Conclusion: Synthesis and Overview

The program presentation narrative, together with the many links provided to sources of evidence, documents the ways in which GSLIS seeks to satisfy the Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library & Information Studies.  We have numerous strengths embodied in our faculty, students, staff, curriculum, technical and financial resources, library resources, and physical facilities.  We are in a university context that will continue to place a strong emphasis on quality and performance evaluation and that will encourage and reward innovation. 

GSLIS is a collegial work environment that values collaboration and community.  The faculty and students have a strong sense of working together to recreate this rapidly changing field.   Although GSLIS is one of the smallest units at UIUC, the faculty are involved in areas of teaching and research that touch many others on campus.  We have taken advantage of the growth of our field and the culture of this institution to build an increasingly strong research program, to expand the reach of our teaching, and to make significant links across campus and across disciplines. 

Preparation of this program presentation has demonstrated that there are also a few areas in need of improvement that we are working to address under the leadership of a new dean.  In many cases initiatives are already under way that should lead to tangible improvements.  We anticipate that efforts in the following areas can further strengthen our MS program:

• Increasing the full-time faculty.  Enrollment in the MS program has grown without a corresponding increase in the full-time faculty.  While the courses taught by part-time faculty are of a high caliber, it is important that full-time faculty contribute significantly to the teaching and advising of MS students both on-campus and at a distance.  We also feel the need to ensure that core areas of the curriculum are represented by one or more of the full-time faculty, who can take a leadership role in teaching, research, curriculum development, and advising.  In particular we are actively seeking to fill a faculty position in the Organization of Information/Cataloging/Metadata area, which has been covered for several years only by part-time or visiting faculty.   At the same time we are finding more ways to integrate part-time faculty into the School, by including them in discussions of the future of the School, giving them access to travel funds, and providing more opportunities to enhance teaching skills.
• Matching curriculum and course scheduling to available faculty resources.  We have been through a period of rapid expansion in MS course offerings as faculty developed a wide variety of new special topics courses.  We now need to work to identify which to offer on a recurring basis and make a permanent part of the curriculum as well as to identify any that should be eliminated or consolidated.     
• Developing more complete advising documents and procedures.  As we seek to prepare students for a wider range of career options, we see the need for more complete documentation regarding the structure of our curriculum and how it relates to the preparation required for various areas of specialization.    The growth of our MS program, with almost half of our students at a distance, poses new challenges to ensuring the individualized advising from which each student can benefit.
• Managing enrollments and coordinating degree programs.  As demonstrated in the Special Area of Emphasis section on LEEP, since 1996 we have integrated scheduling and management of other aspects of the different MS enrollment options to good effect.  Over the past few years we have also introduced and expanded course offerings in our undergraduate minor in information technology studies and expanded enrollment and course offerings in our doctoral program.  We currently have modest enrollment in our Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) program but are engaged in active discussion as to how to implement well-defined options at this level, such as a CAS in digital libraries.  We are also exploring the possibility of implementing an LIS option of the newly established campus MS in bioinformatics.  Students in the accredited MS may benefit from the enrichment in course offerings that all of these initiatives will stimulate, but we will need to actively plan enrollment targets and resource allocation across these various programs to ensure the continued quality of the accredited MS program. 
• Gathering placement data and broadening placement support.  We have not had procedures in place that allowed us to gather systematically more timely placement data and to get input from alumni and employers.  Using the online survey capability of the School’s Library Research Center, we are putting procedures in place to do employment surveys of alumni a few months after graduation.    We also are working to develop better placement support for students seeking positions in which they can use their knowledge and skills outside of libraries.   Dean Unsworth has initiated a corporate roundtable with representatives of companies such as Caterpillar, Archer Daniels Midland, Abbott Laboratories, and Boeing meeting quarterly with several faculty and administrative staff.  These discussions increase our awareness of the information management issues in this arena and open possibilities for internships and job placements for students as well as collaborative research with faculty.
• Enhancing the information technology (IT) infrastructure.  We recognize the need to evaluate the adequacy of current IT systems, services, and staffing and to support improvements where needs are identified.  Priority areas include redesign of the LEEP/instructional technology infrastructure; redesign of the GSLIS web site; and exploration of institutional repository applications including better management of the “learning objects” associated with online courses and digital publishing. 
• Involving tenured and tenure track faculty in administrative roles . We need to continue assessing the involvement of our tenure stream faculty in administrative roles. Because these generally involve a reduction in teaching responsibilities, such assignments diminish our capacity to cover courses with core faculty, but ensure that faculty have a significant role in various aspects of GSLIS operations. Faculty who currently have a reduction in teaching in order to handle administrative duties include the Dean, the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, and Christine Jenkins in her role as coordinator of the K-12 program. Leigh Estabrook has a reduction in teaching load because she currently serves as director of the Library Research Center . We will be examining both our academic programs and our auxiliary units (including the Center for Children's Books and Prairienet) to determine the most effective ways to involve faculty in their administration.
• Building a more diverse community . Recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty remains an only partially realized goal. Part-time faculty teaching in LEEP and on-campus have included a small number of African American and Asian American individuals. Given the potential to recruit LEEP adjuncts from anywhere in the U.S. , more efforts need to be made to enhance diversity of those teaching in LEEP. We have made greater progress in recruitment and retention of a more diverse student population by pursuing multiple strategies and are particularly pleased to be able to give individuals who are place-bound an opportunity to pursue their MS degree via LEEP.
• Diversifying financial resources.  In a period of diminishing state support, we need to pursue multiple sources of funding.  Examples include: 1)  pursuing research grant opportunities from a wider range of organizations, such as corporations and foundations in addition to government agencies; and 2) involving more constituencies in development activities, such as supporting the Library School Alumni Association’s initiatives to raise funds for scholarships. 

In conclusion, we feel that we continue to be in a strong position as a graduate professional program because our priorities as a school resonate with those of the University and are responsive to the changing work environments in which our graduates find themselves.