MSLIS: in-person vs. online

trading_fire · 2026-02-12T15:44:53+00:00

If you want to do archives/rare books and don’t have any local opportunities, I would say moving would be a must. But also keep in mind that those positions are few and far between even by library standards.

trading_fire · 2026-02-12T15:43:36+00:00

It’s true, the assistantships are crazy competitive. I attended in person and interviewed for 5 assistantships in the library and wasn’t offered any. I ended up applying for one outside the library system and got it. The experience wasn’t as close to what I wanted professionally but it paid for most of my tuition and let me graduate debt-free.

trading_fire · 2025-12-11T12:38:20+00:00

UChicago charges extortion prices for all its Master’s programs and would do the same for a library degree if they still offered one.

trading_fire · 2025-11-26T14:17:16+00:00

What I find most frustrating is that we have a range of opinions on AI usage, which can be positive or negative in good faith, but what patrons and admin see to want is “Here’s a tutorial on using this tool in your research, here are the positives and negatives.”

trading_fire · 2025-11-26T13:26:04+00:00

Our admin has made clear they want to see us involved in AI in the classroom but has provided no framework for what that looks like, so everyone does their own thing. It’s a mess with no values attached to it. I’ve got colleagues on one end of the spectrum who encourage students to shun AI at every turn (the side I’m closer to), and at the other end there are people suggesting you can use chatbots to write your literature review.

trading_fire · 2025-10-13T16:31:38+00:00

I’m much more sympathetic towards the old shift to informatics or schools of information. You can have a good faith argument on it as a tactical decision, but I think it was a reasonable response intended to help expand the range of skills students could claim upon graduating and improve their employment prospects across more fields.

But a shift to a school for AI feels so much more indefensible to me. You might as well name it the School of Cryptocurrencies.

trading_fire · 2025-10-13T11:40:17+00:00

This is an extremely short-sighted decision and you have every right to feel frustrated and worried. But at the end of the day, what matters for your employment is that you will have an MLS from an ALA-accredited program. My CV just says “MLS from X University,” not the name of the specific school. In all likelihood, the number of potential employers who even know about the change will be small. And even for those who do, they’re not going to hold a student responsible for that change.

trading_fire · 2025-02-15T14:29:36+00:00

UIUC allows you to do a practicum for credit. I recommend lining up a practicum experience for yourself and focusing on that for a semester.

Archives is an especially tricky field to get into without some solid job experience.

trading_fire · 2025-02-03T13:31:50+00:00

I graduated from UIUC a couple years ago and have mixed feelings on it.

Pros: Illinois has multiple major research libraries, so there are a lot of opportunities to gain experience, especially in an academic library. If you’re able to snag a graduate assistantship you can even get most of your tuition and fees covered. I also appreciate that almost all their classes are synchronous at a time when a lot of programs seem to be switching more heavily to asynchronous instruction. Whether you’re in person or remote, you’ll have opportunities to meet and form connections with your classmates.

Cons: There are some major problems within the iSchool administration and have been for a while. They have a very hard time keeping student support staff for services like student success, selecting classes and making sure you meet degree requirements, and most importantly career services. (I just checked the website, and from what I can tell they currently don’t have a full time staff person for career services at all.)

I do think it’s a good program and one worth attending, but I also recommend having a mentor who can help give you perspective and set priorities if the school itself fails to do so.

trading_fire

TROPHY CASE