The Department of Library and Information Science in the School of Arts and Sciences offers an advanced post graduate certificate in Cultural Heritage Information Management (CHIM). The certificate is designed for those individuals possessing a master’s degree in related fields who work in libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, government, and other cultural memory institutions. While a master’s degree in the CHIM course of study is awarded after students complete 36 credit hours (4 required courses and 8 electives), the certificate requires candidates to complete 15 credit hours (5 courses from a set of approved electives).
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Program Background
Rationale
Digital technology has changed how people search for, access and interact with information in the 21st century. As people expect easy access to information, cultural heritage institutions such as libraries, archives and museums (LAMs) increasingly offer more content and services digitally. Consequently, building and managing digital collections is now an essential endeavor at such institutions. Management of digital collections brings about changes to professional practice. Success in creating and managing digital collections requires knowledge and skills in acquisition of materials; information organization; information services and outreach; strategic planning; project management; the ability to collaborate with partners; and expertise in digital technologies. These skills are important not only for new graduates who actively seek positions in LAMs, but also for seasoned professionals who want to transition to new job duties involving digital aspects or to make a career change in LAMs. The certificate program offers working professionals an opportunity to acquire and renew relevant skills for their career adjustment in the field of cultural heritage information management.
Target Audience
Librarians, archivists, or museum professionals with a master’s degree in relevant fields and at least 2 years of professional experience in libraries, archives, museums, or historical societies. Target audience will be contacted directly via various cultural institutions in this region, mailing lists, professional societies, and conferences.
Learning Objectives
1. Articulate the interrelationship among libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage institutions, and the challenges faced by these institutions.
2. Recognize digital technologies and their potential for advancing the mission of cultural heritage institutions.
3. Develop planning and management skills in areas of resource management and curation.
4. Demonstrate knowledge and skills of information representations of archival and cultural resources, and develop expertise in metadata standards, classification schemes, taxonomy, and controlled vocabularies.
5. Analyze the needs of users so as to design and evaluate products and services to meet those needs and advance their institution's missions and values.
6. Apply information organization principles and interface design principles in order to create user-friendly digital collections and Web sites, and to conduct usability testing.
Course of Study Requirements
The Advanced Certificate requires the following 5 courses:
LSC 615 Metadata
Applies principles of information organization to organize digitized and born-digital resources for access. Discusses strengths and limitations of current access tools such as subject guides and directories, search engines, OPACs, databases, and digital libraries. Compares selected metadata standards and examines how libraries, archives, government agencies, and museums apply metadata schemas and manage projects to make digital resources available to users.
LSC 635 Human Information Behavior
This course will introduce students to information-seeking theories, methods, and research on users' behavior of libraries and information use. The main focus of this course is on promoting an understanding of how different groups of people and communities seek, gather, retrieve, and use information in a variety of information environments. Topics of the course include frameworks for understanding behavior, seeking and retrieval of information, conceptual models of seeking and search process, relationships between information seeking and information retrieval and organization, research approaches and methods, and a review of basic processes in the management of information services.
LSC 648 Digital Curation
This course provides an overview of digital curation as a lifecycle management strategy to manage, evaluate, collect, organize, preserve, share, support and promote the use and re-use of digital assets. The course introduces digital curation models, infrastructures, standards, initiatives, and technical tools; it covers the concepts and skills involved in creating and managing an integrated and sustainable digital cultural heritage repository as a trusted body of digital information for current and future use.
LSC 612 Foundations of Digital Libraries
The digital library is a blend of old and new, bringing new formats, technologies and techniques to the global dissemination of information, drawing on knowledge and experience in areas such as organization of information, digital preservation, information retrieval, interface design, and networking. This course will provide an overview of principles and practices in digital libraries. The course will address theoretical, technological, social, and practical issues regarding building, organizing, and providing access to digital libraries. Topics covered in the course include all phases of project management including collection development and assessment, formatting standards and practices, metadata and markup standards, technical infrastructure, and end-user experience.
LSC 677 History and Theory of Cultural Heritage Institutions
This course provides the 21st-century LIS-CHIM student with an overview of the history and theory of institutions whose mission is to collect, preserve, organize, interpret, and disseminate information about the cultural heritage, tangible and intangible, and by direct or virtual means. Students will gain a grasp of the purpose and mission of these institutions, from the “cabinet of curiosities” to the virtual collections that cross boundaries among libraries, museums, and archives, as well as cultural organizations that protect and interpret buildings and sites of cultural and historical significance or are dedicated to grass-roots efforts to promote the protection of heritage. The course will cover ethics, collection and curatorial practices, and the visitor/user experience, as well as the meaning of cultural heritage in the global environment.
Note on Transfer of Credits and Course Selection:
- A student can request to transfer up to 3 credits (equivalent to one course) when a similar course was taken as part of a Master’s program completed within 4 years of application for the CHIM certificate. Once a student is admitted to the program, the student can submit a course transfer request proposal to the department after consulting with the advisor. The department will review the request proposal and make a decision whether to approve transfer of credits.
- A student can consult with an advisor to negotiate substituting one course with another among department offerings. Depending upon the student’s previous educational background and professional experience, the student will be granted permission to take another course.
Admission Requirements and How to Apply
Requirements for Admission
- Official transcripts from a previous master's degree in a relevant field
- At least two years of professional working experience in the field; proof of employment (e.g. employer letter) required
- Graduate Non-degree Application Form, accompanied by a $60 nonrefundable application fee. Applicants should list Advanced Certificate in Cultural Heritage Information Management under “Specify course(s) you plan to take."
-The maximum period of certificate completion is 24 months
-3.0 GPA minimum