Embedding multimedia in the Library school curriculum

The MSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies at the University of Strathclyde is in its 21st year. One of the continuous hallmarks of the course has been its state-of-the-art focus on information and communications technologies in libraries, (ICTs) and illustrations of this can be seen in the modules Fundamentals of Information and Communication Technologies (FICT) and Digital Archiving and Preservation (DAP). The main aim of FICT was to position multimedia as the core of ICT, rather than as merely the latest component. It was hypothesised that students think of ICT and multimedia as near synonyms. The web and CDs/DVDs are intrinsically multimedia in nature, so students should have recognised this. All popular operating systems also come with software to display, and give basic editing control over, multimedia. Hardware devices to create and manipulate multimedia (scanners, digital cameras and digital audio players) are increasingly replacing analogue counterparts