This paper explores the theoretical framework of threshold concepts and its potential for LIS education. Threshold concepts are key ideas, often troublesome and counterintuitive, that are critical to profound understanding of a domain. Once understood, they allow mastery of significant aspects of the domain, opening up new, previously inaccessible…

Stagnant perceptions continue to persist in the general public regarding the services libraries offer. LIS research suggests an increased need for marketing, yet LIS programs and students may not view marketing as core to the degree. The Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC), a global competition for online marketing, was incorporated into two…

There is a lack of information in the literature about the sources used for research by modern Master of Library and Information Science students in the United States, and so the objective of this project is to understand the use of periodical articles by these students. Specifically: do articles play a major role in student research, how current…

This article describes a recently introduced module at University College Dublin School of Information and Library Studies (SILS), entitled "Information Architecture: Designing the Web." The module provides students with a realistic experience of how information architects apply their skills to produce usable web sites, via a project to…

The present study explores LIS students' perceptions toward the assimilation of e-books in the library. The research was conducted during the summer semester of the 2010 academic year in Israel and 144 students participated in the research. The study used three questionnaires: a personal details questionnaire, students' perceptions towards e-books…

Blended education, which mixes elements of face-to-face and online educational delivery, can occur at the activity, course, program, or administrative level. This study examined the use of student blogs to test the benefits of course-level blended educational delivery for LIS students enrolled in a face-to-face course. Data collected from…

Although mentoring is widely valued and encouraged within librarianship, it has been conceived mostly as a professional relationship that occurs after one has obtained a position. Thus, mentoring among LIS students is not customary--largely because internships and field experiences are not universally required. To address this problem, the…

This paper is a case study of a Master of Library and Information Studies degree program online option that has been unusually successful in retaining and graduating students. Design characteristics of this program that has maintained a retention rate of over 90 percent over five years are described and mapped to the literature on distance…

Using a web-based survey, this study explored students' perceptions of their master's programs in information studies at six Canadian universities. Findings indicate that students rate most aspects of their programs positively, although few respondents give the highest ratings, indicating that there is substantial room for improvement. When asked…

This article shows the assessments made by students from the Carlos III University of Madrid of the induction period in the practicum they performed during their courses of study, and their perceptions of and attitudes towards it. The method used was a survey comprising 6 questions about the induction process, which was carried out among 359…

This paper examines two IMLS-funded scholarship programs that targeted non-traditional LIS students, documenting non-academic aspects of the programs that participating students identified as most important to the successful completion of their academic programs and to their establishment as contributing members of the professional library…

Youth services faculty in LIS programs have seen significant changes in the last ten years in the content they teach and the variety of methods by which they deliver instruction. However, youth services education continues to be understudied and this study takes a first look at several gaps in the LIS education literature: youth services faculty…

Over the past two decades, preparation of LIS professionals to conduct credible research has been both scrutinized and encouraged by a variety of scholars. The conclusion of these researchers has been that there is a paucity of courses and that opportunities for students to participate in authentic field research are few. There is a resulting need…

This paper presents a case study that examines an internship as service learning and participating students' perceptions of their learning in two learning environments. The internship experience in this situation is first examined to ascertain that it qualifies as service learning. At the conclusion of this service learning internship experience,…

Implementing Communities of Practice (CoP) in online learning is well documented (Gray, 2004; Wenger & Snyder, 2000), and is of particular interest to the LIS profession (Yukawa, 2010). Most of the students in school library programs are practicing teachers seeking to add the library science endorsement to their existing license. They are…