Current Trends in the Development of Higher Library and Information Education in Germany
Authors: Humenchuk A. 
Published: July 2022

The purpose of the article is to explore the experience and identify best practices for modernizing the content and organizational structure of the librarians’ graduate training in Germany.

The methodology. The research was conducted using a set of theoretical and empirical methods of scientific knowledge. These allowed to identify the main stages of evolution of the higher library education system in Germany, the establishment of classical and innovative models of its modern development. The following scientific approaches were cognitive tools for achieving this goal: system, historical, comparative, as well as research methods: statistical, modelling, content analysis of the 19 German Universities’ 30 educational programs for Bachelors, Masters and Doctors of Philosophy in “Library and Information Sciences”.

The results. The generalization of the study’s empirical basis allowed us to conclude that 19 German Universities offer more than 30 educational programs to their applicants for “Library and Information Sciences” higher education at various levels, including 45% bachelor’s, 35% master’s, and 20% doctoral degrees. Terms of bachelor’s educational programs are 3–3.5 years, master’s — 2–2.5 years, doctoral — 3–4 years. In the context of the global communication space digitalization the most popular are universal educational programs in “Information Systems”, “Information Science”, and “Information Management”, which train professionals for all types of information institutions and provide extensive opportunities for profiling with a focus on scientific information management or solutions tasks of library, cultural and educational management with a focus on work in school, university and public libraries.

The topicality. Germany has a long tradition of forming a national book culture and training high-quality librarians, which contributed to the development of one of Europe’s most powerful library, publishing and bookselling industries. Germany’s accession to the Bologna Process made adjustments to the national system of training librarians, identified new vectors of its European integration development, formed modern models for the educational process optimization through the implementation of levelling, succession, flexibility, and interdisciplinarity of education programs in library. In the context of the higher library education system modernization in Ukraine, these innovative practices need to be studied to determine the possibilities of borrowing the most effective of them.

The practical significance. The results of the analysis of the profiling of modern bachelor’s and master’s degrees in German universities show their interdisciplinarity and focus on training a universal information specialist capable of performing professional tasks in all types of document communication institutions (libraries, archives, media libraries, publishing houses, news agencies, mass media, etc.). Starting with the 3rd semester most bachelor’s degree programs provide their applicants with a choice of a particular specialization, deepening professional competencies through a wide range of optional disciplines and training through participation in the implementation of real interdisciplinary projects. This experience of German colleagues should be borrowed by Ukraine as well.