A cluster analysis of LIS students in Singapore and implications for defining areas of specialization

Christopher Khoo, Susan Higgins, Schubert Foo, Sey-Peng Lim

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    A study of the subject interests of LIS students in Singapore was carried out via a questionnaire survey of students and graduates of the master of science (MSc) information studies program at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as well as a survey of applicants to the program. Cluster analysis was performed on the questionnaire data. The respondents were clustered based on the elective subjects that they selected in the questionnaires. For both sets of data, two distinct clusters were found'a library-oriented cluster and an information technology (IT)/information management-oriented cluster. In each cluster, further sub-clusters were found that correspond to known specializations in the field. An analysis of the relationship between the clusters and the areas of specialization selected by respondents indicated some ways of improving the areas of specialization defined in the MSc program. The cluster analyses were found to yield useful results and provided a better understanding of the students' interests and how the interests were structured.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)36-57
    Number of pages22
    JournalJournal of Education for Library and Information Science
    Volume45
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 2004

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