UNC School of Information and Library Science
35°54′41.71″N 79°2′52.21″W / 35.9115861°N 79.0478361°WThe UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) is a professional school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offering a bachelor's degree in information science, master's degrees in library science and information science, a professional science master's degree in digital curation, and a doctoral degree in information and library science as well as an undergraduate minor, graduate certificate programs, and a post-masters certificate.[1]
Established
The school was founded by Louis Round Wilson and opened in the fall of 1931.[2] Currently, the U.S. News & World Report ranks the School of Information and Library Science third among information and library science programs nationwide,[3] as well as first in digital librarianship[4] and health librarianship.[5] Both professional degree programs in library science and information science are accredited by the American Library Association (ALA). The Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) has maintained its ALA accreditation since 1934, and the Master of Science in Information Science (MSIS) program has maintained accreditation since its inception in 2000.[6] There were 26 full-time teaching faculty members and about 17 adjunct and visiting faculty members at SILS in 2017.[7]
Projects[edit]
Digital Project Repository[edit]
The SILS Digital Project Repository was created by information and library science graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (originally developed by SILS students Matthew Bachtell and Ying Zhang for Dr. Gary Marchionini's Digital Libraries course). The DPR serves as an archive and showcase of student work. The "Pathfinder Digital Library", as it was then called, housed two archived pathfinders and provided organized lists of externally linked pathfinders. The project was later taken over by SILS students Becca Cahill, Adam Webb, and Kristen Wilson, who renamed it the SILS Digital Project Repository (DPR) and expanded its scope to include portals, digital archives, and other HTML format projects. These students archived about sixty pathfinders and other projects during their administration of the site in hopes of preserving projects housed on impermanent student webspace. In spring 2006, the DPR was adopted by Lori Eakin, Emily Riley, and Ellen Whisler, who worked to collect detailed metadata for projects housed on-site and off-site in preparation for future development of the DPR.[17]
ibiblio.org[edit]
ibiblio, a collaboration between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Center for the Public Domain, has been a vehicle for knowledge sharing since 1992, first as an original Sun Microsystems SunSITE, then as Metalab, finally resting on the ibiblio name in 2000. ibiblio is a free and vibrant exchange of ideas among a large community of contributors who share their knowledge across disciplines. It is one of the major distribution hubs for Linux software and has been a significant supporter of Linux development efforts since its inception.[18] In addition, it started the first internet radio stream by rebroadcasting WXYC, the UNC student-run radio station. It also takes credit for the first non-commercial IPv6 / Internet2 radio stream. The site, which enters its 19th year of existence in October, is run by the School of Information and Library Science and the School of Media and Journalism, by director and UNC professor Paul Jones.[19]
Programs[edit]
Undergraduate Program[edit]
SILS first offered a minor in information systems in 1997 and started a major in information science in 2003. UNC-Chapel Hill is the only university in the state of North Carolina offering a bachelor's degree in information science and is one of only a handful of schools nationwide offering such a program. The Bachelor of Science in Information Science is designed to prepare its graduates for a variety of careers in the information industry, including information architecture, database design and implementation, Web design and implementation, and information consulting, as well as for graduate study. The major requires 30 credit hours worth of courses, as well as 4 approved electives and the completion of certain prerequisites before applying to the major. The Minor in Information Systems provides students with an understanding of computing, multi¬media, electronic information resources, and the Internet that complements the student's major field of study. Students concentrate their studies in the junior and senior years.[27]
Dual Bachelor-Master's Program[edit]
Introduced in 2011, the Dual Bachelor's - Master's program is intended to enable Information Science (IS) majors to obtain both their BS and MS degree by early planning of an undergraduate program that integrates well with the graduate degree requirements for either an MSIS or an MSLS within five years. Of the 24 iSchools in North America, only four offer an accelerated Bachelor's - Master's program of any sort; and other than these four iSchools, only one of the 58 programs accredited by the American Library Association offers an accelerated Bachelor's - Master's program.[28]
iSchool consortium[edit]
UNC-SILS is a member of an international group of iSchools. The iSchools organization was founded in 2005 by a collective of Information Schools dedicated to advancing the information field in the 21st century. These schools, colleges, and departments have been newly created or are evolving from programs formerly focused on specific tracks such as information technology, library science, informatics, and information science. While each individual iSchool has its strengths and specializations, they share a fundamental interest in the relationships between information, people, and technology. The iSchools organization is governed by the iCaucus. The criteria for being recognized as an iSchool are not rigid but the schools are expected to have substantial sponsored research activity, engagement in the training of future researchers (usually through an active, research-oriented doctoral program), and a commitment to progress in the information field.[31]