This is document is the Cincinnati document. Thomas Krichel started this document at Cincinnati Airport on 2005–05–14. This version is of 2008–03–04. This document is not for public circulation. Please do not link to it.
While it calls itself a school of library and information science, in fact the Palmer School sees itself exclusively as a school that trains people to work in a library.
The library sector is not set for expansion. Salaries are low and are not likely to raise. With low salary levels it is difficult to attract smart people.
The school survives because of the ALA requirement for librarians to hold an MSLIS from an accredited school.
The way to expand within the library sector is to gain market share from other MSLIS programs. The standard approach to even further reduce the requirement of the courses to make it even more easy to get the degree. The move toward online education is a part of that. Ultimately, this approach is doomed as it produces even less qualified individuals.
The school needs to start to be serious about the second part of its name, "information science". It needs to realize that libraries are a tiny part of the information sector. Successful expansion can be easiest be achieve by positioning the school in growing segments of the information market.
The segment I have identified is the general area of providing digital information mainly intermediated through web sites. It is the general area of "webmaster" training. There is great need for people trained in that area but no recognised path to achieve training.
People leaving the school as a qualified webmaster should have detailed technical expertise. This will be the ultimate means to achieve success in the marketplace.
This document discusses requirements for a new MSc Degree offered by the College of Information and Computer Science at Long Island University. It is a loose discussion at this time.
The degree program is called Web Systems Architecture and Design WeSAD. I think somebody else can come up with a better name but for the purpose of discussion, let's just stick with this one.
WeSAD graduates should be able to build an entire web-based information system from scratch given
without any requirement for toll-gated literature, just with information gathered from the Web.
Students in the program will require a technical subject core. The first core topics are
These have to be taken before any others are taken. The second core topics are
Students who have finished most of the core topics can take optional courses. These include
Note that is this order, theoretical and technical courses are taken before non-technical courses are. The philosophy of this proposal is that students have to cover a technical, hands-on base ground first. This is the first basic principle of the WeSAD course.
The second basic principle of the course is that all all technology courses use open source technologies only. There are two motivations for this. First, the students should not be locked into skill set that is limited by and depends on specific commercial software offering. Second, open source is a big marketing vehicle. There is a lot of media interest in the topic, and a lot of good will to people who further the course of open source.
The third basic principle is that the course should be as openly available as possible. In particular, all course documentation must be on the web. All slide presentations by every instructor in the program must be on the web. We hope that many in the open source community will take advantage of the learning materials created by the course.