Graduates on placement: Perceptions about effectiveness and learned professional skills

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of students' 8 weeks placement in a practicum in all types of libraries as part of their Master degree requirement. The practicum, as a part of curriculum, offers benefits to all stakeholders including students, library schools and hosting libraries. The Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan has been offering a practicum since 2000 and lately changed its criteria, and updated knowledge and learning domains. Therefore, it was decided to measure the perceived effectiveness of this program through students’ opinions. The study used questionnaire-based survey method to collect data from the students of three sessions who had completed their practicum from years 2014 to 2016. The findings revealed that respondents perceived their overall practicum experience as ‘effective’. However, they perceived that practicum was more effective in term of learning technical skills (such as acquisition, classification, cataloguing, circulation) than acquiring soft and communication skills (written communication, interpersonal, reference service). The respondents suggested that they should have been provided opportunity to learn and practice both communication and administrative skills in libraries.