Education for academic librarians in Austria: From the early beginnings up to the present

After a short introduction of the LIS landscape in Austria, the development of LIS education for academic librarians will be discussed. Until 2004 library education in Austria consisted mainly of vocational training to which only university graduates and eventually high-school graduates were admitted. In the nineteen-nineties, with Austria joining the European Union and the creation of universities of applied sciences, LIS education became possible at the university level. For various reasons, the two established LIS programmes were discontinued after a relatively short time period. Major changes in university legislation concerning the legal autonomy of Austrian universities meant, however, that a post-graduate inter-university library and information studies programme could be launched in 2004. With the fourth revision of the curriculum in 2019, the programme has become even more aligned with international practice in terms of content, didactic methods and flexibility. The increased dynamism in library education has also had an impact on the creation of non-academic training and continuing education programmes.