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Master of Science

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The master of science is offered on a full- or part-time basis at our Boston campus, and on a part-time basis at our Mount Holyoke campus. The program is accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of the American Library Association. GSLIS academic and professional preparation teaches students to analyze the information needs of their users, utilize a variety of tools and technologies to locate and evaluate that information, and organize, manage, and preserve information so that it becomes an accessible and permanent source of knowledge.

Students can focus on a general course of study or choose to specialize in preservation, archives management, or school librarianship. After satisfying library and information science course requirements, students choose from a wide variety of stimulating electives, including Oral History (LIS 433), Photographic Archives and Visual Information (LIS 471), International and Comparative Librarianship (LIS 490), Information Entrepreneurship (LIS 478), XML - eXtensible Markup Language (LIS 531F), and Information Retrieval (LIS 531H). Students also may emphasize areas of study without formally specializing in one of them. For example, web design, digital libraries for nonprint materials, and the growing field of competitive intelligence are potent areas of expertise in business and technology markets today.

The minimum amount of time needed to complete the Master's degree program is four terms; students must complete the program within six years of initial enrollment. Classes are scheduled in the daytime, as well as evenings and occasionally on weekends. Unlike many programs, students can start in any semester — fall, spring, or summer.

Degree Requirements

A student in the master of science degree program must maintain a grade point average of at least 3.0 (B). A student who fails to meet this requirement will ordinarily not be considered for exclusion from the School until he/she has completed at least 12 semester hours. It is understood, however, that the student's connection with the College may be terminated whenever, in the judgment of the faculty, he/she fails to show sufficient scholarship.

In order to qualify for the degree, students must complete thirty-six credit hours, including the following core courses:

  • LIS 403: Evaluation of Information Services
  • LIS 404: Principles of Management
  • LIS 407: Reference/Information Services
  • LIS 415: Information Organization
  • LIS 488: Technology for Information Professionals

 

Descriptions for the above courses are available at http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/academics/courses/ms.shtml. Please note: students who entered the program prior to Fall 2005 should see my.simmons.edu/gslis/courses/descriptions/ms-core.shtml for the core requirements.

Technology Orientation Requirement

The School has initiated a program to provide a common base of knowledge of the technologies that students will encounter during the course of their studies, as well as to increase the students competitive value in the marketplace. All students entering the program are required to complete a series of tasks demonstrating technological proficiency by the middle of their first semester. To assist students unfamiliar with the material, workshops are offered during the first two weeks of the semester. See my.simmons.edu/gslis/techlab/tor.shtml for more information.