Standard II. Curriculum

II.1. The curriculum is based on goals and objectives, and evolves in response to an ongoing systematic planning process. Within this general framework, the curriculum provides, through a variety of education experiences, for the study of theory, principles, practice, and values necessary for the provision of service in libraries and information agencies and in other contexts.

The curriculum of the MLIS program is evidence-based: the program goals, learning objectives and course syllabi are informed by research and practice in the field, and frequently updated to reflect trends and developments in the information landscape. The responses below draw upon examples from courses taught, projects assigned and/or completed, and courses of study within the specializations.

The goals of the MLIS Program are student-centric, outlining the skills, knowledge and understanding to be imparted to students.

The MLIS Goals for Graduates

Upon completion of the MLIS degree, graduates will incorporate the theories, knowledge, skills, ethical foundations and social responsibilities of the information professions into professional practice for the benefits of users. Specifically, graduates will be able to:

Draw upon the ethics, values and history of library and information science and other related disciplines.
Apply the principles of information management.
Advance the creative and ethical applications of information technologies.
Apply the principles of management to various functions in information environments.
Plan, implement, evaluate and advocate information services to meet the needs of diverse users.
Promote intellectual freedom and equity of access to information.
Understand and apply research in library and information science.
Promote a commitment to the advancement of the information professions through advocacy, continuing education and lifelong learning.

The program faculty as a whole serves as the curriculum committee, an organizational structure that facilitates the development of consistent and meaningful learning experiences across the entire curriculum. Doctoral students attend curriculum meetings as teaching fellows/assistants, along with adjunct faculty, and are encouraged to provide feedback on their experiences as teachers, teaching assistants and learners as part of the ongoing review process. The review process incorporates feedback from students, gathered via reports from student evaluations of teaching, as well as the opinions of members of the MLIS student advisory group, in addition to the results of reflection and self-evaluation by faculty. All faculty must request student evaluations from the University’s Office for Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching (OMET) for each course that they teach. During the past two years, a reduced number of faculty members meant that the MLIS student advisory committee was put on hold for several terms. However, with the faculty almost back to its full complement of professors, the MLIS student advisory committee was reconstituted during Fall 2012.

Curriculum review is a continuous interactive process, with operational, tactical and strategic elements. The process includes: systematic monitoring of course offerings, in line with the annual and termly teaching cycle; ad hoc proposals for additions or changes to courses, initiated by faculty members to meet academic and professional needs; and periodic evaluation and review of the curriculum at program level, conducted as a strategic exercise. Every year, when preparing course schedules, the faculty reviews the schedule and decides which courses will be offered and in which term(s) they will be taught. These decisions are based on several criteria – historic course enrollments, current demand from students, instructor availability, length of time from the previous course offering of a less frequently offered course. Periodically (every 2-3 years), the whole course catalog is reviewed and courses are deleted as necessary. New, experimental courses are periodically introduced based on faculty and PhD student interest in developing and teaching a course that corresponds to their area of research or which addresses a change in the profession (see CUR 3). Thus, in meetings during Fall 2012, the LIS faculty: reviewed the current course catalog to identify courses for deletion, and courses for transition from special topics to regular electives; discussed progress and plans for migration of courses to the new PittOnline mode of delivery; received proposals for reconfiguration of required and elective courses in the Archives, Preservation and Records Management specialization, and for changing the name of the specialization to Archives and Information Science; and discussed the external program evaluation of the IMLS-funded Certificate of Advanced Study in Health Sciences Librarianship. In addition, the faculty established a sub-committee to lead a comprehensive review of the MLIS curriculum, which is currently in progress and due to complete the review of the MLIS core courses in Spring 2013. The results of the review of core courses to date will be available on-site. In Fall 2013, the review process will address the courses in high demand (such as LIS 2184 Legal Issues in Information Handling: Copyright and Fair Use in the Digital Age). Following this, the faculty will begin to review the specialization-specific courses, which is appropriate in that the process will incorporate the anticipated new faculty member. For a description of each specialization, see Standard II.5

Curriculum review and reform is also reflective of information gathered as part of the annual University Learning Outcomes Assessment, the Peer Review of Teaching process, and other planning and assessment endeavors. The Learning Outcomes Assessment involves an annual effort by the program faculty to extensively and comprehensively review a specific course (including course activities) to ensure that the course leads to attainment of a specified level of student learning (see CUR 7). The Peer Review of Teaching process is mandated and supported by the School of Information Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh. The purpose of this process is to ensure that teaching quality remains a key priority, that continual improvement of teaching occurs, and that recognition and reward of teaching excellence is provided. For more information about the Peer Review of Teaching process, see Standard III.2. All faculty, teaching fellows, and adjuncts participate in this process on a regular basis on the schedule as provided in Standard III.2.

The MLIS program weaves theory, principles, practice and values throughout the entire curriculum. This includes encounters with the key ethical issues and core values of the information professions. Space does not permit a detailed account of how each class structures theory, principles, practices and values – these can be gleaned from the course syllabi included in Appendix CUR 1. Below are examples of how specific courses/particular courses of study integrate theory, principles, practice and values. (Examples of experiential opportunities can be found in Standard II.4.)

LIS 2005 Organizing and Retrieving Information, a core course, provides in-depth examinations of the building blocks of the LIS field, including: standards (e.g. AACR, RDA, FRBR; MARC exercises; RUSA Behavioral Guidelines); controlled vocabulary and thesauri (e.g. LCSH, Sears, MeSH, ERIC Descriptors, Art & Architecture Thesaurus); classification schemes (e.g. DDC, LC, SuDoc); faceted and progressive classification systems; and functional training (e.g. OCLC, methods for information retrieval).

In LIS 2700 Managing Libraries and Information Systems and Services in Changing Environments (a required course for MLIS students, except students in the SLCP and APRM specializations), a special emphasis is placed on ethics and values, connecting effective management and leadership with the core values of the information professions, including a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Students in the APRM specialization encounter theory, principles, and practices, and explore the ethical issues and core values as they relate to the archival world. The APRM specialization builds on a notion of archival knowledge consisting of theory, methodology, and practice. Each APRM course has a strong focus on theoretical principles. In LIS 2222 Archival Appraisal, students are required to read a variety of seminal writings on archival theory, as well as newer writings incorporating postmodernist criticism or blending the two.

Courses in the Children and Youth Specialization are grounded in theories from within and beyond the field of information studies. These include: information behavior theory, such as Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model and Dervin’s sense-making; literary theories (Fish’s/Rosenblatt’s reader response theory versus more formalist approaches); theories of cognitive and language development (Piaget, Erickson, Vygotsky); and socio-technical theories (McLuhan’s technical determinism, Lave & Wenger’s communities of practice). These theories lead to a range of principles that can be applied to library services for children and youth. For example, with social constructivist approaches to literacy development in mind, students plan a program proposal for an early childhood library program in LIS 2335 Library Services for Early Childhood. In LIS 2633 Technology in the Lives of Children and Youth, a class that looks at the effects of technology on children’s lives, students learn about digital and media literacy and are then asked to design a service for teens that teaches a digital literacy skill: in one assignment, they design a program for Teen Tech Week; in another, they create a digital story that teaches a digital literacy skill.