Librarian Way

Karen Glover argues for the value of an online MLS/MLIS degree in Don’t Discredit My Online Degree in Library Journal. I think this is useful reading for both librarians who are hiring and who are biased against those with online or mostly online MLS degrees, and for those who hold these degrees and are just getting started on job hunting.

The San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science has both a traditional degree program and a distance program. Most faculty in SJSU SLIS are located in San Jose, but there are a few faculty in the south campus for the program, which is located at California State University, Fullerton. Though distance students can take a lot of their classes online and thus have the chance to take classes with San Jose faculty, it is probably impossible to get through this program without attending at least some weekend classes. So, SJSU SLIS is not a totally online distance education degree.

Everything that Glover mentions in her argument applies to the SJSU SLIS online classes. We have mandatory online discussion boards, where we interact with our peers and the instructor, maybe even more so than in a traditional class setting, as no one can just sit back and listen. She pointed out that most people enrolled in online degrees do not have the option of moving within commuting distance of the library school because they have other commitments. Because distance students often have families to care for and jobs to go to, Glover argues, they have obvious strengths that are valuable to an employer: “We multitask and organize. Our time management skills are impressive, and our commitment to our education is unmatched.”

Another thing to remember is that there are only around 56 ALA-accredited LIS schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, so there are not a lot of options. Some states don’t even have a library school. Distance education classes leading to an MLS degree are critical if the library world wants to expand the number of degree holders. It is the ALA-accreditation that is important, not whether the program is mostly online. The 2006 list of ALA-accredited LIS schools, including advice for prospective students on choosing a school, is available on ALA at: LIS Directory.

I received the following annoucement from Sanda Erdelez on behalf of the ASIS&T SIGUSE (American Society for Information Science and Technology, Information Needs Seeking and Use Group) in my email this morning:

Please join us next Tuesday (September 20, 2005) from 8:00-8:30 PM Central Time for a first live webcast about topics in human information behavior research.

Host: Sanda Erdelez, University of Missouri

Guest: Karen Fisher, U. of Washington, Chair SIG USE

Karen will talk about the Theories of Information Behavior, a book in ASIS&T monograph series that was published this summer by Information Today.

LiS Webcast is also known as LISRadio at the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies (SISLT) at the University of Missouri-Columbia. They intend to “present interesting and stimulating conversations with movers, shakers, and the odd gadfly or two in libraryland.” The September 6, 2005 webcast is titled “Job Opportunities for Next Gen Librarians.”

They also have an “On the Job” webcast on Thursdays, in which they interview past graduates of SISLT.

Webcasts are archived.

Links:
SIGUSE
ASIS&T

Peter Morville, who co-authored the book that everyone interested in information architecture reads, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, has started a blog findability.org | ambient findability + the design of findable objects . He states,

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s a borg. I mean, it’s a blog. Yes, after years of quiet resistance, I’ve succumbed to the call of the blogosphere. I’ve been assimilated.

In blogging, my most transparent and prosaic goal is to promote my new book, Ambient Findability. I’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into this strange text, so I won’t be shy about inviting folks to read it.