Is LIS Education Future-Ready? A 56-Year Analysis of Emerging Topics and Research Trajectories

Abstract

The LIS Education programs have seen significant changes over the last fifty-six years, which have impacted the LIS curriculum in several ways.  The study aims to evaluate the evolving research trend and the growth of literature in LIS education and curriculum. Data were collected from the Scopus Database and processed using OpenRefine, VOSviewer, and SCImago Graphica. This study employed the bibliometric and topic modeling approach using the OpenAlex REST API service. The study involved 1296 bibliographic data on LIS education and curriculum, covering the period from 1968-2024. The findings, focusing on research productivity analysis, provide an overview of the most productive publishing channels, publishers, and country collaboration. In addition, it also offers an in-depth keyword analysis to identify emerging topics and includes topic modeling approach. The keywords analysis shows that a new topic, such as Web 2.0, Digital Curation, Research Data Management, etc., was brought to study every year. The emerging primary topics, such as “Information Literacy in Higher Education” and “Social Inclusion in Library Services for Newcomers,” etc. indicate the shifting research priorities and areas of growing interest in LIS. As a result, it is necessary to modify the LIS curriculum to reflect these current trends in LIS Education.