The Knowledge Organization Education Within and Beyond the Master of Library and Information Science

Abstract

By analyzing 63 English-speaking institutions that offer ALA-accredited master’s programs in library and information studies, this research aims to explore the education for knowl­edge organization (KO) at different levels and across fields. This research examines the KO courses that are the required courses and elective courses in the MLIS programs, that are offered in other master’s programs and graduate certificate programs, that are adapted to the undergraduate degree and certificate programs, and that are particularly developed for programs other than MLIS. The findings indicate that the great majority of MLIS programs still have a focus on or a significant component of knowl­edge organization as their required course and include the knowl­edge organization elective courses, particularly library cataloging and classification, on their curriculum. However, there is a variety of the offerings of KO related courses across the programs in an institution or in the same program across the institutions. It shows a promising trend that the traditional and new KO courses play an important role in many other programs, at different levels and across fields. With the conventional, adapted, or innovative content, these courses demonstrate that the principles and skills of knowl­edge organization are applicable to a wide variety of settings, can be integrated with other disciplinary knowl­edge and emerging technologies, and meet the needs of different career pathways and groups of learners.