Meeting the Educational Needs of Systems Librarians: A comparative Study of Schools of Information and Library Science, Graduate Schools of Business, and Undergraduate and Graduate Computer Science Programs

This study describes a content analysis of the course catalogs of top-ranked Schools of information and Library Science, Graduate Schools of Business, and undergraduate and graduate Computer Science programs. The catalogs are analyzed in regard to the number of courses they offer that address the educational needs of aspiring systems librarians. These needs are derived from two previous studies of systems librarianship. Schools of Information and Library Science and Graduate Schools of Business offer similar numbers of courses in most of the nine categories studied, although Business Schools do not offer courses in library-specific technical services. Computer Science programs only offer courses in microcomputers, programming and networking. Few individual schools in any of the three disciplines offer courses in more than three of the nine categories.