The master of library and information science degree program prepares students who seek careers in the information professions, including service in libraries, businesses, and research settings. The program`s curriculum emphasizes understanding the needs of information seekers, identifying and organizing information resources, and creating systematic connections between users and tools. Students are prepared to offer expert help, to evaluate the quality of available information, to use the range of appropriate technologies and formats to resolve problems of information need, and to pursue careers in areas such as information retrieval, general and specialized reference services, library management and policy, information services to children and youth, school media services, and the technologies of information management, control, and dissemination. The graduate program changes as the nature and future of information change, but it is firmly committed to transmitting essential knowledge, long-lasting cognitive skills, and an attitude of welcome responsibility for information in social and private life.
In collaboration with other departments in the school, the department also contributes to the master of communication and information studies degree program, preparing students to understand and manage the information and communication systems of complex organizations. The M.C.I.S. program develops competence in the analysis, evaluation, design, and implementation of information and communication systems, and their impacts on individuals and society. Such systems encompass all types of information and communication: both oral and written, informal and formal, proprietary and published. The program emphasizes the contributions of emerging technologies to the integration of information and communication both inside and outside complex organizations. In view of our common ideals, students in the two master`s degree programs occasionally share classes.
In a similar way, the department contributes to the doctor of philosophy program in communication, information, and library studies, leading to a degree granted by the Graduate School-New Brunswick. This challenging program emphasizes theory and research about the nature of information and its exchange in psychological, social, and economic contexts, among individuals, groups, organizations, and society. All of the scholarly and research interests of the Department of Library and Information Science are represented in the Ph.D. program as well. Faculty contributions to doctoral studies include such areas as information media and technology, information services and education, library management and policy, information retrieval, organization and dissemination of information, and school and youth services. The Ph.D. program maintains its long-standing national reputation for leadership in the profession by selecting students of the greatest promise from a national group of distinguished beginning and midcareer scholars and professionals, some of whom have earned their master`s degrees from our own program.
