#ALISE2018 : Juried Papers (Friday)

Approach to Harmonization of Entry Requirements for Graduate Program in Information Science at European Higher Institutions EINFOSE Project

Tatjana Aparac-Jelisic

Description: Various aspects of harmonization at European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that offer programs in Library and Information Studies (LIS) have been studied since early 1990s. Since 2004-05 – when a project on Curriculum Development was funded through Erasmus program – up to 2016, there were no projects on education in Library and Information Science funded by European Union. The main goal of this paper is to present and discuss the results after the first year of the Erasmus plus project entitled European Information Science Education: Encouraging Mobility and Learning Outcomes Harmonization (EINFOSE).  

Project’s web site is at Http://einfose.ffos.hr

Hypothesis:  Common entry might requirements mitigate or eliminate the differences in enrollment procedures at different HEIs that offer programs in IS and might contribute to the higher enrollment of students with different educational background at the graduate level in IS.

The project seeks to investigate how these barriers could be eliminated or lowered.

One goal is to make it easier and more desirable for students to spend time “abroad” in programs in other European countries.

Summary:  This project brought together several schools to develop and test a summer school, which provides basic information on several I.S. topics. The idea is that students learn information and skills which will put them all on a common knowledge level.  Students attend the summer school once (approx. 1 week) on-site.  Feedback from the students was very good.  They made suggestions for additional topics as well as for expanding the length of the summer school.

My thoughts: In the U.S., every MLIS program has an introductory course.  Is there an opportunity to collaborate on a shared introductory course? With many programs now being online, could that shared introductory course be offered in different regions of the country?  It would provide a face to face opportunity, give students a shared experience, allow them to build relationships across institutions which could be helpful after graduation, and give those students the same foundational/core skills.  I could imagine the shared course being cross-listed at each institution.

Building Connections between LIS Graduate Students and Undergraduates: A Case Study in Curricular Engagement 

Eleanor (Nora) Mattern

Flight 93 National Memorial contains over 800 audio interviews.  Some have been transcribed and some have been digitized.  That place became the site of a project for the students:

• Archival Access, Systems, and Tools - MLIS students - Created a finding aid for the oral historian collection and tested the oral history metadata synchronizer (OHMS).
• First Experiences in Research - undergraduate students - Engaged in research projects using the oral histories.

Students from the two classes were connected indifferent ways:

• Social event
• Visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial to learn about oral history project
• Day-long workshop on OHMS and collection of undergraduate feedback on tool and documentation.

It was useful for the MLIS students to work with the undergraduate students, because it taught them how the content will be used. It also taught them (practical experience) about working with volunteers.

Undergraduate students gained an insight into terminology (e.g., metadata).  It taught them, for example, how metadata affects them in everyday life. It also taught them about working with an archivist and the skills an archivist needs.

Benefits:

• She noted that there is literature in STEM on undergraduate and graduate students working together, and the benefits on the undergraduate students.
• STEM literature notes that graduate students gain experience in mentoring and leadership.  It provides experience in supervising others.
• Students noted that having more meaningful, sustained and regular interaction between all of the students would have been a benefit.

Does this provide a pipeline to the LIS profession?

• Finding a faculty collaborator is key for reaching undergraduate students
• Offices of Undergraduate Research can serve as a conduit to undergraduate students and provide infrastructure 

Edited for types and reformatted: Feb. 11, 2018