An Investigation of Supporting Courses for Digital Libraries

Due to the increasingly growing Internet, many countries take a serious look at the new information carrier. Few years ago, National Science Foundation (NSF) of USA initiated research projects on Digital Libraries (DL). Other countries around the world also initiated many DL research projects recently. There are some DL projects undergoing now in Taiwan. However, in the process of project execution, many project leaders find out that the students involving in these projects are not well trained. This is not because of educational quality, but the interdisciplinary characteristics of DL researches. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the supporting courses for training manpower in the field of digital library.After preliminary analysis, there is little consensus on the usage of terminology. As for the curriculum, 36 courses are suggested by professors and experts. With comparison to the current curriculum, a joint force from different departments is capable to cultivate the necessary manpower for DL projects. Only six courses need to be initiated to compensate the deficiency of the current curriculum. Due to the interdisciplinary characteristics of DL projects, this paper suggests that 20 credits is the minimal requirement for students from various fields to gain the basic knowledge and skills to involve DL projects.[Article content in Chinese]