Course Description


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LIS 9001 Perspectives on Library and Information Science

Relationship to the Goals and Objectives of the MLIS Program
Students who complete this course will be able to:
  1. demonstrate an awareness of professional values and standards (Goal 2, Obj. 1a);
  2. respond to change in a spirit of intellectual inquiry (Goal 2, Obj. 1b);
  3. analyze major problems of the discipline and profession in a spirit of creativity and critical inquiry (Goal 2, Obj. 1e);
  4. understand the nature of particular user groups, and the collections, services, and facilities required to meet these needs (Goal 2, Obj. 1h).

Goals and Objectives of the MLIS Program

Course Description
An overview of issues, perspectives and concerns of importance to information professionals and the discipline of library and information science. An introduction to different information environments; and a consideration of the social, political, economic, cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts of information.

Course Objectives
Through readings assignments, guest speakers, and class discussion the course will:
  1. provide students with an overview of the profession and the discipline of library and information science.
  2. provide a range of perspectives which will allow students to make informed choices about their educational program and career planning.
  3. introduce students to the major current issues in library and information science.
  4. introduce students to the importance of the social, political, economic, cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts of information.

Sample Content (for information only)
  • Introduction
  • Preliminary Discussion
  • Information Professionals and Their Work: Past, Present, and Future
  • The ‘Information Age’ and the Library and Information Professions
  • The Development of Librarianship in North America
  • Library Work in Public Library Settings
  • Library Work in Academic Library Settings
  • Information Science: What is it and How Did it Develop?
  • Special Libraries and the Broadening of Information Work
  • Current Issues Facing the Library and Information Professions
  • Intellectual Freedom
  • The Protection of Rights: Intellectual Property and Privacy
  • What is a Professional? LIS Professional Associations
  • Professional Ethics
  • Meeting the Demands of Diversity
  • Reflecting on...
  • LIS Education and Research
  • Where we’ve been in 9001: Wrap-up and review

Sample Readings
Buckland, M. 1991. Information as thing. Journal of the American Society of Information Science 42(5):351–60.

Buschman, J. E. 2003. The public sphere: Rounding out the context of librarianship. In Dismantling the public sphere: Situating and sustaining librarianship in the age of the new public philosophy, J. Buschman, 37–53. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.

Schiller, D. 2007. How to think about information. In How to think about information, 3–16. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Winter, M. F. 2009. Librarianship and the labor process: Aspects of the rationalization, restructuring, and intensification of intellectual work. In Information technology in librarianship: New critical approaches, ed. G. J. Leckie and J. E. Buschman, 143–64. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.


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