51. évfolyam, 2005. 4. szám

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Career motivation of Hungarian library school students: a quick survey conducted among the full-time students of four LIS departments.

TÓTH Máté

Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review), vol. 15. (51.) 2005. no. 4. pp. 705 – 733.

Making the image of librarianship more attractive constitutes one of the key objectives of the Hungarian library strategy for the period 2003–2007. The Hungarian Library Institute contributed to this goal with carrying out a survey among 160 first year and last year students of four LIS departments (Debrecen University, Eötvös Loránd University and College, Budapest, Berzsenyi Dániel College, Szombathely). The questionnaire contained the following four main questions: 1) What motivates students to do LIS training; 2) Which subjects and jobs students get most interested in during their studies, 3) After graduating in LIS, would they like to work as librarians; 4) How does the training influence the students' original career plans?

The present study is a summary of the results and conclusions of the survey. Two important conclusions can be drawn: firstly, the first year and last year students demonstrate a different attitude towards librarianship as a career; secondly, it is shown how the training modified the ideas of students about the profession. First year students are oriented towards two typical roles of modern librarianship (information professional, social worker), while in the responses by last year students, emotional factors also appear (they like books and they like libraries). First year students are interested in information technology, whereas last year students prefer the sociology of reading, readers' service and reference work. Students do not have well-defined ideas about the career when they start their studies. Students in their first year of studies do not seem to know librarianship at all, the number of those that do not wish to become librarians is slightly higher. Among last year students, the majority seemed determined to start their career as a librarian. In summary, the training positively influenced the students' commitment to the librarian profession. The differences of responses by students of two different years of studies would need further analysis, so the aim of this study is more to raise awareness and serve as a basis for subsequent research.

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek