THE POTENTIAL OF INFORMATION NETWORKS FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION-SCIENCE EDUCATION

Continued professional education for information scientists and librar ians is of increasingly vital importance, especially in the context of the changing rob of the information professional from custodian to co mmunicative agent. The advent of widespread information networking off ers new opportunities for developing a more extensive and participativ e approach to this need, through new forms of distance learning. Media such as computer conferencing may help to overcome some of the geogra phical and professional boundaries which have hindered individual pers onal development; however, at present there is no overall picture of t he extent of use of the network medium, or a detailed scenario for fut ure developments. Research in progress at Brighton University aims to investigate these issues.