Academic programs in Egyptian Library and Information departments under the credit hour system: An analytical study considering the Reference Standard for Library and Information Programs for Arabic Universities

This study aims to identify the library and information departments in Egyptian universities that apply the credit hour system, and to analyze the academic programs of these departments to examine their compatibility with the third section of the reference standard for library and information programs for Arabic universities (the bachelor's degree), developed by the Arab Federation for Libraries and Information "designing the educational program and curricula". The programs were examined in terms of the basis that were relied upon when they were developed, the compatibility of academic programs with the objectives of the scientific departments, the criteria that the departments relied on when preparing their academic programs, and the extent to which the distribution of the programs’ courses is compatible with the areas specified by the standard reference. data were collected using survey method, besides content analysis of academic programs, a set of results was reached, including that only ten departments out of nineteen library and information departments apply the credit hour system, and none of the ten departments relied on the reference standard when developing their academic programs, while 70% of the departments relied on the standards of (NARS). The distribution of the main courses conformed to the standard, while the sub-and interdisciplinary courses had a lower percentage of representation in the programs than specified by the standard. The study recommends that the reference standard be considered a standard tool for academic accreditation of Arabic library and information departments, with some modifications to it for ease of application.