Abstract

Librarian certification in Korea is issued by the LIS Departments, the Academy of Librarianship, and the Academic Credit Bank system; however, it has been pointed out that there is a limit to how much these nurture high quality librarians, because the education quality and contents varies from education institutions and there is no verification method for certification issued by educational programs. Therefore, this study investigated certification systems of academic or training programs that are conducted at home and abroad, analyzed how the certification systems are oriented, what the purpose and criteria of the certification systems are, and what the content of assessment is. As a result of this investigation, several areas needing change were identified which if adopted can improve the system. These included making amendments to the library laws related to the certification system, substantially revising the relevant enforcement ordinance, making changes to the selection of the Certification authority, establishing certification standards and procedures, developing contents related to document examination and due diligence audits, rating the effects of the certification system, and setting standards. Improving the Librarian Certification System has been discussed over the past 20 years and should not be delayed any longer because of the university structural reform of the current government, the rapid rise of the qualified librarians, decreasing employment due to the human resources supply and demand imbalances, all of which has resulted in a survival crisis of four-year Department of Library and Information Science.