Greetings,

> The University of Southern California has announced a new online 
>master?s degree of management in library and information science (MMLIS)

This is a great opportunity.

> Developed by the USC Libraries in partnership with the USC Marshall 
>School of Business, the MMLIS is one of the first programs in 
>librarianship in the United States to be affiliated with a major business 
>school.

Please let me clarify this.  This is a collaboration between the libraries 
of the university and the business school, and no program of LIS education 
was involved?

> Offering synchronous and asynchronous learning in an entirely online,

What software is involved?  How is the student prepared to live in a 
multi-platform environment in a global situation?

> The degree will have several unique features including team-based 
>problem-solving as a defined program pedagogy for all courses.

This team-based approach is indeed unique.  How did you manage paying 
faculty for teaching a tenth or eighth of a course?  How do you get 
faculty to agree to teaching a bit of a course?

and formal 
>partnerships with industry for infrastructure support. The program will 
>lead to the initial degree in LIS; it has been accredited by WASC

WASC is what?

  and ALA 
>accreditation will be sought once the program is operational.

I thought that ALA accreditation was sought *before* the program was 
operational, to avoid giving students false hopes that their degrees would 
be recognized after they did all that work.  But I could be wrong.


I don't think that USC Marshall has an accredited program in LIS.

  to build a unique program, one that addresses the challenges that face 
our profession now and that will grow only more urgent and complex for 
libraries, librarians and library leaders,? said Catherine Quinlan, dean 
of the USC Libraries.

> Offering synchronous and asynchronous learning in an entirely online, 
>multimedia environment, the MMLIS will prepare graduates to join the 
>global community of library professionals and assume leadership positions 
>in a variety of academic, corporate, government and not-for-profit 
>settings. Students will be able to complete the degree in approximately 
>two years.

As participants in only an online community, why would you assume that we 
would want them to participate in such a global community who have 
experienced in-human relationships?   How and why would they assume 
leadership positions in an in-human community?

Good heavens, as someone who did make the transition from f2f 
communication and electronic communication, I expect you to make a better 
case for electronic communication.  This case, well, sucks.

> ?We look forward to working with the USC Libraries to help prepare 
librarians for leadership roles in a rapidly evolving arena from 
maximizing local community engagement in the face of limited resources to 
addressing the need within global industry to manage digital 
informa∆tion and improv˚∆e communication,? said James G. Ellis, dean 
of USC Marshall.

If library and information science education falls on collaboration 
between schools of business and libraries, I fear for us all. Neither has 
a deep understanding of the cultural role of universal bibliographic 
control, bibliography in its deepest sense, the understanding of the 
representation of knowledge in pictures nor the ASCII character set, the 
multiple interpretations of the Christmas Carol, the failure of the Colon 
Classification scheme (and how it can be fixed), the failure (and success) 
of the MeSH classification scheme, and the weirdness of YouTube and its 
success.

Discuss.  This is your homework assignment until Feb 1.

   How is YouTube related to the issue of Universal Bibliographic Control? 
What are the purposes of each?  How do they connect?

   Your homework is due 1 Feb. 2013.

   --gw
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Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired 
School of Information Sciences 
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           [log in to unmask]
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
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> Ken Haycock, professor emeritus and former director of the San Jose State School of Library and Information Science, has been named director of graduate programs in library and information management.
> Haycock is research professor of management and organization at USC Marshall. A longtime library and information science educator, Haycock developed the global, online master?s in library and information science at San Jose State University, which is used by 2,000 students in 14 countries. He also has developed graduate programs at the University of British Columbia, where he remains an emeritus faculty member.
> Prospective students should contact [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
>
>