WISE awarded IMLS Funding

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a grant for $936,000 to the Web-based Information Science Education (WISE) consortium, of which SIS is a member. WISE was created as an online course-sharing opportunity for masters programs in Library and Information Science; as of Summer 2006, the program has offered 117 online courses from 13 ALA-accredited programs.   The generous grant from the IMLS will be used to support WISE+ Leveraging the Power of the Network to Increase the Diversity of LIS Curriculum. 

WISE+ will support partnerships between WISE member schools and professional library associations to increase the course offerings available to both graduate students and librarians who seek educational offerings in diverse or specialized areas of study.  The partner associations include: the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), American Theological Library Association (ATLA), Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS), American Librarians Association (CALA), Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC), Medical Library Association (MLA), Middle Eastern Library Association (MELA), Music Library Association (MLA), PALINET, ProLiteracy Worldwide, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), Society of American Archivists (SAA), and Urban Libraries Council (ULC). 

The grant will also provide for support and training for education in online pedagogy for faculty and doctoral students who teach WISE courses.  The consortium will create a “WISE Scholar” program to provide certification for pedagogical training in online teaching. 

WISE+ will also create a digital repository for WISE supported courses.  This endeavor will be led by faculty from SIS, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’ Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. 

For more information about WISE and WISE+, please visit www.wiseeducation.org.