DIGITAL DATA SKILLS ARE EXPANDING THE CAREER HORIZON FOR GRADUATES OF THE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCES ibrarians who spend their days checking out books and shushing talkative patrons are becoming extinct – if they ever existed at all. Librarianship is really about research and data, said JON GANT, PH.D., dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences (SLIS) at NCCU. Masters of information technology, librarians have been known to comb through terabytes of information to answer a complex question. And they often serve as a privacy watchdogs, ensuring that data is used in an ethical manner. “When you see what we actually do, you understand we are really the information experts,” Gant added. “From the very beginning, librarians have been asking: how do we make it easy for people get the information they need. For that purpose, libraries – and librarians – have always been there.” The transition from managing printed documents to digital information is but one of the steps forward librarianship has taken over the centuries. One of the world’s oldest known libraries existed in the capital of the Assyrian Empire more than 3,000 years ago. Discovered by British Museum archeologists in the 1850s, the Library of Nineveh held a collection of almost 30,000 clay tablets inscribed with stories, letters, medical knowledge and government documents. As clay tablets gave way to papyrus, and later paper and the printing press, new methods were needed to organize an ever-increasing output of information. In 1876, 21-year-old Melvil Dewey, a library assistant at Amherst College, created the classification method known as the Dewey Decimal System. He also helped found the
American Library Association (ALA), the agency that sets the standards for library and information science education across North America. In 1937, NCCU became the first historically black university to offer a library studies degree, and today it remains as the only full-time, fully accredited Library and Information Sciences program at an HBCU. ALA accreditation requires a rigorous two-year review process that was last completed in 2016 at NCCU. “Most libraries won’t hire you if you don’t attend an accredited university,” said DIANN LOGIE, a 1997 graduate of the SLIS at NCCU who has worked for Pueblo, Col., public libraries since shortly after earning her diploma. “That was a major reason I picked NCCU.” Although technology has changed the field significantly over the past two decades, Logie said her MLS degree taught her to embrace new technological advances and keep abreast of new information sources and methods of research. “Librarianship is forever changing; I knew that when I went into it,” Logie said. “And right now is probably the best time to work in a library. We have so much information at our fingertips. We can find
JON GANT
In summer 2017, the school will sponsor leadership development seminars with corporate partners such as IBM and Lenovo, whose digital projects the students will work on. virtually anything you are looking for and find it fast.” Students in NCCU’s MLS program may choose one of seven concentrations: academic librarian; archives and records manager; digital librarian, law librarian; public librarian; school media coordinator; or special librarian. The university’s Master of Information Science (MIS) degree offers specialties in networking and telecommunications, strategic information management and health informatics. NCCU also has two joint degrees involving librarianship: the Juris Doctor/MLS degree and the joint Master of Business Administration/MIS degree. SP RI NG 2017 NCCU NOW
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