Department of Interdisciplinary Professions
MLS Student Forum
August 16, 2014, 1:00-4:00
218 Ragsdale and online via Skype
Harer welcomed the group and attendees introduced themselves. Harer briefed the group on
program news, including



Recruiting efforts and resulting increase in program applications for fall 2014
Inclusion of Counselor Education and Adult Education programs into the Department of
Information and Library Science to form the Department of Interdisciplinary Professions
in the College of Education
Preparations for ALA-COA External Review Panel site visit in October 2014, and noted
that the ALA-COA would announce its decision in January 2015
Question from the audience: Would a positive accreditation decision affect students in the
school library pathway?
Harer responded that it would not have a direct effect on the status of school library
media coordinators or NCDPI licensure, but would benefit all program students indirectly, e.g.,
assure a high degree of program quality; students would become eligible for Spectrum and other
scholarship opportunities, students would gain employment flexibility, and the program would
be eligible to receive a $10,000 gift from the H.W. Wilson Foundation that could be used for
direct student scholarships.
Agenda Question: How might the program continue to promote student engagement through the
ALA Student Chapter and the establishment of a Beta Mu Phi Chapter?
Students responded with the following suggestions



The program could develop a virtual lounge for students
Create a Student Chapter blog
Let students elect a Chapter President and Vice-President from a slate nominated by the
faculty
Harer provided an update on course revisions to LIBS 6012, LIBS 6026, and LIBS 6018,
then asked
Agenda Question: What suggestions do you have for the MLS Curriculum?
Students commented that

There should be more electives in the school library pathway; two to three electives
would be ideal

Combine LIBS 6135 and LIBS 6137 into one course
J. Jones explained that LIBS 6135 and 6137 could not be combined, as DPI licenses K-12
school media coordinators, and AASL Standards include focused study on both children’s and
young adult literature.
Agenda Question: Which courses in the program were least useful?

No student responded
Agenda Question: What course or course content would you be willing to give up in order to
create more opportunities for elective courses?





LIBS 6989 Early Internship. Why is this a required pre-requisite for school library
pathway students who do not already have a teaching license?
I would say LIBS 6026 Organization of Information, but it sounds like it been revised to
focus more on systems of information organization and less on traditional
cataloging/MARC records
LIBS 6042 Technology, even though I found it useful for myself. It seemed like I
learned/revisited many of the components of this class throughout the program
Maybe instead of LIBS 6989 Early Internship, students without a teaching license could
take an Education course like Teaching Reading or Foundations of Instruction
Maybe incorporate content in LIBS 6989 into other courses in the school library pathway
Agenda Question: What do you think might be “gaps” in the MLS Program? What do you wish
you had learned that you didn’t?


I needed to know more about how to write a lesson plan, and to understand the common
vocabulary of K-12 educators
Grant writing, training teachers and teaching adults, and more about technology
Agenda Question: What other suggestions do you have for improving the program?



Provide more opportunities for students to talk to other students in their classes and in the
program, especially students who have similar problems at work
Provide more hands-on practice with software, e.g., VoiceThread took longer to learn
than it did to do the assigned project
Maybe create a topic blog after each ALA Student Chapter meeting on the topic of the
meeting to continue the discussion
Harer thanked the faculty, current students and alumni for their input and for attending this
year’s Summer Forum.