Leanne Bowler's Vision

Visioning Exercise for the Children and Youth Specialization

Once upon a time…there was a library school that trained children’s librarians. In the early days of this school, students graduated with a deep knowledge of children’s literature and storytelling practices. They brought this knowledge to cities, towns, and rural areas across the country and made a difference to the lives of children, helping to promote literacy and lifelong learning. Their work was based on respect for the child and respect for children’s literature.

A hundred years passed and the world changed. The book – the principle method for connecting children and stories – now took on many new shapes. Some stories could be read on small, interactive, handheld screens. Others were read on electronic walls the size of a classroom. Children could touch the stories in these books, listen to them, and even add to the story. The effects of all these new storytelling channels were not known and it became the job of children’s librarians to discover when, how, and where these various forms of storytelling should best be used.

During the hundred year development of this library school, the child’s information world also changed. The amount of information available to children multiplied and the traditional “non-fiction” section of the library, once the principle source of documented information for children, became just one of many ways that children could discover the world through information. It was no longer adequate for the library school to teach future children’s librarians simply how to select the best information – they now had to help children find, choose, and use information. They even had to build tools to help children create information. Teaching media and information literacy skills to children became a principle goal of the children’s librarian, adding to their portfolio of professional skills.

Children’s librarians were no longer just the keepers of books and the tellers of stories. Their role was to design the critical bridges connecting media (new and old) and the child’s need for story and information. What did not change was the respect with which young people and their media were accorded. Children’s librarians were now part of a larger professional group focused on the relationship between children and media. Called Information Professionals (Children and Media), they received a Master of Information, with an additional designation on their transcripts noting their expertise in the special population of children and youth.

The story of this library school ends with an image of how students in the new world of the Children and Media Specialization were trained. Once the exclusive domain of the Library Science Department, the Children and Media Specialization now wove its way throughout the entire school. Anyone interested in the interaction between children, stories and information, literacy, and media – whether through the traditional book, through handheld technology, or even via community-wide games and learning activities – applied to the Children and Media Specialization. Individual students followed their own interests within this specialization. Some in the specialization wanted to work in a public library and needed training in management skills and service delivery. Others chose to work in a rare book department or archives of children’s literature and were more interested in the children’s book as a historical artifact. There were students training to be game designers and who wanted to learn how to build games that could be a platform for children’s literacy development. Still others were interested in information policy and its effects on children’s lives.

What all students in the Children and Media Specialization had in common was a deep understanding of the relationship between young people and their media, in all its forms, and within the larger social, cultural, and historic context. All students in this specialization were well grounded in developmental theory, including theories of youth information behavior, and they learned how to apply such theory to the design of systems and services for children. All students in this specialization were trained in research methods and ethics and as a result, saw themselves as professionals with a responsibility to help build theory in the area of youth information behavior. Due to their broad, rich knowledge of children and media and their contributions to the body of evidence-based practice, graduates from the Children and Media Specialization continued to be a respected and highly sought after group of information professionals.

…And they lived happily ever after.

The Back Story…

Master of Information (Specialization in Children and Media)

- The Children and Media Specialization is an interdisciplinary program that seeks to understand the interaction between children and their media, with a focus on the developmental, cultural, social, and technological consequences of this relationship, in order to propose approaches to information practice that will improve the lives of young people.

- 2 year degree (16 courses or 48 credits)

- One year required on-campus residency (8 courses or 24 credits)

- Remainder of courses can be pursued either on-campus or online.

- Three required courses for all students at SIS. These courses would help to situate all of the specialties at the School into a broader, human context.

o Information and Society. Social, cultural, and historical contexts.

o Information Policy and Ethics. The legal and ethical framework.

o Introduction to Scientific Inquiry. Traditions and paradigms in information science research, research ethics, scholarly communication practices.

- Required research project or thesis for all students at SIS, during the second year.

- Students in the Children and Media Specialization must take four required courses in the Children and Youth stream.

o Child and Youth Culture, Past and Present.

o Developmental Approaches to Information Practice.

o Literacy, Media, and Young People.

o Ethics and Methods of Child-Centered Research.

- The four required courses in the Children and Media Specialization can be complimented with additional electives in the area of children and youth (e.g. History of Children’s Literature) and Library Science courses for students intending to work in libraries.

- The thesis or research project for students in the Children and Media Specialization must be a child/youth centered topic.

Leanne Bowler

Larsen Draft Vision Statement

DRAFT SIS VISION MATERIAL

R. Larsen

5-3-11

DRAFT EXEMPLAR FOR A VISION

INSPIRED BY http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/creating-a-company-vision.html

It’s the beginning of the fall 2016 term and students are arriving with eager anticipation of challenging and provocative encounters with the opportunities and challenges presented to information professionals in an ever-increasingly global society. They have heard of the technological opportunities and about the careers to be had, but they are also uncertain about the societal implications of information work. There seem to be increasing encroachments on personal privacy and growing threats to personal and national security. The social networking systems to which they were lured only a few years ago seem to be increasingly invasive and predatory. The public information infrastructure largely accessed through libraries continues to shoulder seemingly unsustainable service demands while suffering increasing budgetary pressures. Yet, networked information services continue to grow, mobile information devices are globally ubiquitous, and students understand that society runs on information and that this is their calling. They also know of no better place to experience the breadth and depth of the information professions than in an information school, and Pitt’s is among the very best in the world.

Each chose Pitt for very personal reasons, but many of these reasons relate to the School’s ability to build intellectual linkage among sub-disciplines that evolved independently, from very different origins. Students come to Pitt’s information school to learn from librarians, archivists, scientists, engineers, sociologists and cognitive psychologists, for it is only through such an array of diverse perspectives that they can prepare for leadership positions in libraries, laboratories, industry, government, and academe.

The iSchool offers unique educational opportunities that start in the undergraduate informatics program. Undergraduate students all learn the technology fundamentals of networked information systems, user-centered design, and information security, and then develop an in-depth understanding of how these fundamentals apply in a variety of fields. Through prior study and electives, they have the option to learn to apply information technologies and principles to specialized disciplines, preparing them for careers in fields such as bioinformatics, medical informatics, or geoinformatics. They also have the option of pursuing a pure informatics track that prepares them for graduate study.

The iSchool offers a professional Master of Information program that prepares students for leadership positions in the information professions. A four-term (full time) program of 48 credit hours, students are introduced to the breadth and depth of the information professions through a set of foundations courses that address topics such as the history of information, the social context for information services, and the organization and management of information. Taken by all students, these courses offer a creative balance among large lecture, small recitation, and team project experiences that articulate to assure that each student has sufficient preparation for the more specialized courses to follow.

The iSchool offers five specialty areas with concentrations that span the physical to the virtual, and the automated to the mediated, including:

· Infrastructure (critical foundations)

o Security and Information assurance

o Telecommunications and networked systems

o Wireless

· Systems and services (automated facilities for end users)

o Web

o Geospatial

o Mobile

o Human-centered

· Values and society (understanding the social contract)

o Information ethics

o Policy and management

· Librarianship (mediated services for the public)

o School library certification

o Children & youth

o Health

o Digital libraries

· Archives, preservation and records management (long term curation)

Faculty have defined and designed combinations (and, in some cases, sequences) of concentrations (pathways) that prepare students for specific career paths. These pre-approved pathways are administered by the Assistant Dean for the Professional Master’s Program. Students may opt to design their own pathway in consultation with a faculty advisor.

Several concentrations are available through Pitt Online, and pathways that consist entirely of these concentrations enable a remote student to complete the professional Master’s program fully online.

The faculty believe strongly that each student of the professional Master’s program graduate with a strong technical foundation, an understanding of and appreciation for the societal context in which they will practice, and a demonstrated capacity to perform at a professional level suited to their selected pathway.

The iSchool also offers a PhD program that prepares students for advanced work in research, teaching, and administration. It requires a minimum of 90 credit hours beyond an undergraduate degree (18 of which are dissertation credits). Students with a Master’s degree acquired from another institution require a minimum of 54 additional credits (18 of which are dissertation credits).

The iSchool faculty members take on the customary responsibilities of all university faculty with regard to the design and delivery of the curriculum, the performance of scholarly research, and the provision of service to the profession. The exceptional diversity of iSchool faculty, however, provides the opportunity and the means to conduct scholarship in new and creative ways, and this is explicitly explored, encouraged and facilitated through colloquia, workshops, and interdisciplinary research proposals, and augmented with investment in post-doctoral research fellows. Faculty members who are exceptional teachers and have a passion for the classroom, for example, can trade off research in favor of teaching, while those who are particularly active in research can negotiate a reduction in their teaching load. Relative faculty workloads are measured through a parametric model that faculty also use to balance their commitments to teaching, research, and related scholarly endeavors. The iSchool’s power results from the integration of each faculty member’s unique combination of strengths and interests into a coherent, articulated curriculum supported by related, relevant research.

Shared governance is administered through the iSchool Council with representatives of faculty, staff, and students. The iSchool Council addresses the strategic and policy issues confronting the school, its faculty, staff, and students. Routine administration is the responsibility of the Dean’s Office with the advice and counsel of the iSchool Council. Student Services (a component of the Dean’s Office) provides a full suite of services on behalf of the faculty, from recruitment through placement services. The Assistant Dean for the Professional Master’s Program is responsible for all routine administrative functions related to delivery of the Master’s curriculum, including:

· Term course schedules

· Adjunct contracts

· Travel funds allocation

· Assuring Web pages are accurate and current

· Handling student complaints

· Compiling and responding to requests for data and surveys at the program levels

· Ensuring three year reviews for new faculty hires are accomplished

· Coordinating the faculty annual review process

· Reporting to the iSchool Council

· Reviewing curricular issues or concerns that arise with faculty

· Coordinating accreditation of the professional Master’s degree

· Attending faculty advisory committee meetings (e.g., APRM)

· Coordination with Partners Program

· Working with faculty for internships

Ron Larsen