Two Cultures, One Faculty: Contradictions of Library and Information Science Education

Abstract

Library and information science faculty must live within two competing cultures that have very different values and interests: the academic and the practicing profession. This difference causes these cultures to exert competing expectations and demands upon library and information science education. While the university's value is increasingly judged by its demonstrated utility, its central legitimating value is still intellectual achievement and the creation of knowledge. While the need for a knowledge base is recognized, the central legitimating value of the profession is demonstrated utility in terms of service to users. This is necessarily dominated by technical rather than reflective aspects and the need for immediate solutions to practical problems that include the education and continuing education of professionals. This article addresses the problems that result from the collisions of these two cultures: applied versus pure research, theoretical versus practical education, and competing definitions of service. It explores the applicability of Ernest Boyer's model of higher education as a means of solving problems.