The Australian Library Journal

Enduring ideas: the contribution of Margaret Trask to education for the profession

Mairéad Browne and Joyce Kirk

While it is always challenging to trace the impact of leading figures in any field there are significant numbers of practising librarians, information professionals and academics in Australia and overseas who continue to attest to the influence that Margaret had on their professional perspectives and approaches. Margaret worked quietly and effectively for a number of years in the practice of librarianship, the education of beginning professionals at the University of New South Wales and as a member of the Board of Education of the Library Association of Australia (LAA). But in 1974 she found the perfect vehicle for expression of the innate talent and leadership capacity which was increasingly being recognised by her peers. In that year she was appointed as the foundation head of a new Department of Library and Information Studies at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, later to become part of University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

Margaret's extensive publications are listed elsewhere in this issue of the Australian Library Journal but the course documents she developed for the purposes of accreditation of the courses at Kuring-gai contain the most comprehensive expression of her philosophy of education for the profession of librarianship. These are held in the archives of University of Technology Sydney and present proposals for a range of generalist and teacher librarianship courses not all of which were, in the event, introduced. Margaret's unadorned prose style outlines a set of beliefs and values about the profession, the body of knowledge, skills necessary for practice and the wider context of information work. These are asserted rather than argued but at the same time form a coherent and rigorous intellectual framework on which to build courses for preparing the new kind of professional that Margaret thought was needed to meet the needs of communities in an era when the exponential growth in the volume of information was being taken seriously for the first time. Evident in the documents is her extraordinary capacity for taking abstract ideas and developing mechanisms for applying them to complex, real-world situations. She had a remarkable talent for teasing out the essential meaning of ideas and philosophies, seeing the implications of these for the practical aspects of library and information practice and finding ways to make the ideas tangible so that they could be fully understood and applied in practice.

We chose the Kuring-gai course document for 'General Librarianship' as the main source of our characterisation of Margaret's ideas (Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, 1975). Working within the constraints of this article, we have identified for discussion four themes that seem to be enduring and influential. For perspectives on contemporary Australian thinking on education for library and information practice we have reviewed the three main local published sources of the field of library and information studies over the period 1996 to mid-2003 - the Australian Library Journal; Australian Academic and Research Libraries; and Education for Library and Information Services: Australia. The fruit of this search was a modest set of nine articles relevant to education for information practice. These and our own observations based on teaching in the Kuring-gai courses and in leadership positions in the Australian Library and Information Association form the basis of the commentary on the current situation with regard to the spread and durability of the ideas promulgated by Margaret.

The themes

Librarianship is the art and science of relating information resources to users through information methods.

This definition, which appears in the introductory pages of the course proposals, was derived from Jesse Shera's belief that 'librarianship is bibliographic, not bibliophilic... [and] seeks to unite in a fruitful relationship the book and the user' (Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education 1975:13) Margaret took this notion of the librarian uniting readers and books and used it in a very concrete way to derive a series of courses structured and labeled around three sequences of study: information users; information resources; information methods. While these three streams constituted the required professional component of courses there were also mandated complementary studies in psychology, communication and sociology.

The overall weighting of study away from the traditional emphasis on the technical aspects of librarianship such as information retrieval, systems design, and cataloguing and classification, towards a focus on information users was groundbreaking not only in Australia but also internationally. Although Michael Brittain's overview of user studies had been published a few years before (Brittain 1970) there had been no move to incorporate the study of people as information users into librarianship courses in any substantial way. Margaret's approach was not only to incorporate the study of information users but to build the Kuring-gai courses on considerations of information needs, information seeking and use, user preferences, browsing, searching and so on. What was so distinctive about these programs of education for the profession of librarianship was their focus on empirically derived knowledge of user needs so that the 'science' rather than the 'art' of designing services was emphasised. The need for what Margaret saw as a 'scientific' approach was an important reason she followed the US convention in describing the qualifications gained from the courses as being in 'library science' rather than in 'librarianship'. For Margaret 'librarianship' had an historical humanities connotation rather than what she saw as a more desirable social sciences and evidence-based approach to education of a new kind of practitioner. Margaret used the term 'library and information studies' to include 'library science' and the knowledge needed for practice in what were then referred to as 'non-library agencies' or 'information agencies.'

The literature to underpin this emphasis on what came to be described as 'user behaviour' was scant at the time when Margaret designed the Kuring-gai courses. Gradually the volume of studies of users began to cumulate and with it the knowledge and expertise for deriving principles on which to base decision making about even the most fundamental library and information services such as library catalogues, indexes and readers' services. This moved the locus of decision making about the shape and orientation of services from the sole judgment of librarians who saw their traditional base of technical expertise as the foundation of decisions about what would be provided (and how). In the new paradigm decisions about services were to be based on a more negotiated position with user preferences and behaviours as the starting point for the provision of service.

Looking at the recent Australian literature of education for the library and information profession, the influence of these ideas today is so strong that the centrality of people and their information behaviour is taken for granted. This is evident in a characterisation of the dimensions of the virtual information environment as context, clients, collections and collaborations (Brodie cited in Kallenberger and Todd 2001: 78). In this complex and fluid environment new relationships among information creators, publishers and librarians enable the development of new methods for bringing together people and the information they need. Another way in which this relationship is now expressed is as interactions among 'information users, technology and information professionals within a socially constructed, complex context' (Myburgh 2003: 214).

In the emerging and contested area of knowledge management, the art of relating information users to resources through information methods is also fundamental. It involves, however, a perspective in which the role of the information professional is seen as that of information coach or information counsellor working with organisational teams. In integrating sources of information with what people know, information professionals involved in knowledge management need at the very least an understanding of the Australian and global knowledge economy, skills in organising information so that it can be accessed and used effectively, and capabilities in facilitating the sharing of information in the creation of new knowledge. (Southon and Todd 1999).

This focus on the people for whom services are intended is not only a pervasive theme in library and information studies today but also appears in professional education for most occupations although the language varies from 'user' to 'client', 'customer', 'patient' and so on. We do not intend to imply that Margaret alone brought this shift in the way service design is approached but we can say that for the field of library and information studies she was the forerunner both locally and internationally. Not only did she realise the importance of users but she was able to devise course structures which conveyed the necessity that users must be the starting point of service design.

Underpinning the practice of librarianship is a set of general principles and practices that form a foundation for information practice regardless of setting.

The typical course in librarianship in the English-speaking world in the 1970s offered students the choice of specialising in a type of library practice - academic, public, school, youth, special and so on. In comparison the structure of the Kuring-gai courses looks prescriptive, a one-size fits all approach. The logic of the structure, however, was based on the idea that beginning professionals share common tasks regardless of their work environment since librarianship at its most fundamental is just one of the applications of generalist knowledge and skills in handling information and providing information services to users. Margaret strongly believed that generalist knowledge and skills for beginning level practitioners were readily transferable between types of library and other 'non-library' information environments. This theme is implicit in the Kuring-gai course documents in the UTS archives and provided the rationale for a shift away from offering choice and specialisation within a beginning level course.

It is interesting to note that in the Kuring-gai course documents Margaret, who was at ease with abstract ideas and arguments, did not make many references to any all-encompassing 'theory' of information or library science although she had enthusiastically adopted a part of the Shera conception of the role of the librarian as mediator. She also made reference in the documents to what she saw as related theories from the fields of organisational studies and information retrieval (for example Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education 1975:15) but almost without exception she used the term 'principles' when referring to the unique body of knowledge comprising 'library science'.

It is evident from the recent literature that the idea of a set of general principles and practices underpinning the practice of librarianship in different settings is fully accepted. Delegates at the Australian Library and Information Association's Online Conference in 2002 were reminded that programs focused on 'more general principles and practices in a wider range of information environments and with a larger number of document formats' were needed if the profession is to meet the challenges of an increasingly turbulent world (Myburgh 2003: 223). One example given was the discussion about the limitations of the Dewey Decimal System for classifying hypertext documents. Myburgh concluded that areas such as semiotics, linguistics and so on provide more assistance in finding ways of organising and retrieving hypertext than does knowledge of the specifics of the Dewey Decimal System (Myburgh 2003:223).

This theme of generalisable principles and practices is particularly pertinent to the contemporary world of work. Workers are increasingly mobile and the probability of beginning library and information professionals remaining with one organisation over the length of their careers is increasingly unlikely as is the possibility of their remaining in one occupation over their working lives. In these circumstances, a foundation in generalist principles and practices of library and information work provides a more sustainable basis for career development than a foundation in practices and techniques. The changing nature of professional information work in a globalised and networked world calls for people who have knowledge and skills appropriate to the information industry, a rigorous and critical approach to theory and practice and abilities in working productively and creatively in a range of dynamic information contexts (Kallenberger and Todd 2001: 75)

The Kuring-gai undergraduate course required study of psychology, communication and sociology. Multi-disciplinary study remains a feature of information courses today although the range of disciplines that complement library and information science now includes business and management; information technology and information systems; and media and communication. A multi-disciplinary environment is believed to allow students to see information practice from different perspectives and more effectively to apply the general principles in different contexts. There remains however the challenge of maintaining an appropriate balance of information and multidisciplinary studies in a higher education sector which has experienced major structural change in the past decade (Willard, Wilson and Pawley 2001). Schools of library and information studies which were previously independent academic units have been relocated or amalgamated within their own institutions. In some institutions this has brought pressure to decrease the amount of specialist information studies and to locate these within broadly defined and structured courses such as Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Communication degrees.

In the literature we examined we found that Australian educators are finding innovative ways to build on the foundation of general principles and practices. The course offered at the University of Canberra has focused on integrating generic skills into the library and information science curriculum on the basis that its graduates will have the capabilities for practice in a knowledge-centered environment. The course is built around communication, information literacy, problem solving, teamwork, professional attributes and lifelong learning (Milne 1999: 36). At UTS, a graduate diploma in knowledge management includes subjects in areas of general professional practice such as managing people and understanding how organisations work. The course draws on expertise from the Faculty of Business in these areas (Southon and Todd 1999: 26)

In summary, it can be concluded that Australian courses in library and information studies have moved towards recognition of the value of the generalist foundations of information practice to a greater extent than they did in the 1970s at the outset of Margaret's career as a senior leader in the field. The modest Australian literature supports this conclusion but there is also widespread recognition in professional circles that a generalist education provides an effective springboard for many different careers in information. To some extent this is pragmatism at work to ensure that graduates have opportunities in a variety of environments when they graduate. But the generalist approach can also be seen as recognition that baseline knowledge and skills in library and information studies are an appropriate foundation for beginning information practitioners regardless of the service context.

The education of practitioners is most effective when based on partnerships between the academy and the workplace.

This belief was not explicitly set out in the Kuring-gai course proposals but was embodied in strategies for substantial involvement of local practitioners in course development and delivery, an approach that was unique in librarianship as taught in tertiary institutions at that time in Australia. A dozen or more eminent practitioners were called on by Margaret to assist the development of various subject areas with many of these experts forming the nucleus of a continuing industry advisory committee.

Some of the motivation was undoubtedly to pave the way for the employment of the graduates of the new course through linkages with the workplace and senior professionals. But the strategy was also a manifestation of Margaret's belief in the value of practical experiences, including library placements, as a way of allowing students to apply and validate their new knowledge. According to the course documents, the involvement of practitioners was intended to give Margaret and the staff of her new Department the advice and insights necessary to design subjects which facilitated the linking of library science content to the 'real' world. (Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education 1975: 183). The role of the academic was to develop students' knowledge of a fundamental set of principles as well as some rudimentary skills which could be used on entry to the workplace. The practitioner's role was to provide the 'reality check' on what was being taught and to provide the environment for the students to put their new knowledge to work be that in a special, state or school library.

The recent Australian literature makes it clear that 'a strong tradition of consultation between the academy and the industry' has existed since the 1970s (Bridgland and Hazell cited in Bridgland 1998: 24) but it is interesting to see the way the relationship is now conceived. Currently there is great diversity in what are now called 'partnerships' between those two players. Many factors have contributed to this situation including the recognition that the generation of new ideas and knowledge is not the sole prerogative of academia. A new conception of knowledge production has been elaborated by Schön (1995) who described the interplay between knowledge based on theory and knowledge derived from professional practice. Gibbons and his colleagues (1994) have developed the notion of 'Mode 2 knowledge' that aims to solve problems through collaboration between the academy and its stakeholders using validation processes based on application and usefulness.

The continuing need to ensure that graduates are employable is now more clearly thought through and articulated than in the earlier period when Margaret was proposing her new courses. The focus on generic skills, one of the consequences of the National Training Reform Agenda in Australia in the early and mid-1990s, has encouraged the academy to ensure that graduates are as well equipped for work as beginning professionals can be (Bridgland 1998). Many of these generic skills reflect the skills identified in research in the United Kingdom as being essential for working in a knowledge environment (Abell cited in Milne 1999:33). An informal poll of Australian managers and employers in the information industry indicated that in addition to a sound knowledge of the principles of library and information science, important attributes of new graduates were communication skills, problem-solving abilities, flexibility and the ability to cope with change, teamwork skills and initiative (Bridgland 1998: 22). Myburgh's study of job advertisements over a five-year period highlighted similar general areas being specified by employers (Myburgh 2003).

A number of initiatives described in the literature showed examples of collaboration between the academy and the workplace. At the University of South Australia experienced professionals contribute to subject design, set and assess assignments and have a major role in a professional doctorate in communication (Nimon 2001: 254). At the University of Canberra students are required to work in teams to develop a website for small organisations. The students conduct a needs analysis as the basis of an information and communication plan for the organisation prior to developing the website (Milne 1999: 36). Another type of partnership occurs in a digital information subject offered at UTS in collaboration with the State Library of New South Wales. Approved by the University, the subject is co-ordinated and taught by the State Library over five full-day sessions in the Library's facilities. Students work in teams with a senior member of the State Library's staff engaged on a digital information project (Kallenberger and Todd 2001: 84).

We believe that it is possible to conclude that the relationships Margaret sought to establish between educators and practitioners were key contributing factors in establishing the practice of collaboration that is today taken for granted in Australia. The nature of the interactions has changed and deepened from Margaret's early days at Kuring-gai so that the idea of collaboration is now more embedded in the day-to-day delivery of library and information courses. In addition, the partnerships are more clearly based on mutual benefit than they were in the late 1970s. Then, for example, practitioners were in effect asked to 'help out' by providing placements for students without there being much sense of the benefit for the host institution. It is now recognised that the workplace is a place of learning in its own right and can both complement and extend the learning achieved in the academy. These partners have equal legitimacy in educating information practitioners.

There are three levels of staff working in libraries, namely clerical (non-professional), technical (sub-professional) and librarian (professional)

The Kuring-gai course proposals describe a library workforce divided into three distinct categories and with clear differentiation between the tasks and education of each of the groups (Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education 1975:10). In the documents Margaret was describing the situation as it was in the 1970s when she saw the role of the technician as requiring 'technical and library skills such as circulation routines, order routines, serial accessioning, inter-library loans'. Education of technicians was based in 'technical colleges.' Margaret contrasted professional level courses as being based on 'principles and specialised knowledge ... which would develop judgment, interpretation and analysis...' Although she started from a view of the workforce as stratified with clear delineation between levels of responsibility, some years later she saw the importance of providing opportunities for technicians to move from the 'sub-professional' to professional level. She initiated bridging courses which allowed technicians to up-grade their qualifications to degree level. She also devised programs for upgrading the qualifications of those who had passed the LAA's Registration Examination which had been the major entry-level qualification to the library profession prior to the move of education into the higher education sector. However, she held to the belief that there were clear distinctions between library professionals and technicians and that as a consequence formal educational requirements had to be met before a technician could aspire to practice at a professional level.

The distinction between librarians and technicians is contested in the Australian literature and is often seen as part of a larger debate about the extent to which the library and information practice has been professionalised. The debate on the difference between librarians and technicians centres on two issues: the nature and content of education for library and information work and the roles and tasks performed in the workplace. Linking the issues are questions about the alignment of education and employment (Carroll 2002: 118). The consequences of industrial award restructuring which began in the late 1980s and the introduction of measures to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of industry have had a substantial impact on the profile of the Australian workforce and on work practices. Employment is now concentrated in the services sector, career paths are changing, the demand for skilled professional workers is relatively high, the range of tasks required of an employee has broadened, workers are expected to be multi-skilled and their career paths are skills-related (Bridgland 1998: 11-12).

In the workplace the distinction between librarians and technicians on the basis of their tasks has become increasingly blurred and untenable at certain points (Carroll 2002: 119). For example, library technicians sometimes manage small libraries, a role previously undertaken by librarians. Librarians in the field of practice do not necessarily have an understanding of the history of their profession or a well-defined concept of their professional standing. In the education sphere the distinction between the preparation of beginning technicians and beginning librarians is also blurred. Holders of TAFE diplomas are admitted with advanced standing to undergraduate courses in library and information studies offered by universities. It appears that instead of the roles and responsibilities of librarians and technicians being distinct they form a continuum from para-professional to professional (Johnson cited in Carroll 2002: 122).

This phenomenon has been noted across many occupations. It forms part of the underlying rationale for the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) which was originally introduced in 1995 (Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board 2002). The AQF is a comprehensive frameworks for all qualifications in post-compulsory education and training and while it clearly sets out the distinguishing features of qualifications at different levels, it also incorporates the idea of 'flexible pathways' to assist movement between education and training sectors. It also seeks to have increased recognition of prior learning. This includes credit transfer and recognition by the tertiary education sector of knowledge and skills acquired in the workplace. ALIA has responded to the AQF, the changed workplace, and the need to provide better avenues for individuals seeking advancement through their careers. The Association's Work-level guidelines sets out the roles and tasks of librarians and library technicians and, while recognising levels of operation in the library workplace, it also acknowledges the overlap that occurs particularly between the work of experienced technicians and beginning professionals (Australian Library and Information Association 1998)

Taking this further, the Association established a project in 2002 to review its education policy against the backdrop of major environmental changes and new approaches to structuring and delivering educational programs in the post-secondary private and public sectors. The project confirmed that ALIA members wished to maintain a clear distinction between professional and technician membership categories but saw the need for more flexible approaches to assessing individual knowledge and skill with due attention to what has been learned rather than where it has been learned. In 2003 the Association's Board of Directors adopted a new educational framework which allows for this flexibility and also provides a reference point for the design of education and training programs for all stages of an information worker's career. A significant feature of the new framework is that it extends the Association's interest in education across many levels of work and potentially the total career span of an information practitioner. It also shows how individuals can progress by completing formal and informal learning activities relative to the requirements set out in the level to which they aspire (Australian Library and Information Association: 2001-2003).

Some see the adoption of more flexibility and individually-based assessment of a person's capacities as an exacerbation of the blurring between the levels of operation of librarians and technicians and thus a cause of concern . There are questions about the extent to which technician education at TAFE followed by advanced standing in undergraduate education in universities provides opportunities for high level critical and creative thinking and problem solving and the synthesis and evaluation skills needed for professional practice (Harvey 2001: 18). There are also questions about the extent to which the current confusion surrounding the grey space inhabited by librarians and technicians can remain unresolved (Carroll 2001: 124). Nonetheless, the reality of the Australian workplace is such that industrial awards place library and information workers on a continuum with progress less dependent on formal tertiary qualifications than demonstrated capacity to operate in a particular role.

In summary, the world in which Margaret devised the Kuring-gai courses has changed substantially in terms of the workforce and conditions of work. Likewise developments in the structuring and delivery of educational courses and the trend towards recognition of learning outside the academy has challenged the profession in terms of its claims to be a profession. Nonetheless, a landmark pay equity test case which ended in 2002 in New South Wales recognised that even with more porous boundaries between the levels of workers there is still clear differentiation between professional and technician practitioners (Australian Library and Information Association 2002). This recognition shows the durability of the divisions between clerical, technical and professional set out by Margaret. While there have been major changes in the workplace we see these as representing new ways of reaching goals rather than a fundamental shift or an undermining of the integrity of the profession of librarianship.

Conclusion

Margaret Trask was a down-to-earth woman who would have hated the label 'charismatic' to be applied to herself (or anyone else) but it is an inescapable fact that this was an aspect of her character. The fact that the themes we have discussed seem commonplace is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of her legacy. They attest to the power Margaret had to convey her ideas so that they were internalised so thoroughly by those who encountered her or her writings that they have become part of our everyday thinking. We are not suggesting that Margaret alone should be credited with originating all the ideas that brought the changes in the areas we have discussed. What we do say, with confidence, is that Margaret was unique in the recent history of the education of library and information practitioners in Australia in the way in which she garnered ideas from many sources and wove them into a coherent intellectual framework for the education of a new kind of practitioner. And even more significant, perhaps, is the way she found strategies to make those concepts real and meaningful for her students and associates so that they could be carried into practice. Australian education and the information profession have been the beneficiaries of Margaret's brilliance in curriculum design and the force of her inspiring personality. We are privileged to have lived through the same period as such an important figure in the history of library and information studies education in Australia.

The authors would like to thank the University of Technology Sydney for access to Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education course documents, and Kate Vale for assistance in literature searching.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of the Australian Library and Information Association or the University of Technology Sydney

References

Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board (2002) Australian Qualifications Framework Implementation Handbook. 3rd edition. Carlton, Vic: AQF Advisory Board

Australian Library and Information Association. (2001-2003) Library and information science education for the knowledge age (LISEKA) http://www.alia.org.au/education/liseka/

Australian Library and Information Association. (2002) Pay Equity Test Case gives library workers sweeping win

Australian Library and Information Association (1998) Work-level guidelines for librarians and library technicians 1998. Kingston, ACT: ALIA

Bridgland, A (1998) 'The linking of knowledge and skills to changing work practices' Education for Library and Information Services: Australia, 15 [1] pp11-27

Brittain, JM (1970) Information and its users: a review with special reference to the social sciences. New York: Wiley.

Carroll, M (2002) 'The well worn path' Australian Library Journal, 51 [2] pp117-125

Gibbons, M et al (1994) The new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage.

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Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education. Department of Library and Information Studies (1975) Proposals for the introduction of new courses in library and information studies: General librarianship. Lindfield. NSW: Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education.

Milne, P (1999) 'Knowledge management and LIS education' Education for Library and Information Services: Australia, 16 [3] pp31-38

Myburgh, S (2003) 'Education directions for new information professionals' Australian Library Journal, 52 [3] pp213-227.

Nimon, M (2001), 'The search for the philosopher's stone: balancing librarianship education in core and evolving knowledges' Australian Library Journal, 50 [3] pp253-258

Schon, D A (1995) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Aldershot: Arena.

Southon, G and Todd, R (1999), 'Knowledge management: education for the knowledge age' Education for Library and Information Services: Australia, 16 [3] pp21-30.

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Biographical information

Emeritus Professor Mairéad Browne was recruited in 1975 by Margaret Trask to teach in the Kuring-gai CAE courses. She later became Head of the School of Library and Information Studies and was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the University Graduate School at University of Technology, Sydney. Mairéad was awarded a Fellowship of ALIA and was President of the Association in 2000-2001.

As Head of the School of Library and Information Studies at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education 1991-1994, president of the Australian Library and Information Association 2002-2003 and Fellow of ALIA, Joyce Kirk has followed in the footsteps of Margaret Trask and Mairéad Browne. Joyce served with Margaret Trask on UTS Council when she was chair of Academic Board 1996-1999. Appointed Professor of Information Studies in 1999, she is currently Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at UTS.