The Impact of Accreditation Standards in Developing Library and Information Science Master’s Degree Program in Jordan: A Comparative Study with American Library Association (ALA) Standards

Abstract

Standards and their application are a tool to reach the required level of academic performance to ensure providing the society and labor market with a distinct level of graduates. Library science, as an academic field, is in dire need for such standards to raise the level of the scientific field and of functionality and library services. This is the ultimate goal of the field. This study evaluated Jordanian standards for Master Degree in Library Science through a comparison with the ALA standards. The study concluded that Jordanian standards are general for all postgraduate studies in all scientific fields, so there are no specific standards for the master’s program in library science. The Jordanian standards are issued by a commission which is not linked with the profession and this makes the standards lack too many necessary requirements for the scientific knowledge of libraries as a field of study and as a profession.

Keywords: Standards; Master’s Degree; ALA standards; postgraduate studies; Jordan .