Terry L. Weech GSLIS University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign - U.S.A

Transcription

1 "Challenges to LIS education: an American point of view LIS-ER Seminar June, 2015 New career opportunities and New Degrees in ischools with LIS programs. Terry L. Weech GSLIS University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign - U.S.A Former Chair of IFLA Library Education and Training Section and of the IFLA Library Theory and Research Section. Currently a member of the American Library Association Committee on Accreditation.

2 Current Student Statistics at Illinois GSLIS Masters Online 294 CAS Online 7 Masters On-campus 227 CAS On-campus 7 PhD On-campus 57 International Masters 14 (Bangladesh, Canada, China, India, Italy, Taiwan, Zambia) CAS 2 (Canada, China) PhD 16 (Bangladesh, Canada, China, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Uganda) About 12 Scholars in Residence, mostly from China. (

3 New career opportunities In addition to traditional librarianship positions, the American Library Association lists the following career pathways within ALA-accredited programs: Archival Studies Cultural Heritage Information Management Digital Libraries Health Sciences Librarianship/Health Informatics Information Systems Design/Analysis Knowledge Management Law Librarianship/Legal Information Services Music Librarianship Records Management Science Librarianship Special Collections Special/Corporate Librarianship Other: Data Management/Curation

4 Jobs that students currently obtain Majority of LIS graduates from my program still work in libraries. Generally in the 60-90% range. At our school, even students who specialized in Data Curation and related data analysis, a majority ended up working in a library in positions that involved general library duties. But in general, graduates of ALA accredited programs accepting positions outside of LIS increased from 9.5% of 2012 placements to 12.1% in 2013 (Maatta, Renaissance Librarians Library Journal, 139(October 15, 2014) p. 5) As noted in response to the Library Journal 2014 placement survey, the adoption of new degree names and multiple degrees in addition to the traditional LIS degree, complicates the validity of placement results from LIS programs. Placements & Salaries 2014 Library Journal. October 15,

5 Why focus on alternative positons to those in Librarianship? Positions for Professional Librarians are predicted to grow at a rate slower than average (11,000 job opportunities in the U.S. through 2022) To survive, LIS Education Programs in the U.S. must increase income, and thus enrollment, in a competitive and challenging higher education financial environment

6 Financial Issues in LIS Education in the U.S. 1. Tuition Income from LIS Education 2. Research Grant and Contract Income from LIS Education 3. Alumni support from LIS Education graduates

7 Strategies for coping with these issues. 1. Increasing enrollment by expanding program delivery using online delivery of degrees. 2. Improving success rate of Research Grant and Contract applications. 3. Allocating more funding to public relations to expand Alumni support. 4. Establishing undergraduate degrees to improve perception of political standing within parent organization 5. Establish new degrees to increase tuition income

8 Risks of some strategies 1. Consolidation with other academic units that may not share the same culture 2. Loss of alumni support 3. Decrease in enrollment (and thus income) because of confusion of mission of new programs and degrees. 4. Other academic units may perceive LIS education as a threat to their survival.

9 New degrees as a solution 1. Adding new degrees such as a Master of Science in Information Management can provide the hope for expanded income from increasing enrollments 2. Alternative degrees avoiding specific reference to LIS breaks the stereotyped perceptions associated with libraries and also enables recruiters to avoid discussion of the slower growth of LIS positions in the coming decade.

10 U.S. News ranking the U.S. LIS schools 1. University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign 2. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 3. University of Washington -- Seattle, WA 4. Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 4. University of Michigan Ann Arbor 6. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick 6. University of Texas Austin 8. Indiana University Bloomington 9. Simmons College - Boston, MA 10. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 10. University of Maryland College Park 10. University of Pittsburgh -Pittsburgh, PA

11 Degree s granted in top ten LIS Programs in U.S. 8 Schools: Master s Degree in LIS 2 Schools: Master s in LS and Master s in IS 3 Schools: Master s in Information or Info Studies 3 Schools: Master s in Information Management Other degrees range from degrees in Bio-informatics to Telecommunications in addition to the ALA accredited master s degree program. In the top ten, only Simmons offers one master s degree (In LIS).

12 Success of New Degrees in Expanding Career Opportunities? Too soon to tell? One program reported in 2015 that the Information Management masters degree had less than half the students as their LIS degree program. If increase in enrollment is a goal, that might not be considered as a success. Probably will take three or four years to reach full development of desired enrollment in the new degrees being established. Given the financial challenges in higher education the U.S. in 2015, the question is whether establishing new alternative degrees is too little to late?

13 LIS-ER Seminar June, 2015 Thank you very much for your attention. Questions or Comments? Terry L. Weech GSLIS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - U.S.A ********************