News / Focus your studies

Students in the MLIS degree program are able to focus their studies in Academic Libraries, a growing field with numerous opportunities for employment and career development.  At this time, there are more than 3527 academic libraries in the United States.  SIS and the University Library System (ULS) have collaborated to develop a specialization that will educate librarians for positions in academic libraries of all types and sizes, with an emphasis on work related-learning experiences for students.
The Academic Libraries track builds on the strengths of both the SIS faculty and the ULS, a top-quartile Association of Research Libraries library system consisting of more than 20 libraries and collections.  The Library System offers SIS faculty and students the opportunity to work with more than 50 faculty librarians from a wide variety of units in a laboratory-like setting to develop practical applications of the theory of librarianship.

Students specializing in this 36-credit track will follow a sequence of courses, with opportunities for electives for developing individual interests. Students will take courses including Understanding Information, Retrieving Information, Introduction to Information Technologies, Reference Resources and Services, Organizing Information, Managing Libraries, Government Documents, Issues in Academic Libraries, The Library’s Role in Teaching and Learning and Collection Development.

The Academic Libraries Track emphasizes work-related learning experiences for students.  Through the Partners' Program or other field experiences, students will gain hands-on experience in the daily operations of academic libraries in many of the ULS facilities including Bevier Engineering Library, Frick Fine Arts Library, Hillman Library, and the University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center.   Students will develop practical applications of the theory of librarianship that they study in the classroom, experience which will stand them in good stead when they graduate and begin to seek out a job. 

Internships have been available at Bevier Engineering Library, Chemistry Library, Frick Fine Arts Library, Hillman Library Reference, Music Library, SIS Library, and the University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center.

Students interested in the Academic Libraries track also have the option of doing the program part-time and completing internships in other academic libraries in the Pittsburgh region.

In addition to the core MLIS curriculum, students will take courses on “Government Documents,” “Issues in Academic Libraries,” “The Library’s Role in Teaching and Learning,” and “Collection Development.”  The partnership between SIS and the ULS is a unique feature of the specialization and gives students a chance to gain practical experience in a major research university’s library system.