User:Iankuush

USER EDUCATION
A brief history of the of libraries in establishments in the UK is given. A definition of user education is attempted and some of the underlying philosophy and curricular influences are explored. Problems centring around the lack of an agreed syllabus for user education and the varying attitudes of FE librarians are touched upon, together with some of the problems arising from the lack of central curricular guidance on library user education programmes and information skills. Libraries in FE establishments have had a chequered, even stormy career. In the early days of FE the library tended to be a small, under-used and ageing collection of books usually without any professional librarian to build and exploit the collection. After World War II came a slow growth and a realization that a central library in a college was after all useful and indeed valuable to the work of the college. The Ministry of Education issued a circular entitled 'Technical College Libraries' which amongst other things said that: 'The work of the lecture room and the library should be integrated and the library should be a central point in the programme of each course of study at every college' (Ministry of Education, 1959).