Norwegian version (PDF 1,2 MB)

No 9 - It’s all about learning

by Lars Egeland
A summary

The book is based on my dissertation written while at Oslo University College. The topic of the dissertation is learning, and the main conclusion is that libraries should be more preoccupied with their contribution to learning, and raise the profile of learning as such. Thus libraries should employ the term learning rather than information as the constituent part of their activity.

From the range of differing views of learning, the socio-cultural view is put forward as being effective in relation to both the learning of the individual and the needs of society; it is also the one best suited to individual learning, for which the library can provide the means.

Finally, the dissertation proposes practical solutions for altering library practice to implement my main conclusions.

Arguments for the main conclusions are developed from different angles: To begin with, there is an historical study of libraries as educational institutions, followed by an examination of various views of learning and a discussion of these. Next there is a discussion of the theoretical basis of library and information science, which reveals that whilst educationalists talk of learning, researchers of library science discuss the individual acquisition of information. However, these do in fact largely describe the same process. In information science there is also an increasing emphasis on the socio-cultural character of information search, and that such a search clearly cannot be separated from the topic and its content. The concept of information is often criticised because of its association with market liberalism, where information is not regarded as having any value beyond its potential economic value. This strengthens the argument that libraries ought to use the notions knowledge and learning rather than information.