Introduction

Changes since Last Review

The last Review by the Committee on Accreditation took place in 2006. At that time, the School was just embarking on several key initiatives including reorganizing to be more School-centric, focusing on learning outcomes and a culture of assessment, and fostering the iSchool movement. At this point, the School is continuing to monitor the effectiveness of the governance transition; enhancing degree and research programs to meet the needs of students, the professions and society; and identifying areas of inquiry and education that will define not only the School, but also the Information Professions, in the future.

The LIS Program has faced great change during this period, much of it unplanned and unwanted. Due to the deaths of several key faculty members, as well as the unexpected departures of others, the program has overcome a great many challenges. However, the Fall of 2012 brought three new faculty on-board and the initiation of a recruitment effort for four additional faculty (including one non-tenure stream position in the archives area). Once completed, this will restore the LIS Program to nearly its full complement of teaching and research faculty (the one exception being the Doreen E. Boyce Chair in Library and Information Science, for which recruitment is to commence in Fall 2013).

In spite of dramatic personnel turnover, the MLIS program has embarked upon or completed a number of significant endeavors during this period. These are described in greater detail throughout this Program Presentation, but several are highlighted below:

Comprehensive Curriculum Review

In December 2012, the LIS faculty initiated a comprehensive review of the MLIS curriculum to assess the effectiveness of the core courses, the breadth of the electives, and the value of the out-of-the-classroom activities. The faculty will have completed a review of the core courses (LIS 2000, LIS 2005, LIS 2600, and LIS 2700) and considered issues arising from the first stage of the review by April 2013. We expect to have a set of initial recommendations related to core components of the curriculum by the end of the Spring 2013 term, which will be refined and consolidated in the next stage of the review, commencing Fall 2013. The second stage will focus on the program’s specializations and electives, including additions and changes to our portfolio of courses related to new faculty appointments. The preliminary outcomes of this process are included in appendix CUR 8 (available on-site).

Expansion and Updating of Specialization Options

In addition to the Individualized course of study, the Program offers specializations in seven key areas:

Transition of Online MLIS Program to new platform

As explained in more detail in Appendix PRO 5 (available on-site), the School is transitioning the online MLIS program to a university-sponsored platform, Pitt Online. This decision followed an external consultant’s review of the online program in light of decreasing faculty resources, increasing costs of instructional and distance technologies, and some indicators of pedagogical concern on the part of faculty and students with the “blended” modality of the former program. In Summer 2012, the School began the production of MLIS core courses within the Pitt Online framework. See PRO 5 (available on-site) for the Transition Plan. This process of completely transitioning to the Pitt Online platform will take several years; in the meantime, new and existing students will take those courses not yet converted in the former “blended” delivery method.

Implementation and Enhancement of the Partners Program (2006) and Field Experience Options (2010)

The LIS program now offers a suite of opportunities to allow students to gain invaluable practical experience, to enhance their job search success, and to apply classroom learning in real-world situations. New field experience electives, reflecting the current MLIS specializations, have been created.

Revision of Core Courses (2009)

The LIS Program Faculty merged two core courses (LIS 2001 Organizing Information and LIS 2002 Retrieving Information) to form LIS 2005 Organizing and Retrieving Information.

Diversity Initiatives

Several program faculty have been selected for, and completed, the Annual Faculty Diversity Seminar, sponsored by University of Pittsburgh’s Office of the Provost. These competitively-awarded fellowships permit faculty to redesign their courses to be more inclusive with regard to race and gender. The LIS 2700 Managing Libraries & Information Systems & Services course and LIS 2670 Digital Libraries are the first of these diversity-infused courses to be offered. The outcomes of participation in the Diversity Seminar are provided in appendix CUR 9.

In addition, the School is home to the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3), a ground-breaking initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to increase the diversity of the student body and faculty of the iSchools.  See http://www.ischool-inclusion.org/ or appendix SCH 12 for more information about this program.

Creation of Research and Educational Offerings in Cyberscholarship

Another major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation enabled the School to add a senior scholar to the faculty and to create a graduate research program to explore the transformation of scholarly communication as a result of digital technologies, networks, and data-driven science. The program, known as cyberscholarship, is currently being led by Stephen Griffin, who retired from the National Science Foundation at the end of 2011. A new doctoral seminar on Digital Scholarship was cross-listed between degree programs at the School and several MLIS students took it as an elective course.

Top