The role of the Għaqda Bibljotekarji in the education and training of librarians from its foundation to 1988

Abstract

This work records the immense contribution made by the Malta Library Association in evolving part-time Library and Information Science educational courses to meet the growing demand for services in this field. It highlights the MLA' s constant emphasis on the pressing need to raise local standards in librarianship to international levels and to accord professional status to qualified librarians. It describes the strategies adopted by the Association aimed at creating an awareness on the part of the Ministry of Education and the University authorities regarding their responsibility to fund and promote library education. It traces the links established with foreign Library Schools, Library Associations and international library organisations with a: view to acquiring the relevant expertise needed to organise training courses in librarianship. The study comes to a conclusion with the holding of the first Evening Diploma Course in Library and Information Studies in 1986, organised jointly between the Association and the Faculty of Education of the University of Malta, which achievement can be rightly hailed as the culmination point of the MLA's mission.