The outcome of educational reforms in Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan greatly depends on the curricula being taught in the Universities, which is still precarious for ‘Library and Information Science’ studies. The subject is not in demand amongst high school graduates, and those who do undertake the course are not satisfied with the level of teaching and the knowledge obtained: most of the graduates do not get appropriate jobs. There are several considerable problems in teaching library, information and archives courses that are common to the three countries: (a) after the collapse of the Soviet Union, faced with economic problems and the transition to a market economy, librarianship was not a priority of the governments; (b) courses were based on Soviet library science and archive practices and programmes for LIS and archives are focussed on techniques and technical processes, undervaluing the need for the wider knowledge of social processes, science, technology, etc, required to enable library, archive and information services to respond to contemporary demands; (c) courses have not yet fully incorporated the new areas of the disciplines that are common in Western Europe; (d) there is a shortage of modern LIS and archive teaching materials (electronic resources, sample PC applications); (e) pedagogical skills of the LIS and archive teachers and trainers tend to be didactic; (f) familiarity with quality standards is low; (g) these factors contribute to low levels of interest in potential students; (h) competence of teachers and students in the English language is not high, even though English is the dominant language in the discipline globally; (i) there is a shortage of relevant materials in the national languages; (j) no programmes offer lifelong learning or support career advancement for the existing large LIS workforce. It is obvious that introduction of the new curricula covering Library, Information and Archives Studies totally oriented to the EU experience is the only solution to make this profession prestigious and to attract talented and motivated students.
Specific Project Objectives are:
· Planning, preparing and implementing new Library and Information Studies and Archives Masters and Lifelong Learning courses in line with EU standards
· Piloting the training of partner country academic staff and students
· Development of a Lifelong Learning infrastructure
· Establish validation and quality control for these Masters and Lifelong Learning courses
Main Features of the Project are:
· Library and information and archives studies are to be modernized; development of these curricula will benefit university administration research and teaching .
· Staff from Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan will undertake masters degrees at EU Universities and staff from the EU Universities will teach masters courses in the partner countries’ universities; in preparation English language courses will be included.
· Library and Archive students will undergo placements in EU universities.
· The infrastructure in institutions in the partner countries will be strengthened to provide modern technology including virtual learning environments and institutional. repositories
Long-term perspectives:
· Through the development of the core skills, competencies and abilities of staff, the project will transform the partner country LIS faculties into first class learning centres in the republics and a sustainable source of further development of human capacity for the global labour market.
· Through increasing the commercial, methodological and consultancy activities and through philanthropic donations and grants, the project’s legacy will be to generate additional financial income streams to support the development of new academic programmes.
· Through the Virtual Learning Environment platform, established in partner country LIS faculties, the project will serve the needs of students from other Universities and other lifelong learners.
· The project will share courses between partner country LIS faculties, thereby saving financial and human resources.
