Thanks to all the students, alumni and professionals who have participated in our ongoing curriculum review process! In Spring 2017, the LIS faculty approved the following framework for a revised curriculum, which we hope to have officially approved in time for the Fall 2018 semester. Highlights:
- Instead of a single list of core courses, students will be able to choose from several course options to meet most core requirements.
- Courses will be grouped into seven professional pathways: suggested groups of related core and elective courses, reflecting diverse career options.
- A new required seminar sequence taken in the first and last semesters, supporting professional development, peer mentoring and the creation of the culminating experience artifact. New students will enroll in LIS 691 Masters Seminar I (1 credit) in their first semester, while graduating students enroll in LIS 692 Masters Seminar II (2 credits). Both seminars will meet concurrently.
- In place of the oral comprehensive exam, we are proposing an ePortfolio as a culminating experience for non-thesis students. Students will compile evidence from course assignments and program experiences to demonstrate mastery of program Student Learning Outcomes, and present a reflective, professional ePortfolio. The ePortfolio will be introduced, compiled and refined in the required seminars, and in regular advising sessions.
Thirty-nine credits will still be required to graduate. When this process is complete, we will have created, revised or retired approximately 40 LIS courses!
We believe this new curriculum will result in more flexibility for students to craft individualized programs of study, more peer mentoring and engagement, and more tangible artifacts of students’ understanding, creativity and mastery.
While details are still evolving, here’s a preview:
Core requirements: Students will be able to select any of the following core course options to meet each corresponding Student Learning Outcome (SLO):
SLO1 Services: Design, provide, and assess information services
- LIS 601 Introduction to Reference and Information Services
SLO2 Professionalism: Apply history and ethics to develop a professional LIS identity
- LIS 610 Foundations of the Information Professions
- LIS 654 Archival Ethics & Profession
SLO3 Resources: Create, organize, manage and discover information resources
- LIS 602 Resource Discovery
- LIS 605 Metadata Creation for Information Organization
- LIS 615 Collection Management
- LIS 645 Asian Research Materials and Methods
- LIS 651 Archival Arrangement and Description
SLO4 Technologies: Evaluate and apply information technologies
- LIS 661 Informatics
- LIS 665 Digital Instruction
- LIS 672 Technology for Libraries and Information Centers
SLO5 Cultures: Engage with diverse communities and/or indigenous cultures
- LIS 630 Community Engagement
- LIS 631 Introduction to Hawaiʻi and Pacific Librarianship
- LIS 634 Multicultural Resources for Diverse User Groups
- LIS 662 Asian Informatics
SLO6 Management: Demonstrate skills necessary to manage and work effectively within information organizations
- LIS 614 Navigating Information Organizations
- LIS 650 Management of Libraries & Information Centers
- LIS 658 Archival Management
Courses and professional pathways
Our working proposed course list can be found here. To create a program of study tailored to your interests, we plan to offer seven professional pathways: suggested groups of courses associated with different professional environments:
- Academic/Special Librarianship
- Archives
- Asian Studies Librarianship
- Cultures/Communities
- Informatics
- Public Librarianship
- School Library Media
We will be eliciting suggestions in the 2017-18 academic year for appropriate core and elective courses recommended for each corresponding pathway. For all pathways, related Internship (LIS 690) courses are also strongly recommended.
Pathways are optional, and will not appear on your transcript or diploma, so you may follow them, combine them or create your own, in consultation with your faculty advisor. Articulating how your diverse individual experiences can help solve problems in professional information environments is a core component of the culminating ePortfolio.
Culminating experience
The ePortfolio is a reflective, artifact-based summation of how your coursework and other program experiences have prepared you to become an effective information professional. It consists of one artifact for each of the six program SLOs and a reflective narrative, and is summarized by the student in a presentation. It is assessed by two faculty members, as is the case with the current oral comprehensive exam, and must be successfully completed in order to graduate.
Students opting to write a thesis take a research methods course and 6 credits of LIS 700 Thesis Research as part of the 39-credit degree requirement.