Final Results of the LIPER Project in Japan

The LIPER (Library and Information Professionals and Education Renewal), a three-year research project to study library and information science (LIS) education systems and curricula in Japan and overseas for a possible reform of the Japanese LIS education system, was completed in March 2006. The major findings were: (1) the structure of Japanese LIS education has remained unchanged for 50 years, and the gap between it and overseas LIS education has been ever increasing; (2) the curricula and contents of LIS education are not well standardized nor integrated into higher education programs and very few people who obtain a librarian’s certificate get employed in library markets; (3) new areas of education including IT skills and