Hur ser arbetsgivare på folkbibliotek på nyutexaminerade biblioteks- och informationsvetares kompetens? En kvalitativ enkätstudie av uppfattningar om kvalifikationskrav.

Abstract

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine what knowledge and competence employers at public libraries apprehend that recent graduates of library and information science (LIS) have. We want to illuminate what qualifications employers demand and expect from LIS graduates and to what degree employers find that LIS graduates correspond to these demands. Our aim is also to see how these qualifications can be categorized and understood. Finally, we try to picture the employers’ apprehensions of the education received at LIS. As a method of gathering material for the analysis, we sent qualitative inquires with open questions to employers at public libraries in Sweden. The answers were analysed with a theory and a model to categorize the different qualifications. The results were compared with literature relevant for the subject. The conclusions are that many of the employers believe that recent LIS graduates lack the qualifications most wanted, which are mainly experience from library work, social competence, and knowledge about literature. The only qualifications that answer to the employers’ demands are those of information seeking and theoretical knowledge. Most employers think that LIS gives a basis for theoretical knowledge, but believe that the education also falls short. At the same time, some employers state that they don’t have enough knowledge about the education. The qualifications that employers’ demand from LIS graduates can be divided into different categories, and some of the qualifications fall into more than one category. This shows that the employers demand complex qualifications.