San Jose State University - Library and Information Science

To my knowledge, there are only two library schools in California, San Jose State's and UCLA's. That ensures that SJSU's School of Library and Information Science has a high profile among librarians in the state. I live in Silicon Valley and worked in local libraries for years, and only heard good things about SJSU. My impression is that it has special strengths in school library stuff. It's been around since the 1920's and is ALA accredited.

Welcome To SJSU's School of Library & Information Science

What makes it relevant to Degreeinfo is that they've moved all of their programs online and made them available by distance learning to students located anywhere in the world.

There are individual classes, certificates and three degree programs.

These are a Masters in Library and Information Science

Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) | SJSU - SLIS

A Master of Archive and Records Administration

Master of Archives & Records Administration (MARA) | SJSU - SLIS

And a joint PhD program offered in conjunction with the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

San Jose Gateway PhD Program | SJSU - SLIS

Unlike many distance learning programs, there does seem to be some intellectual life in this thing. Here's their research page:

Center for Information Research and Innovation (CIRI) | SJSU - SLIS

All in all, I like it.

 

As a librarian, I like it too Bill.

 

Actually there are a couple of others:

- The University of North Texas has developed a hybrid online/B&M MLIS program, where the B&M component is offered at several different cooperating institutions nationwide. One of those institutions is Cal State Northridge. So you can study for the MLIS at CSUN, although the degree may be conferred by UNT.

- USC recently announced a new online "master’s degree of management in library and information science (MMLIS)" program. It isn't scheduled to begin until later this year, but USC is already promoting it.

My understanding is that SJSU's program is now easily the largest the country. According to College Navigator, they issued 656 MLIS degrees in 2011-12. That was was more than 24% of all SJSU master's degrees. As another point of comparison, SJSU issued almost 10 times as many library master's degrees as UCLA (67 in 2011-12).

Some people have suggested that the SJSU program has low admissions and graduation standards, and that it is flooding the market with low-end MLIS degrees. In fact, this suggestion has been made right here on degreeinfo: see Post #5 in this recent thread, which describes SJSU as "the MLIS degree mill".

I'm not in this field myself and have no opinion on the quality of the SJSU program. In terms of quantity, it does appear to be an extremely large program by national standards.

 

Duplicate post, delete

 

That's a lot. I'm guessing that part of the explanation is SJSU's change from a B&M format (which they had in the 1990's when I considered enrolling there) to an online format. The school's always been a big-time supplier of California librarians which I'm sure is still true, and if most of their DL students live all around the world these days, that would be on top of that.

They require a regionally accredited (or equivalent) bachelors and a 3.0 GPA. While that can't be called selective, it's basically the same admissions requirement that most California State University masters programs have. As for graduation requirements, all I can say is that I haven't heard anything bad about these programs here in the Bay Area. The ALA accredits them. I guess that it's conceivable that the growth of the program has been accompanied by a decline in graduation standards, but I have no reason to believe that at this point.

I saw that thread, but didn't really want to get sucked into a ego-contest. That's why I started a separate thread here in the DL forum. I will say that the other thread was premised on USNews' not trashing SJSU as the thread-starter believed that it should have done. USNews' graduate rankings are based in large part on surveys of American deans and department heads in the same subjects, so USNews' ranking suggests that library educators had a moderately positive view of SJSU at the time of the survey, several years ago.

 

True. On the other hand, their current ALA accreditation (like their current US News ranking) is apparently based on evaluations that were conducted some years ago, before they adopted the current online-only format and expanded their enrollment. Their ALA accreditation was last renewed in 2007 for the standard 7-year term, so they will be up for re-accreditation next year.

 

It looks like US News has just updated their Library & Information Sciences ranking for 2013. According to US News, "The rankings are based solely on the results of a fall 2012 survey sent to the dean of each program, the program director, and a senior faculty member in each program."

SJSU has dropped from #22 to #33 (out of 51 programs total). So the view has apparently become less positive.

 

According to this California State University report, SJSU's library science programs only had a total enrollment of 464 masters degree seeking students in Fall 2012.

CSU | AS | Student Enrollment in Degree Programs Report - Fall 2012

Maybe I'm not reading it right, maybe it doesn't include DL students, or maybe bad numbers were reported to College Navigator.

 

Either way, it's a mid-range ranking, which I think is probably pretty accurate.

It might even be good for a distance learning program that serves many mid-career adults. The kind of programs that Degreeinfo likes are typically found towards the low end of USNews' rankings.

 

SJSU itself posts a table of degrees awarded, which goes back 15 years. Here are the posted numbers for Library & Information Sciences (years shown represent the ending part of the academic year, so "1999" = 1998-99):

1999 163
2000 152
2001 211
2002 180
2003 216
2004 235
2005 307
2006 338
2007 456
2008 448
2009 437
2010 465
2011 393
2012 656 (consistent with College Navigator)
2013 22 (so far, presumably with more to come in May)

Possibly 2011-12 was an unusually big year, but SJSU itself confirms the 656 number.

Even if the number has dropped to ~ 400, that would still be a very large program.

 

The direct link doesn't seem to work. To see the table, go to this page, look for the heading "Degree Awarded by Level", and click underneath on "by College and Major".

 

SJSU may be headed in that direction. SJSU's drop from #22 to #33 between the 2009 and 2013 US News rankings was by far the worst change for any ranked school.

Most schools didn't go up or down by more than a few slots. Two schools dropped by 6 slots. But no other school fell like SJSU, which dropped by 11 slots.

 

I still think that was probably due to its change to a DL format. USNews doesn't like DL.

But be that as it may, I'm not interested in getting into a back-and-forth ego-contest with you over this. I'm very fond of San Jose State. If you don't like the school, then that's fine with me. Degreeinfo's readers can make up their own minds. Both SJSU and myself will survive whatever they decide.

I'm done with this thread and you can have the last word if you like.

 

I have no personal bias for or against SJSU, and have no bias for or against their MLIS program.

I do think it's an interesting example of a program that has switched to a wholly online delivery mode and undergone rapid expansion.

I also agree with you that US News doesn't like this, and is punishing them for it. And it's actually worse than that, because in this case "US News" really means "deans, directors, and staff at other library schools" -- since the LIS rankings are based entirely on a survey of such individuals. So the change in SJSU's reputation is something occurring in the minds of leading academics; it's not just a random number generated by a news magazine.

OK, here's my last word: you should consider the possibility that some MLIS programs will not survive over the next 5 to 10 years. Many people believe that there is currently a substantial oversupply of MLIS degrees relative to demand. As Forbes puts it:

At some point, professional schools that cost tens of thousands of dollars, but can't put students into professions, will stop getting applications. It's happening right now with law schools. And it is widely believed that some law schools will be forced to close because of it. They are already starting to shrink.

If you remember the 1960s or 1970s, then it may seem unthinkable that the higher education system might need to contract, rather than expand. But if that's the case, then maybe SJSU is doing the exactly the wrong thing with its MLIS program.

Perhaps US News should include job outcomes in the LIS rankings, as they do in some fields. Might be interesting to see how those 656 graduates from 2012 have fared on the saturated job market for librarians.