Michael Lesk, Chairperson; Department of Library and Information Science
Ross J. Todd, Director; Master of Library and Information Science Degree Program
www.scils.rutgers.edu/lis/index.html
The
Department of Library and Information Science educates the new
generation of leaders in global, networked librarianship and
information services. Its special emphasis is on people seeking and
using information in the context of advances in technology, policy,
access, and organization.
The new environment of digitized
information, including the Internet and the World Wide Web, offers
serious challenges to the education of information professionals. The
department's curriculum demands technical competence on the part of the
matriculating student and requires that students come to an
understanding about the involvement of global information networks as
they relate to shifting geopolitical and social realities. As students
familiarize themselves with new technologies and global circumstances,
they also learn about the ethical values and the historical roots of
modern information mediation. This knowledge enables students to
appreciate those aspects of librarianship that are relevant to the 21st
century, chief among them being library and information science's focus
on people seeking and using information.
Since it was
founded in 1953, the Rutgers M.L.I.S. program has taught future
information professionals to understand the basic processes of
information and their relation to society. Through courses taught by
theoreticians and practicing professionals, the department's curriculum
has combined the principles of librarianship and information science to
educate students to help users to function effectively in their diverse
worlds. Theory has been consistently connected with the requirements of
professional practice.
The globalization of information
requires that the Rutgers M.L.I.S. program extend its goal of educating
the leaders of the profession through exposure to the social and policy
aspects of information access across borders, as well as to
cutting-edge technology. We position our students to be innovative in
the global use of the new information media to serve the needs of
diverse populations.
The faculty offers the master of
library and information science (M.L.I.S.) degree and the bachelor of
arts degree in information technology and informatics. The faculty
offers continuing education to professionals in the field, and it
contributes to both the master of communication and information studies
(M.C.I.S.) and doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree programs, described
in this catalog. While the faculty's research projects and teaching
interests are diverse, they center on the provision of information to
people and the effects of information on their experiences and
learning. Faculty are interested in the array of institutions where
information is disseminated in culture and the phenomena surrounding
this transfer, in the society that information sustains and makes
possible, and in the work that information specialists do as they live
up to the challenging responsibilities implicit in their work.
The department has three goals: to teach, to inquire, and to serve.
