CS and ILS as disciplinary homes for digital library education Barbara M. Wildemuth SILS, UNC-CH JCDL 2006 Workshop: Developing a Digital Libraries Education Program

The danger of over-generalization Characterizing computer science as a discipline –Applications: “information processing tasks and their related data representations” (Denning) –Systems: “structures, mechanisms, and schemes for processing information” (Denning) Characterizing information and library science as a discipline –Confluence of information/content, people (creators, users, intermediaries), and technology –A meta-discipline, concerned with “the documentary products of other disciplines and activities” (Bates)

Important differences between CS and ILS Student knowledge and skills on entry and during the program Employer expectations of student knowledge and skills on completion Disciplinary values Discipline-specific vocabulary

Impacts of these differences Assumptions of prerequisite knowledge Connecting student learning with their current knowledge Focusing on the development of the skills that will be most useful in their future professional roles

Remaining questions: Which future do we want? How do we achieve it?

References Bates, M. J. (1999). The invisible substrate of information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(2), Denning, P. J. (1999). Computer science: The discipline. Draft, to be published in the Encyclopedia of Computer Science,