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Darrera actualització (dijous, 25 de novembre de 2010 10:38)
Educational Opportunities
The Faculty of Library and Information Science offers an evolving educational program within the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Starting in the 2009-2010 academic year, undergraduate studies will lead to a Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science. In the postgraduate area, the Faculty offers two official inter-university master’s degrees: one in Digital Content Management and another in School Libraries and Reading Promotion. The two master’s programs meet the EHEA standards. In addition, the Faculty offers a doctoral program in Information and Documentation in the Knowledge Society.
Undergraduate Degree
The basic aim of the Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science is to prepare professionals to select, manage, organize and preserve information. Degree holders work in all kinds of organizations, including libraries, archives, publishing companies and private businesses. Tasks involve choosing, organizing, circulating and preserving all types of information, such as books, journals and magazines, tape and video recordings, photographs, films and digital resources including Internet materials. The information may be stored using any support medium, including paper, microfiche, CD, DVD and web pages.
The bachelor’s degree is intended to develop qualified professionals who can work as managers in the field of information and documentation or who can attain a high level of specialization enabling them to take decisions regarding the organization of information, business and institutional documentation, and the application of technologies.
Undergraduate students have many opportunities to pursue work placements in companies and institutions through educational cooperation agreements. Work placement gives students the opportunity to complete their training with a more direct perspective of the profession gained through practical experience. In fact, opportunities of this kind often represent a student’s first entry into the workplace.
A wide range of career opportunities awaits qualified professionals:
- Government, historical, business and foundation archives.
- Sound and image archives.
- Public, university and primary and secondary school libraries, library networks and consortia.
- Learning resource centers.
- Specialized libraries and information centers in the public and private sectors (e.g., government departments, foundations, professional associations, laboratories, law firms, architectural offices, etc.).
- Businesses providing support to library services.
- Media, including newspapers and periodical press, radio and television, press services, etc.
- Bookshops and distributors of books and other bibliographical materials.
- Publishing companies (preparing reference works such as encyclopedias and directories, conducting document searches, preparing indices, creating databases and organizing documentation).
- Companies responsible for creating databases.
- IT, software programming and telecommunications companies.
- Web portals and other internet businesses (creating web pages and web databases, organizing digital contents, etc.).
- Consultancies working in business, finance, law or human resources.
Master’s and Doctoral Studies
The Faculty offers programs leading to master’s and doctoral degrees as well as university extension courses. Specialized training, research work and continuing education are all available.
An official inter-university master’s degree in Digital Content Management has been offered since 2005-2006, in partnership with Pompeu Fabra University and in line with the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Starting in 2008-2009, the Faculty is also offering an official inter-university master’s degree in School Libraries and the Promotion of Reading, in collaboration with the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
In addition, there is a doctoral program in Information and Documentation in the Knowledge Society. The Faculty also provides continuing education in the form of university extension courses open to the university community and professionals working in the field of information and documentation.
Study Support and Training Opportunities
- Exchange programs: in addition to general grants offered by the State and the University, students in the Faculty can take part in exchange programs at the Spanish and European levels. SICUE-Seneca and Socrates-Erasmus enable students to pursue their studies for a semester in another Spanish or European university.
- Specific grants: students in the Faculty can apply for specific grants from such bodies as the European University Institute in Florence and the Centre for Catalan Studies in Paris.
- Educational cooperation agreements: students have a wide range of opportunities to pursue work placement, which may be paid or completed for free-choice credits, in companies and institutions. Each year more than 200 educational cooperation agreements are signed and they often provide an effective way for students to find employment after graduation.
- Summer internships: the Faculty provides students with summer internship opportunities abroad in a wide variety of institutions. Chief among the over 50 centers offering internships in 2008 were the United Nations in Geneva (UNHCR, ILO, WHO), the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC, the library of the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, the British Library in London and the Library of Alexandria in Egypt.
Additional Information
In addition to the general services provided by the University of Barcelona, students have access to numerous specific services:
- Library: the Faculty’s specialized library collection contains nearly 22,000 volumes and 440 active journals (in paper and electronic formats). The library of the University of Barcelona also offers online services and resources (http://www.bib.ub.edu).
- Classrooms with PCs: the Faculty has three classrooms equipped with a total of 75 PCs for teaching use. An internet room provides an additional 15 PCs. All 90 PCs are connected through Ethernet, an NT server—on which students can store their course exercises, such as web pages—and a Linux server, which is used in the teaching of various subjects.
- Wi-fi areas: the Faculty offers a wireless access service to the University network (UB Wi-fi), which enables laptop users to connect within the building.
- Work Placement and Job Information Office: the Office provides all the information needed for work placement in an institution or business (through educational cooperation agreements). It also provides job information to facilitate finding employment after graduation.
- Job Offers Information Service (SIOF): the Service offers a free distribution list to all Faculty graduates. The list contains all job offers and grant opportunities received directly by the Faculty and any others found through outside sources. Graduates who sign up for the service will receive the information via weekly emails.
- Publications: Chief among the publications available are the online journal BiD: University Texts in Library Sciences and Documentation (http://www.ub.edu/bid) and the collection of thesis projects prepared by students for the official master’s degree in Digital Content Management at the University of Barcelona (http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/3001).