Graduate School of Library and Information Science

New Courses & Purpose:

LIS 490PV Privacy in the Information Age

This course is all about privacy. You will learn about privacy in a historical context and in relation to existing and projected information and communication technologies. It will cover topics such as: the nature of identity, protecting personal data, technologies for personal identification and more. This course is especially timely because of recent revelations with surveillance programs by the National Security Agency.

LIS 5901 Dialogues in Feminism and Technology

Part of a massively distributed collaborative learning experiment, this seminar investigates the intersection of gender and technoculture. It’s built around recorded dialogues with preeminent thinkers and artists concerning feminism and technologies. Student may utilize Scalar (a non-linear publishing platform) or the on-campus Fab Lab to build gender-conscious technologies and networks at the end of the semester which will add to a growing database of materials relating feminist technologies to economies, identities, infrastructures, and movements. Meets with GWS 590 and MDIA 590.   

LIS 590AG Evidence Based Discovery

This is an “evidence based” discovery course that introduces students to theoretical models of discovery. Students will explore how massive increases in data are both challenging and reinforcing what evidence means. This is the first of a two-course series and is required for the socio-technical data analytics (SODA) specialization. This course is part of a new specialization in socio-technical data analytics.

LIS 590DU Information Services for Diverse Users

This course is designed to prepare future information professionals with the skills to provide services to underrepresented populations, and to analyze and evaluate services to ensure equality of access to information in a range of institutional settings. Students will explore diversity issues that impact information services and develop skills for planning, implementing, and evaluating programs and services to address these issues. Topics will include: race and ethnicity, literacy, gender and sexual orientation; social class and more.

This course is meant to better prepare graduates in working with the growing diversity of populations that libraries and other information organizations must serve. 

LIS 590ER E-Resources Management

Students will take an in-depth exploration of current topics in the world of e-resources management in libraries and information centers. They will discuss trends, problems, and issues relating to how e-resources are reshaping the library service spectrum. This course will prepare graduates to manage the increasing volume and diversity of digital resources and to address associated policy issues like licensing and copyright.

College of Media

New Courses & Purpose:

The College of Media will be offering two new certificate programs for students this fall. The first is the Media Sales Certificate Program. The program is open to all students regardless of their major. Brett Clifton will be teaching the course. The first of the courses in the program will be MDIA 270 which is an Introduction to Media Sales class. It will teach students basic sales techniques in advertising and media sales. The class currently has 95 students enrolled but due to high demand, 27 more seats are available. Other classes in the program include BTW 271 (which is a persuasive writing course through the Department of English), MDIA 320 (which is about the media sales industry from the business or managerial side) and MDIA 370, which will deal with advanced media sales. 

Students will learn about media vehicles, such as television, radio, and print, and what they need to learn to sell for each of those vehicles. The program will also include an internship for students and they will have the opportunity to work for Illini Media. “A lot of students are told they need to go to an advertising agency, which is a viable option, or the client route but the sales component is the third part of the triangle that doesn’t get a lot of attention and it’s an important part of the industry,” Clifton said.

Digital Bootcamp

This fall, the College of Media is presenting PR Primer. PR Primer is a two-day workshop for college students interested in careers in public relations. The workshop session will be led by leaders in the field and students will be introduced to various areas of public relations. The sessions will be held in Chicago on Friday and Saturday, October 4-5, 2013. On Friday, there will be a networking and mini recruiting fair with PR agencies and corporate communications businesses to talk about possible internships or full-time positions for students. On Saturday, several workshops in different areas of PR will be led by industry professionals. There will also be a luncheon and key note speaker. Students will receive a certificate upon completion of the workshop.

The College of Media began offering the PR certificate in 2011 and many students have show interest since. Unfortunately, the college doesn’t have the capacity to accept all students that show interest in receiving the certificate. PR Primer offers another option for students interested in public relations.

“We wanted to give students something that could expose them to the industry and they could also learn about the different factors of  PR,” said Rhiannon Clifton, Program Director in the department of Advertising. “The success of the digital boot camp is the reason for this boot camp.” 

Graduate School of Social Work

New Courses & Purpose:

For the first time ever, the School of Social Work has expanded their undergraduate program to a freshman class. In the past, students could only transfer into the school their junior year. This fall, the first freshman class will consist of 25 students.

After seeing the demand of students who wanted to study social work at the start of their college career, the school opened the program to freshmen and all other students can now do an intercollege transfer into social work if they decide that is the path they want to take.