In view of the continuous change of Library and Information
Science (LIS) courses, a recurring yet unanswered question is how much change
has actually occurred in the LIS curricula over the years in LIS education. The
goal of this paper is to answer this question by looking into the Information
Technology (IT) oriented courses taught in four LIS schools in the United States
in the academic years of 1971-72, 1975-76, 1980-81, 1985-86, 1990-91, and
1994-95. Two types of analysis, one macro- and one micro-, are presented. The
macro-analysis investigates the frequency distribution and the changing ratio of
the IT-oriented courses in the investigated academic years for each individual
school and for all the four schools. The micro-analysis examines the curricula
topics of the IT-oriented courses find out 1) what kind of IT-oriented courses
are included in the LIS curricula; 2) whether there exists a consensus of the
IT- oriented courses in the curricula among these four schools. The findings of
both macro-and micro- analyses are described and the impact of IT-oriented
courses on the LIS curricula development in the LIS education is discussed.