Introduction to Library and Information Science/Learning More: Free LIS Resources


After reading this chapter, students should be able to articulate

  1. the importance of professional development and continuing education
  2. barriers to professional development and continuing education
  3. a list of prominent open access professional development tools in their area of specialty

Professional development edit

Open access LIS resources edit

Many LIS resources have restrictive licenses and are only available to people affiliated with libraries that subscribe to them. This includes many of our discipline's most well-known journals. However, there is an increasing number of LIS material available freely online. Some are free of charge, others are freely licensed, and some, like the LIS Wiki, can be edited by anyone.

Reference sources edit

  • Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science, by Joan K. Reitz. This is a great resource, but not freely licensed, so don't copy it here.
  • LIS Wiki, a Free compendium that anyone can edit -- licensed under the GNU FDL.
  • Talking with other library workers, many of whom love answering questions and mentoring.

Peer-reviewed Journals edit

While the major peer-reviewed journals in LIS tend to have some major barriers to access, an increasing number of journals in our field are freely accessible online. Currently, open access journals tend to have a more international focus, and also tend to emphasize technology topics more than traditional U.S. indexes of library publications. You can search a number of open-access peer-reviewed journals simultaneously using the [Directory of Open Access Journals], which indexes dozens of LIS journals.

Non-English edit