider and deeper roots in university
and college educational systems– Proposal of a LIS Achievement Examination
First, we propose a graduate education curriculum
because there is a tendency to locate professional

Information
Professional(Academic
Library)
LIS
Examination

Core Field

Information
Professional(School)

LIS Basics
Information Users
Information Resource
Organization
Information MediaInformation Services

Information
Professional(Public Library)

Informational
Field(Subjects, Users,
Media, Collectons)

Figure 2. Curriculum structure at graduate level−45−

New Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

education at graduate level in Japan, for example,
teacher training and clinical psychologist training.
Although it may be difficult to achieve graduate
education of LIS immediately, it is important toestablish the need for it.
The curriculum is structured (Fig. 2). There arethree fields. One is a Core Field which consists of 8
subfields of courses for beginners of LIS. The second
one is an Information Profession Field, which consistsof three subfields for individual professionals. We
prepared curriculum for information professionals at
academic libraries, public libraries and schools, but notschool libraries. At colleges and universities and local
governments, the role of librarians is recognized but inschools it is not. So we use the term of information
professional for schools. The third one is an
Informational Field where colleges and universities canselect groups of classes according to their principles.
There are some examples illustrated in Table 1.
The Core Basics can be used as the curriculum forshisho training courses. In order to change the current
shisho curriculum, the MEXT Ordinance must bechanged. We would like to change it. As the Ordinanceis based on the Public Library Law, it is not easy tochange the shisho curriculum to one suitable for all
kinds of libraries. Even without the changes to theOrdinance, however, we still want to recommend thechanges for adoption by the colleges and universities.

For students, it is helpful to understand learning
goals and it may be useful as an instrument ofself-promotion in job hunting. For teachers, it helps toset their own teaching standards. For libraries, it is atool to evaluate applicants. In general it will improve
the quality of LIS education.

6. Expected effects and the future
These proposals are just proposals right now. We
have to concentrate our action in the goals they suggest
and to realize them.
I believe LIS education should be related to both
libraries on the scene and other academic disciplines
and professions. If library is considered to be afunctional concept meaning processes of storage,organization and provision of information in the digitalage, we don’t have to distinguish between LIS andInformation Science. So far, in Japan there has not beenconsensus about the necessity of these functions. Thisis a problem of culture and historical consciousness
which will take a long time to change. I think the
LIPER project will change the LIS education and havethe effect of changing the national culture in the future.

•Core Field–LIS Basics–Information Users

5.2 Proposal of LIS Achievement Examination–Information Resource Organization

The circumstances surrounding shisho courses atcolleges and universities seem to be structurally stable.
Students can comparatively easily get a legal certificate.
For managers of colleges and universities, it is an
inexpensive way to prevent declining enrolments. Of
course, teachers of the courses also get more
opportunities to keep their jobs. But for librarians on
the scene, it is not easy to claim that the level oftraining is low and out of date because librarianship and
LIS education are separated from each other.
To improve the standards, we consider introducing
some competition. We propose carrying out LIS
achievement examinations once a year. This is not acertification examination. Everyone can have a shisho
certificate to show they have finished at least 20 unitsof courses. The proposed examination is aself-evaluative examination for shisho holders. The
range of questions would be set in the Core Field of thegraduate curriculum that I mentioned. Examinees
would be informed of what and how to study for theexamination. In Japan, this kind of examination iscarried out in some academic fields, for example, inmathematics, law, economics and management.

–Information Services–Information Media–Information Systems–Management–Digital Information•Information Professional Field–Information Professional(Academic Library)–Information Professional (Public Library)–Information Professional(School)•Informational Field(examples)○Subjects•Medical/health information•Legal information○Users•People with visual impairment•Children○Media•Movie films•Old Chinese books○Special collections•Music collection•Labor union collection−46−

Table 1. Graduate curriculumNew Directions for Information Science Education in the Networked Information Society
Annual Symposium of the Research Center for Knowledge Communities
March 9, 2006, University of Tsukuba, Japan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overview of Results." Journal of Education for Library
and Information Science. Vol.42, No. 3, p.170-180,
2001.

Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to those whogathered and discussed these issues as the members of
the LIPER Project. The research results and proposals
are our joint products.

References
1) Wolferen, Karel Van. The Enigma of JapanesePower: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation,
Vintage 1990.
2) Takayama, M. “Library Education in Japan.” In
Carroll, F. L. and Harvey, J. F. eds, International
Librarianship: Cooperation and Collaboration,
Scarecrow, 2001, pp. 269-274.
3) Pettigrew, Karen E ; Durrance, Joan C . "KALIPER
Project: Final Report - KALIPER: Introduction and.

4) Durrance, Joan C. “Crisis as Opportunity: The
Shaping of Library and Information Science Educationin the United States,” 50th Anniversary Memorial
Speech of the Japan Society of Library and Information
Science, Octber 25, 2003, Tsukuba, Japan.
(http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jslis/50th/durrance_1.html)
5) Joho-senmonshoku no Yosei nimuketa
Toshokanjohogaku-kyoikutaisei no Saikochiku
nikansuru Sogotekikenkyu. Tokyo, Japan. February
2006. (In Japanese)
6) Ueda, S., Nemoto, A., Miwa, M., Oda, M., Nagata,H., and Horikawa, T. “LIPER (Library and Information
Professions and Education Renewal) Project in Japan.”World Library and Information Congress: 71th IFLA
General Conference and Council, August 14th - 18th
2005, Oslo, Norway−47−

第２章 知的コミュニティ基盤研究センターの研究活動

Research Activities in RCKC

組織の概要目的
知的コミュニティ基盤研究センターの目的は，「高度情報ネットワーク社会における知的コミュニティ基盤の形成に係る研究を行い，学術研究の進展と研究成果の社会への還元を図ること」である．この目的のもとに，①センター教員，共同研究者による研究，②知的コミュニティ基盤研究に関する研究交流，産業界との交流，③コミュニティとの連携とコミュニティ支援，を推進する．このような研究とコミュニティ，産業界との連携を通じて，コミュニティにおける技術的・社会的知識・情報基盤の形成とコミュニテ
ィの多様な発展に貢献する．

機構

知の共有基盤研究部門
センター長

運営委員会

事務部門
知の表現基盤研究部門
知の伝達基盤研究部門
研究部門
知の環境基盤研究部門

職員(1) センター長
教授

田畑

孝一

(2) 研究部門＜知の共有基盤研究部門＞
教授

杉本 重雄

助教授

森嶋 厚行

客員助教授

児島 宏明

（独立行政法人産業技術総合研究所）＜知の表現基盤研究部門＞
教授

中山 伸一

助教授

真栄城 哲也−48−

＜知の伝達基盤研究部門＞
教授

永田 治樹

助教授

歳森

講師

松林 麻実子敦＜知の環境基盤研究部門＞
図書館情報メディア
研究科長

磯谷 順一

助教授

梅田 享英

講師

水落 憲和

(3) 事務部門
専門職員

山内 琢

連絡先
〒305-8550 茨城県つくば市春日 1-2 筑波大学
TEL 029-859-1511
FAX 029-859-1544
E-mail kc-office@slis.tsukuba.ac.jp−49−

知の共有基盤研究部門
Organization and Interoperability of Community Knowledge

杉本重雄（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
森嶋厚行（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
児島宏明（RCKC 客員研究員，産業技術総合研究所）
阪口哲男（筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
永森光晴（筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）

活動概要「知の共有基盤」のミッションは，ネットワーク上で，知識と情報を探し，アクセスし，利用し，生産し，蓄積するために必要な共通の技術を提供する基盤環境を作り上げることである．現時点における本部門の基本的な役割は，ネットワーク上での情報の蓄積と流通のための基盤環境のための情報技術を研究開発することである．ここでいう基盤環境は必ずしも計算機技術のみによって作り上げられるものではなく，人間を要素として含む総合的な環境と考えている．別の言い方をすると，特定の環境を作り上げるのではなく，ネットワーク上で知識と情報を共有するためのミドルウェアを提供する環境を作り上げるものである．現在の計算機技術ではソフトウェアだけで十分な機能を持つ
ミドルウェアを作り上げることは難しいため，このミドルウェアには人間によるサービスをも含めて考えている．こうした視点に基づき，本部門では，ディジタルライブラリやデータ工学分野における以下のような研究活動を進めている．本研究部門のミッションは以下の通りである．

研究トピックス紹介
1. メタデータスキーマの相互運用性待されるメタデータスキーマレジストリを中心として，メタデータの基本モデル，メタデータスキ

我々はネットワーク上で情報資源を蓄積・保存し，探し，選択し，そして利用する．こうした場面でメタデータは大きな役割を果たす．一方，メタデータの開発や維持のコストを下げるにはメタデータとメタデータスキーマの相互運用性を高める必要がある．メタデータスキーマーマの再利用手法などの研究を，海外の組織とも協力して進めている．メタデータスキーマレ
ジストリそのものに加えて，メタデータスキーマ
を基礎として，メタデータのための応用ソフトウ
ェアを生成するツールの開発，スキーマ横断型のメタデータ検索技術，メタデータボキャブの相互利用性や再利用性を高める役割を期−50−

ラリの維持管理ソフトウェアツール等の研究をにディレクトリを実現するシステムと，利用者進めてきた．こうしたソフトウェアツールはスキに合わせた表現方法でディレクトリを実現すーマレジストリと組み合わせて利用することをるシステムの開発を進めた．

前提に考えており，こうしたツールの実現を通・ 岡山県立図書館との協調によるメタデータとして，スキーマレジストリに関する評価を行うとメタデータボキャブラリに関する研究を進め

ともに，メタデータスキーマの蓄積を進めていた．

る．

・ 多言語によるメタデータの提供など，異なる
言語や表現形式を好む利用者のためのサブジェクトゲートウェイの構成方法，メタデー

2. ディジタルコンテンツのアーカイブ手法

タ記述方法などに関する研究を進めた．

ディジタルコンテンツのアーカイブはディジ

・ 日本国内の公共図書館を中心として，図書タルライブラリにおける重要な課題として認め館の Web サイトで提供されるディジタルコン

られている．ここでは，長期保存のためのメタ

テンツに関する情報を提供するためのメタデータと Web アーカイビングの視点からの研データに関して研究を進めた．

究を進めている．Web 上で提供されるコンテン
ツのアーカイビングは，ディジタルライブラリ分

4. Web コンテンツの一貫性維持手法

野 で の 重 要 な 話 題 と し て 認 め られ てい る ．
Internet Archive に代表されるネットワーク上のWeb コンテンツの一貫性を維持するために，網羅的収集と保存の取り組みがなされてきた．

Web コンテンツによく起きるリンク切れを，自動

我々は，組織等の方針に基づいて Web 上のコ的に検出し，修復する技術の研究を進めていンテンツをアーカイブするための情報技術のる．本年度はこれまでに開発してきた手法に基研究や保存された情報資源を相互に預けるこづいた本格的なプロトタイプシステムの構築をとでアーカイブの高信頼化を図る技術の研究行い，そのシステムを利用した大規模な実験を進めた．

を進めてきた．

3. 利用者とそのコミュニティを指向した

5. 知的コミュニティにおけるサブジェクトゲートウェイ

情報管理・共有のための基盤技術

図書館情報学，公共図書館などのコミュニ

知的共同作業を行うコミュニティにおいて重ティを指向したサブジェクトゲートウェイに関し，要性の高い非定型情報の情報管理・共有を実

メタデータスキーマおよびコミュニティ指向の現するために，基盤ソフトウェア技術の研究開

主題語彙等を中心として研究を進めている．

発を進めた．具体的には，各種活動イベントで具体的には，以下のような研究を進めた．

記録したデータに対しメタデータを自動的に・ 本研究センターが持つ図書館情報学関係

付与する技術や，コミュニティで集積した情報の情報資源のメタデータに含まれる主題語の関連を自動発見し，整理する技術などの研のコアとなる主題語彙を開発し，それをもと究を進めてきた．

−51−

る．また，特にメタデータに関して，これまでの蓄積を生かし，メタデータに関する情報拠点と

6. 半構造データの統合・変換手法

なるよう研究活動を進めていきたいと考えていXML によって表された半構造データに対しる．

データの概念モデルの抽出と抽出されたモデルに基づくデータ変換，ならびに XML とリレ

参考資料（研究成果発表等）

ーショナルデータモデルとの間での効率的なデータ変換の方式の研究を次の 2 つの観点か• メタデータの相互運用性に関して（基礎概念

ら進めている．

とメタデータスキーマレジストリ）・ 大規模半構造データの変換問合せを効率よく構築するための研究を進めた．本年度

Nagamori, M., Sugimoto, S., “A Metadata

は，データの概念モデル抽出による分割統

Schema Framework for Functional Extension

治アプローチに基づくプロトタイプシステムof the Metadata Schema Registry”, Proceedingsの作成を行った．今後はこのシステムに基of DC-2004, pp.3-11, Shanghai, China,

づく評価実験を進める予定である．

2004.10.

・ XML とリレーショナルデータベース間の変換の効率化により，既存情報システムの有Sugimoto, S., Challenges in Digital Libraries -効利用を行う研究を進めた．リレーショナル

Key Issues Learned from Metadata-Centric

データベースに対する XML ビューの構築

Projects at Tsukuba, Proceedings of IADLC

についてこれまでの提案システムの改良を（電子図書館国際会議, 名古屋大学）, 2005.8

行い，その評価を行った．

（招待講演）.
Nagamori, M., The DCMI Registry, registry

7. 国内外の関連組織との協調

research, discussion, DC-ANZ Bi-annual

本部門では，知的コミュニティ基盤研究セン

conference, 2005.5 （招待講演）.

ターの目的に従い，大学の外にある図書館等との組織との直接的な協調に基づく研究開発を積極的に進めてきている．国内においては，
メタデータの蓄積と利用のための技術などに関して，岡山県立図書館との協調的活動を進めている．また，メタデータスキーマレジストリの 開 発 は こ れ ま で Dublin Core Metadata

両角彩子, 杉本重雄., 利用者の特性と環境に応じたリソース選択のためのメタデータスキーマモデル, ディジタル図書館，No.29，
2005.11.
• ディジタルコンテンツのアーカイブに関して

Initiative 他の海外の組織と協調的に進めてきHiiragi, W., Sakaguchi, T., Sugimoto, S., Tabata,ている．今後もこれまでの研究活動をより活発

K., A Policy-Based System for Institutionalに進めていくとともに，外部の組織との協調的

Web Archiving, Digital Libraries: International

な活動をより活発に進めていきたいと考えていCollaboration and Cross-Fertilization (Chen Z.

−52−

et al, (eds), LNCS 3334, Springer, Proceedingsof 7th International Conference on Asian

Nakamizo, A., Iida, I., Morishima, A.,

Digital Libraries, Shanghai, China), pp.144-154,

Sugimoto, S., Kitagawa, H., A Tool to Compute2004.12.

Reliable Web Links and Its Applications.
International Special Workshop on Databases

Tabata, K., Okada, T., Nagamori, M.,

for Next Generation Researchers, (SWOD)

Sakaguchi, T., Sugimoto, S., A Collaboration

2005, pp. 146-149, April 2005.

Model between Archival Systems to Enhance
the Reliability of Preservation by an• 知的コミュニティにおける情報管理・共有のEnclose-and-Deposit Method, 5th International

ための基盤技術について

Web Archiving Workshop, Vienna, Austria,

石川憲一，森嶋厚行，杉本重雄, イベントの2005.9, http://www.iwaw.net/05/tabata.pdf.

概念に基づいた異種デジタルコンテンツの分類システムの提案, 日本データベース学会• サブジェクトゲートウェイに関してLetters, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 65-68, 2005 年 9 月,

Sugimoto, S. Lee, W.S., Murotani, M.,

日本データベース学会．

Nagamori, M., Moriyama, M., Developing• 半構造データの統合・変換手法に関して

Community-Oriented Metadata Vocabularies:
Some Case Studies, Proceedings of DLKC'04,

Okawara, T., Morishima, A., Sugimoto, S., An

2004.3, pp.128-135. Tsukuba, Japan.

Approach to the Benchmark Development for
Data Exchange Tools. The IASTED

Lee, W.S., Sugimoto, S., Toward Core Subject

International Conference on Databases andVocabularies for Community oriented Subject

Applications (DBA2006), Innsbruck, Austria,

Gateways, Proceedings of DC-2005, pp15-24,

Feb. 14-16, 2006.

Madrid, Spain, 2005.9.

小島章，森嶋厚行，古宮誠一, RDB 上の

久保順子, 杉本重雄. 地域図書館が発信する Web 上の電子化資料の主題とタイプの分析,
ディジタル図書館，No.28，2005.8.

XML ビューに対する DOM プログラム実行の効率化手法, 情報処理学会論文誌：データベース, Vol. 46, No. SIG 18 (TOD 28), 2005 年 12月, 情報処理学会.

• Web コンテンツの一貫性維持手法に関して
飯田敏成，澤菜津美，森嶋厚行，杉本重雄，Morishima, A., Okawara, T., Tanaka, J.,

北川博之.Web ページ移動先発見のための公Ishikawa, K., SMART: A Tool for

開実験システム, 日本データベース学会

Semantic-Driven Creation of Complex XML

Letters, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 21-24, 2005 年 9 月，

Mappings. ACM SIGMOD Conference 2005,

日本データベース学会．

pp. 909-911, Baltimore, MD, USA, June 2005.

−53−

Okawara, T., Tanaka, J., Morishima, A.,
Sugimoto, S., A Support Tool for XML Schema
Matching and Its Implementation. International
Special Workshop on Databases for Next
Generation Researchers (SWOD) 2005, pp.
46-49, April 2005.

−54−知の表現基盤研究部門
Formation and Representation of Community Knowledge

中山伸一（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
真栄城哲也（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）

活動概要
本研究部門のミッションは以下の通りである．
１. コンテンツ表現技術の開発
知的コミュニティにおける知識伝達を考える時，その知識をどのように表現するかは重要な問題である．例えば，多元的な内容を含む知識はその理解が困難であるが，三次元 CADに見られるように，その表現法を工夫する事により的確な知識伝達が可能となる．そこで，より多元的な知識を分かりやすく表現する技術・手法の開発を行うことを本部門の目的の一つとした．
２. コンテンツ作成環境の開発
これまでのコミュニティは単一の知識レベルを想定していた．しかしながら，教育に見られるような，異なる知識レベルの成員からなるコミュニティを考えた時，そこにおける知識流通においては，知識レベルの違いを緩衝できるようなシステムが必要となる．そこ
で，異なる知識レベルの人達のコミュニティ形成を支援する技術・手法の開発を行うこと
をもう一つの目的とした．

研究トピックス紹介
1-1 新規自己組織化マップ

つつある．その作成は一種の競合学習であ作成アルゴリズムの開発

り，ランダムなベクトルを持つ正方格子上に配置されたニューロンの中からある対象

Kohonen ネットワークに代表される自己組織化マップ（ＳＯＭ）は，多次元空間に配置される対象を二次元平面に空間をゆがめて射影する方法として知られている．得られたマップは対象群の構造を視覚的に表現することができ，様々な領域で利用されの持つベクトルに最も近いものを選んで勝者ニューロンとし，その近傍を対象の持つベクトルに近づけるように変更を行う．
Kohonen ネットワークは学習対象と成る近傍数を等価にするためにその上下と左右がつながるドーナツ空間であるが，示される−55−

二次元平面のマップの解釈は直感的に難しる方法として，しきい値を連続的に変化さい場合がある．我々は上下左右がつながらせて時に得られるアミノ酸残基群の集中度

ない，閉じた二次元平面に対して，学習対に注目した．種々のタンパク質を用いた検象数を一定にするアルゴリズムを開発し，討の結果，妥当な結果を与えるには一定以その有用性を明らかにした．

上の集中度が必要である事を明らかにした．
また，最大完全部分グラフの抽出は最適化

1-2 タンパク質機能部位抽出法に関する問題であり，幾つかの高速化アルゴリズム検討が開発されており，我々はこれまで
Carraghan のアルゴリズムを用いて来た．最タンパク質の機能部位はその機能発現のメカニズムを考える上で重要であるが，三次元的な構造に基づくものであり，その近 Ostergard が新たなアルゴリズムを提案したので，このアルゴリズムについての評価を行い，その特性を明らかにした．

扱いが困難である．機能部位の自動抽出法
としては，これまで既知の機能部位とのマッチングや凹部分の検出による方法等が開1-3 印面による糸印の古銅印からの識別研究発されているが，既知の機能部位が明らかになっている必要があることや，対象が酵素などの基質が関与するものでなくてはな
らない等の制約条件が強い．我々は同じ機能を発現するには同じアミノ酸残基群が三次元的に等価に配置される必要があるという仮説のもとに，複数の同じ機能を持つタ
ンパク質から三次元的配置が同じであるア
ミノ酸残基群を抽出することにより機能部
位を自動抽出する方法を提案し，その有効性を明らかにしてきた．その方法は，まず異なるタンパク質の同じアミノ酸残基の全ての対を作成してそれをノードとし，二つのノードを構成するアミノ酸残基間の距離が一定の範囲（しきい値）内であるときノード間にエッジを結ぶ．こうして得られたグラフから最大完全部分グラフを抽出すると，そのグラフのノードを構成するアミノ酸残基群が三次元的に等価な配置を持つことになる．我々は，抽出されたアミノ酸残糸印は古銅印であるが，その由来が生糸の貿易に使われたという説が明治期に出され以降，一つのグループを形成している．
しかしながらその由来等を含めて不明な点が多い．糸印は印面と鈕からなる立体物であり，その特徴抽出により糸印の共通の特性を明らかにできれば，糸印研究に大きく貢献できる．ここでは糸印の印面に注目し，その濃淡データを一次元スペクトルと捉えてその周波数分析を行い，得られた周波数毎の強度を特徴量とした．糸印４２個と糸印ではない古銅印５４個について特徴量を抽出し，バックプロパゲーションを用いた
ニューラルネットワークによってリーブワ
ンアウトによる予測精度の検討を行った．
その結果，５９％と低い精度ではあるが，糸印と古銅印を識別できる事を示し，糸印のグループの存在を明らかにした．

基群が妥当なものであるのか否かを評価す−56−

1-4 大規模なネットワークの解析，則に従って広まっていることを意味する．

シミュレーションおよび可視化

さらに，ブログの記述内容に応じて 6 種類に分類できるが，これらをネットワークの

近年，社会現象，経済，生化学反応，物流，人間行動等，様々な分野において大規
模なネットワークのシミュレーションおよび可視化が必要とされている．これは，ネットワークの挙動をシミュレートすること
により，複雑な現象の分析・解明・予測が構造を表す 2 つのパラメータ (平均経路長とクラスタリング係数) によって判別できることを示した．このことは，ブログの内
容によって情報のやり取りの形態が異なり，その差がネットワーク構造に反映されていることを示唆している．

可能となるからである．しかし，そのためには大規模な計算リソースが必要である．

• 生体内反応ネットワーク

本研究で構築したネットワークシミュレー
タは，ソフトウェアによるシミュレーショ
ンの 10 万〜100 万倍の速度を持つ．なお，
この速度は数千台の計算機で構成されるク
ラスタシステムによっても到達できない．

高速ネットワークシミュレータを基にシミュレーション対象を生体内化学反応に特化した専用計算システムを構築した．このシミュレータは実反応と同じ時間精度でシミュレーション可能である．
生物の 1 つの細胞内では約 100 億個 (種• ブログのネットワーク

類数は数万)の生化学物質が反応を繰り返

インターネット上で様々なコミュニケーションツールが提供されているが，近年，ブログが広く使用されている．ブログにはトラックバックと呼ばれる参照先から参照
元へリンクを張れる機能があり，これは従来の参照元から参照先へしかリンクを張れない HTML とは異なった形態のコミュニケーションを提供していると考えられる．ブ
ログをノード，ブログ間のトラックバック
をリンクとしてネットワークで表現した．
ブログのネットワークについては，ノード当りのリンク数の分布が指数分布であり，ベキ分布を持つ HTML によるネットワーク

しており，この反応が生命現象そのものと言える．これらの反応の詳細を知ることができれば，生物の発生，老化，疾病についての知見が得られ，創薬等への応用が可能となる．しかし，生物実験によって知ることができるのは，それぞれの時点における各物質の量であり，本当に必要であるどのような反応が生じているかについては，網羅的に調べる実験手法は知られていない．
さらに，このような大規模の対象のシミュ
レーションは，数百台で構成されるクラス
タシステムによっても現実的な時間では完了しない．

とは異なっている．ベキ分布の場合，ネッ
トワークに追加されるノードはリンク数の多いノードに優先的に接続され，ネットワ
ークが拡大することが知られている．分布の違いは，ブログが HTML とは異なった法本研究では，計算システムがデータベースを参照し，高速シミュレーションを行い，新たに得られる知識をデータベースへ還元
するとともに，シミュレーション結果を解り易く表現するシステムを構築している．

−57−

ところ，概念が属する階層は時間の経過とともにより上位に移動することを明らかに

2-1 中学校・高等学校の教科書におけるした．このことは，研究分野の発展ととも

用語説明の比較検討に出現する新しい概念は，概念構造の下位

異なる知識レベルを相手にした時の，知階層に組み込まれ，順次，より一般的な概識伝達の方法の違いを明らかにすることは，念へと変化することが多いことを示していコンテンツ作成環境を考える上で重要な問る．

題である．ここでは中学校と高等学校の教科書を取り上げ，生物領域の用語について

2-3 メディカルインフォームドコンセント
支援システム検討を行った．まず，用語のタイプをモノとコトに分類し，さらにその説明の内容を２０種類に分類した．中学校の教科書２種
類と高等学校の教科書２種類から，それぞれ１４９と７９４の説明を抽出し，分類を行った．その結果，モノについての説明が中学校の方に多い事，形状，性質，場所，
方法による説明が中学校に多く，でき方，条件，値・量による説明が高校に多い事を明らかにした．

本研究の目的は，医学の専門外の人間が検索しやすく，かつ利用者の専門レベルに応じた情報を提供する医療情報提供システ
ムの構築，および専門外の人間が理解しやすいような情報の提示方法についての研究である．特に心臓外科および救命救急を対象とする．医学の基本的な用語の収集のため，継続的に医学事典や専門書から専門用語を抽出している．これらの専門用語は，構築済の生化学，分子生物学，免疫学，生2-2 専門書と教科書のテキスト比較による
用語概念の調査

物学の専門用語集に順次統合している．また，図および表の電子化も行い，表題および図題に使われている専門用語を基に専門専門書や学術論文に記載されている知識を表現するための生物学の知識基盤シス
テムを引き続き構築し，組み込む専門用語
数を増やし，新たな概念間の関係を構築した．概念ネットワークは二重の階層構造を持っており，新しく導入される概念は小さ用語集と統合している．また，文章から得られる計量的な値を用いて難易度を推定する手法を考案した．この手法を用いて同一編集者による専門向けおよび一般向けの医学書 2 冊の相対的な難易度を正しく推定できた．

なグループを作り，その概念の一般化とともに他のグループとの接続が密接になり，知識全体へ組み込まれていくという概念ネットワークの進化機構の一部を既に明らかにしている．さらに，一定期間毎にそれぞれの時点で使用されている概念から階層構

ユーザインタフェースは，ペンディスプ
レイを用いたシステム上に構築しており，
専門用語間の関係をネットワークとして可視化するシステムと，情報を検索するシス
テムから主に構成される．このインタフェースを，利用者からのフィードバックに基造を生成し，構造の時系列変化を解析した−58−

づいて改良している．また，情報提供シス
テムを現場で評価するため，説明対象として経皮的冠動脈形成術（PTCA: PercutaneousTransluminal Coronary Angioplasty）を選択した．PTCA についての情報を収集・整理し，構築済みの知識基盤に統合した．

• 学会発表等
中山伸一，真栄城哲也「アミノ酸残基の三次元的配置の類似性に基づくタンパク質機能発現部位の発見法（５）集中度を用いた妥当性の検討」第２８回情報化学討論会(2005 年 11 月 16-17 日), pp.105-108, 2005.

参考文献

真栄城哲也，中山伸一「生化学・生物学の• 論文等

知識構造における概念の出現と進化」，
Patricia M. Duronto, Shin-ichi Nakayama,

第 28 回情報化学討論会(2005 年 11 月 16-17“Japanese Communication. Avoidance, anxiety,日)，pp.103-104, 2005.

and uncertainty during initial encounters”,
NACHRICHTEN, 177-178, pp.101-115 (2005).

T. Maeshiro and S. Nakayama : Structuralproperties of knowledge infrastructure forT. Maeshiro, H. Hemmi, K. Shimohara:

genome informatics, 2005 Meeting on Genome

Ultra-fast Genome wide Simulation ofInformatics, p.104, 2005.

Biological Signal Transduction Networks Starpack -, International Symposium on

真栄城哲也「概念間の関係として捉えた知Frontiers of Computational Science 2005. To

識の構造と進化」，第 7 回日本進化学会，

appear.

p.41, 2005.

H. Hemmi, T. Maeshiro, K. Shimohara: New

真栄城哲也，中山伸一「分子生物学の知識

Computing System Architecture for Scientific

基盤の構造および特性」，第 28 回日本分子Simulations - Non CPU-oriented Methodology

生物学会年会，2005.

-, International Symposium on Frontiers ofComputational Science 2005. To appear.

−59−

知の伝達基盤研究部門
Communication and Collaboration in Community Knowledge

永田治樹（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
歳森 敦（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
松林麻実子（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
宇陀則彦（筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）

活動概要
知の伝達基盤研究部門では，コミュニティにおいてつくりだされる知識（情報）の伝達に関して，人々の情報行動の探究などの知の主体に照準を合わせた研究と，知識（情報）伝達のための情報組織化技術や社会システムとしての伝達基盤（図書館・博物館・文書館・
情報センター等）に関する，いわば知の集積に照準を合わせた研究とを行っている．後者
は「知の集積」と言うことも可能だろう．ただし，この部門の研究が必ずしもこうした区分で構成されるわけではない．両者にまたがるテーマの研究も少なくない．基本的には知の伝達基盤研究部門に関わる研究は，どちらかに照準を合わせているとしても，おおむね
人々の行為に密接に関わっており，そこには必ず「人間同士のコミュニケーションやコラ
ボレーション」という視点が含まれている．
このような領域設定にあって，これまで伝達基盤部門では，次のような関心の研究が行われてきた．
第一に，大学研究者を中心とした学術情報の利用者に対する行動・意識調査があげられる．これは人間の情報行動を明らかにするという大きな目標を達成すべく行われているが，同時に大学図書館が直面している機関リポジトリ構築の問題やリンキング・システムの設計・導入などについて考えるときの一助となるものである．
第二に，コミュニティの情報伝達基盤に対する人々の選好意識等に関する研究がある．
これは，情報伝達の社会システムのあり方を考えるものであり，図書館等に対するコミュ
ニティ住民のサービスに対する選好意識や図書館の社会的価値の探索のための研究調査，および現状の図書館活動への住民によるアセスメント結果分析などが実施されている．
第三に，情報デリバリー基盤のシステムの構築に関する研究がある．これには，サブジェジェクト・ゲートウェイの構築に用いる知識集積の組織化の手法の研究や，異種のメタ
データの結合と複数の情報資源に対する透過的なアクセス提供システム，あるいは，情報探索から入手へのパスを提供するリンキング・システムの設計などがある．

−60−

最後に，社会的情報基盤の経営指標に関わる研究である．これまでは，マーケティング論の分野での品質研究などを基盤に経営指標の探索を行ってきた．ただし，現在では成果指標に研究の中心が移行した．また基本的なパフォーマンス指標の研究の必要性も感じている．

研究トピックス紹介
1. 地域による子育て支援のための場づくり

夫点としては，靴を脱ぐ，手作りの飾りなに関する実践：読書環境の整備と読書どで装飾するといったくつろげる雰囲気作

活動の展開

りをすることや，場の規模や利用者に対応した貸出・返却方法・活動内容（読み聞か近年，地域での子育て支援の取組が注目されており，子育て支援の場に読書活動がせ，手作り遊び）などの活動システムづくりの重要性なども指摘された．

積極的に取り入れられてきているが，こう

読書活動を取り入れた子育て支援の場

した取組を地域で新しく始める際に手がかづくりの実践では，茨城圏内で地域交流のりとなる情報は非常に少ない状況にある．

場として子ども文庫をつくる活動に参加しそこで，本研究では，親子が集まる読書活

た．活動資源の確保については，空き店舗

動の場として関東圏の 8 つの子ども文庫へ

を文庫に改装する，近隣の子ども文庫やの訪問調査を行い，新しい場づくりのため

NPO の活動者の協力を得る，地域の助成金に参考となる情報を収集し，収集した情報を利用する，本の寄贈や図書館からの貸出を活かした実践を行った．

を受ける，ポスターやチラシを作成・配布

訪問調査では，コストを抑えて活動資源することなどを行った．また，先の訪問調を充分に確保するための工夫や，読書活動

査の知見を参考に，場に畳を敷く，楽しいを充実させ，親子が気軽に訪れることので飾りつけをするなど，利用者がくつろげる

きる地域コミュニケーションの場づくりの雰囲気作りを行った．文庫開設日には地域

方法についての情報を収集するために，観の読書ボランティアによる読み聞かせなど

察・インタビュー調査を行った．その結果，が行われ，その後もイベント日には子ども

活動資源の確保については，無料の場所を文庫に多くの親子が集まっている．今後，利用する（場所の確保），知り合いや利用

イベント日以外にも多くの親子が集まる地

者（子どもの保護者）などの信頼のおける域交流の場として活動を続けていくために，人に参加してもらう（活動者の確保），地域

訪問調査から得た情報を利用し，さらに運の助成金を利用する（予算の確保），手持

営や読書活動を工夫していくことが期待さ

ちの本の利用や図書館からの貸出を受ける

れる．

（蔵書の確保），ポスターやチラシなどの広【研究分担者】

報を充実させる（利用者の確保）必要があ

永田治樹（部門研究員），蓮見孝（本学人間ることが示された．次に，活動における工総合科学研究科），鈴木佳苗（本学図書館情−61−

報メディア研究科），福田美香（本学図書館

解である点は否めない．
なお，非定型学習支援のためのツールと情報学群），長嶋岳生（本学図書館情報学群）．

しての北関東の図書館・博物館データベー
スは公開され，その維持管理は引き続き行

2. 公共図書館における非定型学習：っている．

その成果と支援機能

また，Sandra Parker が，客員研究員とし公共図書館は，コミュニティにおける生涯学習施設として，資料の提供をはじめとするさまざまなサービスを提供している．
これらは，コミュニティ住民がそれぞれの状況と関心に応じて主体的な学習（すなわ
ち非定型学習）に寄与するものとして位置づけられている．
本研究では，公共図書館にとってこうしたサービスがどのように提供されているかの実態を把握しつつ，コミュニティ住民は図書館サービスとして何を望み，また実際て取りまとめた，公共図書館の経営やサービスのあり方について日英の比較の副産物である．Public Libraries in Japan : A Glimpseof the Far East という論考が Update 誌（Vol.
4(1) 2005）に掲載された．
【研究分担者】
永田治樹（部門研究員），宇陀則彦（本学図書館情報メディア研究科），Parker, Sandra（平成 16 年度部門客員研究員），佐藤飛鳥（本学図書館情報メディア研究科博士前期課程）．

のサービスをどのように評価しているかに焦点をあて，サービスの効果（効用）測定

3. 図書館における利用者の文献探索行動と機関リポジトリへの期待手法の開発を試みる．
今年度は，図書館サービスのうち，とくにプログラム・サービス（講座・講習会，

電子ジャーナルの本格的な導入以降，大あるいはイベントなど）に焦点をあて，ど学図書館が果たすべき役割は確実に変化しのような図書館プログラムが組まれている

つつある．そのような変化に対応すべく本かを，日英の公共図書館界で把握し，また，学附属図書館が目指している試みに，検索その参加者がどのような目的・動機を持っと入手とを関連付ける動的リンキング・シているか，さらにはどのようにプログラム，

ステムの導入と機関リポジトリの構築がああるいは図書館サービス一般を評価したかる．本プロジェクトでは，附属図書館が行をとらえる．

うこれらの試みが利用者である研究者たち

そのために，茨城県の町立図書館のプロにいかなる影響を及ぼす可能性があるか，

グラム参加者への聞き取り調査，および質

さらには彼らにどのように受け入れられる問紙調査により実施した．このケースでは，かという観点から以下に報告する三種類の住民は図書館を生涯学習施設として位置づ調査を行った．なお，いずれも本学の教員

け，広く活用していることが見てとれたが，を対象とした調査であり，本学附属図書館

図書館プログラムもその範囲での活動としとの共同研究プロジェクトとして位置づけて位置づけられるものの，なお 2 次的な了られるものである．

−62−

一つ目は，リンキング・システム導入に意思は半数近くの回答者が持っており，積関連して，大学図書館利用者の探索行動経極的に反対するものはほとんどいないこと

路を明らかにする調査である．本学中央図が確認された．ただし，機関リポジトリが書館および医学図書館の来館者を対象としどのようなものかよくわからないという回

た質問紙調査と，電子図書館サービスの利

答も少なからず見受けられ，機関リポジト

用が比較的活発であると思われる研究科のリ実施の際には必要性や効果に関する PR

教員を対象とした質問紙調査という形をとが不可欠であることが示された．

った．前者は 2005 年 9 月～10 月にかけて【研究分担者】

実施し，1536 名に配布して 923 名からの回

永田治樹（部門研究員），宇陀則彦（本学図答（有効回答率 60.1％）を，後者は 448 名

書館情報メディア研究科），川井奏美（本学に配布して 185 名からの回答(有効回答率

図書館情報専門学群），松林麻実子（部門研

41.3％)を得た．結果として，(1)大学図書館

究員），竹入ふみ（本学図書館情報専門学群）．

利用者は文献情報データベースや電子ジャーナル・サイトより OPAC やサーチエンジ
ンを情報探索経路として利用している，(2)電子図書館サービスを高頻度で利用する利

4. リンキング・システムにおける利用者
行動の分析と情報・知識探索パスの用者は文献情報データベースや電子ジャー

類型化

ナル・サイトを経由して全文を入手する傾向にある，(3)研究分野に応じて様々なデー
タベースが利用されており，探索経路は多様である，という 3 点が確認された．
二つ目は，機関リポジトリ導入に関する調査で，本学の研究科教員全員（ただし，先の電子図書館サービスに関する質問紙調
査の対象者は除く）に対して質問紙調査という形で実施した．2005 年 11 月に調査票(1322 通)を配布し，同年 12 月末日までに回収できたものを有効回答とした．回収数は464 通（回収率 35.1％）である．調査項目
は，電子ジャーナルをはじめとする電子資料をどのような形で入手しているか，研究者が手元に持っているデータにはどのようなものが多いか，機関リポジトリを実施したときに登録する意思があるかどうか，などである．
結果として，機関リポジトリに登録する

利用者は情報探索過程において，図書館
やインターネット上にあるデータベースな
どの多種類の情報資源を行き来して情報収集を行う．本研究では，インターネット上
での情報アクセスを支援するため，多種類の情報資源内の関連情報に対して連続的にリンキングを行う手法を提案した．そしてこの手法を実装したシステムを構築し，利用者の情報探索行動のモデルと比較することで評価を行った．
情報探索における情報要求の変化について，Marcia BatesはEvolving SearchとBer
rypickingからなる情報探索行動モデルを提案した．Evolving Searchとは情報探索の過程で得た情報に影響を受けて情報要求を変化させ，発展的な探索を行うことで，Berrypickingとは情報探索を行いながら少しず
つ情報を拾い集めることを指す．上の図で−63−

情報資源への統合アクセス
学術論文データベース，書籍情報データ
ベース(Amazon)，Web 情報(Google)，
研究者発信情報(RSS)など，多種多様な情報資源へ統合的にアクセスできるよ
うにした．
連続的リンクの提供
興味ある情報資源を選択するだけで，現在表示されている情報から自動的にキーワードを切り出し，次の関連情報を検索する．キーワードを手で入力し，検索結果の評価を繰り返すという従来とは異なるアクセス機能を実現した．

文

文
書

要求1

考え
考え

要求0

要求2

要求3

は，情報要求0の状態で探索を行い，ある文

求は“機関リポジトリに関すること”から書を得たところ，情報要求が要求1に変化し“オープンアクセスに関すること”に変化したことを示している．そして，情報要求1たと言える．利用者は関連する情報資源への状態で情報探索を行っている間に新たにのリンクを辿ることによって，少しずつ情考えが加わり，要求2へと変化した．

報を拾い集め，関連する情報を手に入れる

本システムは Bates のモデルで解釈することができる．

と理解しやすい．例えば，利用者が「機関【研究分担者】

リポジトリ」に関する情報を探索している

歳森敦（部門研究員），宇陀則彦（本学図書とき，「オープンアクセス」という情報を見館情報メディア研究科），萬代浩子（本学図つけたとする．このとき，利用者の情報要

書館情報メディア研究科修士課程）．

−64−

知の環境基盤研究部門
Media and Technological Bases for Community Knowledge

磯谷順一（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
梅田享英（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）
水落憲和（RCKC，筑波大学大学院図書館情報メディア研究科）

活動概要
知の環境基盤研究部門は，現在のネットワーク情報社会を支える「環境基盤（ハードウェア）」を一層進化させるための研究開発をミッションとしている．一口にハードウェアと言ってもその対象は非常に広範囲であるが，当部門ではハードウェアの基幹コンポーネン
ツである「半導体デバイス」の研究を行っている．具体的には以下の３つの領域に属するデバイスを対象としている．
１．ユビキタス・ネットワーク技術に関するデバイス
・携帯情報機器に搭載する低消費電力半導体メモリ（シリコン）・無線通信網を支える高出力マイクロ波デバイス（シリコンカーバイド SiC，あるいはSiC 上に作製された窒化ガリウム GaN on SiC，ダイヤモンド）・電源の超小型化を可能にするパワーエレクトロニクスデバイス（SiC，ダイヤモンド）
２．情報の大容量・高密度記録を可能にするデバイス
・大容量の半導体メモリ（シリコン）・次世代光ディスク（青色 DVD）のさらに次の世代の光ディスクを可能にする高出力
紫外発光デバイス（ダイヤモンド）
３．全く新しい情報処理を実現するデバイス
・量子コンピューティング素子（シリコン，その他）（）内は，そのデバイスを作るための半導体材料を示している．半導体から作られるデバ
イスの性能や信頼性は，半導体結晶あるいは異種結晶間の接触面（界面と呼ばれる）の品
質によって決まる．そこで当部門では，結晶や界面の強力な評価方法として定評のある電子スピン共鳴（EPR）法を用いて，上に挙げられているシリコン Si，シリコンカーバイド
SiC，ダイヤモンド C の３つの半導体材料・デバイスについて，様々な研究機関から寄せられる技術課題を解決するための研究活動を展開している．シリコンでは日本電気株式会社
や慶応大学などと，シリコンカーバイドでは産業技術総合研究所（つくば市）や日本原子力開発機構（高崎市），スェーデンの Linköping 大学，ハンガリーの Budapest 工科大学な−65−

どと，ダイヤモンドでは産業技術総合研究所ダイヤモンド研究センターや物質・材料研究機構（つくば市）などと連携を行っている．
加えて，当部門では，半導体研究に必要な結晶欠陥の研究データをインターネット技術
を使って収集，整理して情報発信を行うというコミュニティ活動も進めている．
以上のような研究活動について，ここでは，昨年度の同シンポジウムにおいても発表したトッピクスについて，その後どのように進展したのかを研究の背景・動機と合わせて紹介したい．その他のトッピクスや成果の詳細については私どものホームページ
http://www.kc.tsukuba.ac.jp/div-media/indexJ.html に随時更新しているので，そちらを参照されたい．

研究トピックス
1. シリコンカーバイド

たすことができる．取り組んでいる課題は，低コスト半絶縁性SiC単結晶ウェハ成長機

シリコンカーバイド（SiC）は，ワイド
ギャップ半導体と呼ばれる特殊な半導体の１つで，高出力のマイクロ波デバイス（無線通信用）や超低損失のパワーエレクトロ

構の解明，高効率n型（リン）ドーピング機
構の解明，
SiC-SiO2界面欠陥の解明などである．ここでは昨年度も紹介した，半絶縁性
SiC単結晶の評価研究について紹介したい．

ニクスデバイス（様々な電源の基幹部品となる）として非常に有望な素材として90年後半から脚光を浴びている．SiCの重要な特長の１つは，現在主流のシリコンと同様に，単結晶ウェハが得られる点にある．このため，窒化ガリウム（GaN）といった他の有望なワイドギャップ半導体のベース基板としても魅力的な材料になっている．単結晶
ウェハ作製技術は急速な進歩を遂げており，

半絶縁性SiC単結晶ウェハは，SiC上に作られるデバイスの性能を最大限に引き出すことができるため，低コストでこの基板を作れるようになれば産業的インパクトが非常に大きい．普通のSiC単結晶は半絶縁性を示さないが，ある特殊な結晶成長条件では何らかの結晶欠陥が結晶中に誘発され，これが半絶縁性の起源となることが分かっている．しかし具体的なメカニズムは判って一昨年には”Powered by Crystal”と題しておらず，この分野におけるホットトッピク

Nature誌の表紙を飾ったことはまだ記憶にスとなっているため，その解明を目指して

新しい（D. Nakamura et al., Nature 430, 1009

研究がスタートした．研究は伊藤久義・森(2004)）．しかしながら，デバイスの量産・

下憲雄・大島武氏（日本原子力開発機構，

実用化のためには，低コストでデバイスを作製する技術やデバイスの劣化問題の解決などが必要である．それらの課題は結晶の品質（結晶中の欠陥）と密接に関係しているため，私達の評価技術が大きな役割を果

主に単結晶への電子線・イオン照射を担当），
N. T. Son博士（スェーデンLinköping大学，
私達と共に測定を担当），A. Gali博士（ハンガリーBudapest工科大学，理論計算を担当），
M. Bockstedte博士（ドイツElrangen大学，理−66−

論計算を担当）等と一緒に行っている．昨ダイヤモンド（炭素の結晶）は本来，電年度のシンポジウムではその途中経過を報告したが，その後これまでに判明した結果をまとめると，およそ４種類の結晶欠陥が半絶縁性の原因として重要であることを突き止めた．それぞれの欠陥についての詳細な報告はそこに記載されている文献あるい気を流さない絶縁体であるが，ドーピング（別の元素を微量添加する）を行うことで自由に電気を流すことのできる半導体へと変身する．ダイヤモンドの強力な短波長紫外発光を利用できれば，次世代光ディスクである青色DVDを遥かに上回る超高密度光は学会発表でなされている．

ディスク記録が実現できる．また，ダイヤ
モンドには高出力マイクロ波デバイスとし• シリコン空孔：VSi−（TV2a）ての期待もある．このようなデバイスを作

N. Mizuochi et al., “Spin multiplicity and

るための大きな技術課題がn型ドーピング

charge state of a silicon vacancy (Tv2a) in（ダイヤモンドの場合はリン原子）をいか

4H-SiC determined by pulsed ENDOR”, Phys.

に実現するかである．リン原子のドーピン

Rev. B 72, 235208 (2005)と，この中のN.

グは，つくば市にある独立行政法人物質・Mizuochi et al.文献.

材料研究機構（物材研）スーパーダイヤグ• 炭素空孔：VC+（EI5/EI6），VC−（HEI1）
T. Umeda et al., “EPR and theoretical studies ofnegatively charged carbon vacancy in 4H-SiC”,

ループが1997年に世界で初めて成功し，現在でも彼らがデバイス化技術において世界をリードしている．
そこで物材研と連携して，ダイヤモンド

Phys. Rev. B 71, 193202 (2005)と，この中の結晶中に入ったリン原子の様子を原子レベ

T. Umeda et al.文献.

ルで観察する研究に着手した．昨年度のシンポジウムにおいては，電子スピン共鳴法• シリコン-炭素複空孔：VSiVC（P6/P7）

により世界で初めて，このリン原子を観察

N. T. Son et al., “Divacancy in 4H-SiC”, Phys.

することに成功したことを報告した．今年Rev. Lett. 96, 055501 (2006).

度はさらに詳しい実験を進めて，リン原子• 炭素アンチサイト-空孔ペア：CSiVC（SI5）
T. Umeda et al., “Electron paramagnetic

工科大学のGali博士にスーパーコンピュー

Bockstedte et al., “Signature of the negative
carbon vacancy-antisite complex”, International
Materials (ICSCRM2005), Sep. 17-23, 2005,
Pittsburgh, USA.

て結晶に入ると，２種類の環境の異なる状態ができることが分かった．現在，Budapest

resonance of the SI5 center in 4H-SiC”; M.

Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related

がダイヤモンド結晶の炭素原子を置き換え

ターを駆使した大規模第一原理計算シミュ
レーションを行ってもらっており，私達の実験結果と比較からダイヤモンド結晶中のリン原子の詳しい挙動を明らかにする予定
である．ダイヤモンドのn型ドーピングに関する研究成果の参考文献として，

2. ダイヤモンド−67−・M. Katagiri et al., “Lightly phosphorus-doped

率的に利用できるような新しい知識情報基

homoepitaxial diamond films grown by

盤を整備しようという狙いで，半導体結晶

chemical vapor deposition”, Appl. Phys. Lett.

欠陥に関するWebデータベース・システム

85, 6365 (2004).

を立ち上げて運用を開始した．現在，
http://www.kc.tsukuba.ac.jp/div-media/epr/

・M. Katagiri et al., “ESR characterisation ofにおいて公開中である．もちろん内容は専phosphorus donors in n-type diamond”, 16th

門家向けのもので一般受けするような類のEuropean Conference on Diamond,

ものではないが，原則として，専門家，非Diamond-like Materials, Carbon Nanotubes,

専門家を問わず誰でも自由にアクセスして，and Nitrides (DIAMOND2005), Sep. 11-16,

半導体の結晶欠陥の専門的なデータを閲

2005, Toulouse, France.

覧・検索したり，高度なシミュレーション機能を利用できるようになっている．

が挙げられる（M. Katagiri（片桐雅之）は大学院博士課程の大学院生）．

このデータベースの開発は昨年度からスタートしたが，その後多くの整備・改良

他方，ダイヤモンドのデバイス化にはpを重ね，今年度に開かれた半導体結晶欠陥型ドーピング（ダイヤモンドの場合はホウの 国 際 会 議 ICDS-23 （ 23rd International

素を入れる）も不可欠であり，結晶欠陥をConference on Defects in Semiconductors, July

低減しつつp型ドーピングを行う技術の開24-29, 2005, Awaji-island, Japan）にて正式に発をつくば市にある産業技術総合研究所ダ公開を行った．このデータベースは，いわイヤモンド研究センターと共同で行っていゆる数値やテキストを収録したデータベー

る．その結果，世界最高の品質をもったpスとは違い，実際の電子スピン共鳴の実験型ダイヤモンド結晶が誕生している．下記

で半導体結晶欠陥がどのように見えるのかの論文などを参照のこと．

という視点でデータが眺められるようになっている．もちろん，データを数値一覧表

・N. Mizuochi et al., “Hydrogen passivation

として見たり，数値検索をしたりすること

effects on carbon dangling bond defectsも可能である．その設計ポリシーや機能のaccompanying a nearby hydrogen atom in

詳細については，下記の論文で報告される

p-type CVD diamond”, Physica B (2006), in

予定となっている（電子版はPhysica B誌に

press.

おいてすでに公開されている）．

3. インターネット技術を使った半導体研究

・T. Umeda and S. Hagiwaraet al., “A
web-based database system for EPR centers in

者のためのコミュニティ活動

Semiconductors”, Physica B (2006) in press.
私達のみならず半導体結晶を研究している全ての研究者達が，インターネット技

公開にあたっては，使用しているシミュレ

術を使って，研究成果をお互いにもっと効ーションソフトウェアEPR-NMR©の開発グ−68−

ループ（カナダSaskatchewan大学のJ. A. Weil

現在のデータベース（EPR データベー

教授）から学術用途という事で無料使用のス）は，電子スピン共鳴（EPR）法による許諾を得た．

半導体結晶評価に特化してデータが登録さ現在のデータ登録件数は約320件である

れている．しかし，半導体を調べる実験手（昨年の同時期は約210件）．これらのデー段は他にも数多くあり，例えば

タは，過去の私達＋他の研究者の論文から

Photoluminesence （ PL ） 法 や Deep Level

選び出して，私達の手作業で登録したもの

Transient Spectroscopy（DLTS）法，Cathodeである．今年度以降はデータの登録もさる

Luminesence（CL）法，電気測定法，電子顕ことながら，インターフェースの改良など

微 鏡 ， X 線 回 折 ， Positron Annihilationに注力していきたいと考えている．このSpectroscopy（PAS）法，理論計算シミュレ

Webデータベース運営の最大の目標は，世ーションなどで，これら多くの実験法によ

界中の研究者が自分のデータを自らWebデる結果がリンクしあって初めて半導体を理ータベースに登録して，さらにお互いにデ解することができる．したがって，半導体ータのメンテナンスを随時行い合うことで，の研究者全てにとって有用な知識情報基盤

データベースがあたかも半自立的に管理・とするためには，EPR データベースだけで拡張されていくような人を含めたコミュニは足りない面がある．そこで，「文献データティ・システムの確立にあるからである．

ベース」をもう１本の柱として立ち上げる

そのためには多くの研究者が使い易いようことを計画している．これは，半導体結晶

なインターフェースの研究開発が大変に重欠陥全般について学術論文を収集して，普要である．また，サイトの存在を知らせる

通の学術誌データベースでは調べるのが難宣伝活動や，個々の研究者に参加を促すよ

しかった検索，例えば欠陥同士の関連や，

うなダイレクトメール的な働きかけも重要

実験手法同士の関連などを容易に調べるこであり，来年度に幾つかのアイデアを実施とのできるようなサービスを提供しようとしたいと考えている．とりあえず今年度は，いうものである．関連付けは専門家が手作国際会議での発表後，インターネットの主業で行う．EPR データベースと同じく，多要な検索エンジンで直ちに見つかるようにくの専門家の参加を促して，関連付けのメ

Google，Yahoo，msnへの登録を行った．ちンテナンスを Web 上で同時多発的にできるなみに，データベースへのアクセスをような仕組みを現在開発中である．このよ

webanalyzer®で見てみると，Visits数（おような活動が軌道に乗れば，半導体研究に関そユーザー数を表す）で1日平均で約130，

わる全ての人にとって役に立つ知識情報基

30数か国からのアクセスがある．アクセス

盤が作り上げられると期待される．また，の半数はアメリカからで，細かな分析はしその運営自体が知的コミュニティ基盤に関ていながGoogleなどからのCrawlerが多数来する実践的な研究例になるのではと期待しているようである．

ている．

−69−

筑波大学
知的コミュニティ基盤研究センター
Research Center for Knowledge Communities
University of Tsukuba, Japan