University of Ottawa Canadas University Proposed School of Information Studies

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University of Ottawa Canadas
UniversityProposed School of Information Studies

• Presented by Mary Cavanagh
• On behalf of the University of Ottawa Library
• October, 2005

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Program Rationale

• Employer-stated need for bilingual LIS and
  archives graduates in the National Capital Region
• 160 library, archives information orgs in NCR
• 8Rs Report (University of Alberta)

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Program objectives

• To offer excellence and diversity in the
  education of French and English professionals in
  areas of information culture, management,
  preservation, and archives.
• To develop professional competencies in managing
  information and knowledge resources
• To contribute to the mission of the University,
  through research and publication by both faculty
  and students, to the continuous expansion and
  critical assessment of the body of knowledge
  underlying the information and archives sciences

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Employer Advisory Committee

• Library and Archives Canada
• Ottawa Public Library
• CISTI
• Library of Parliament
• Carleton University
• Council of Federal Libraries
• University of Ottawa

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Academic Steering Committee

• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Graduate Postdoctoral Studies
• With input from Faculty of Social Sciences
• Faculty of Education

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Program features

• 2-year or 4 semester MIS with options for
  specialization (e.g. archives, information
  policy)
• Bilingual students and faculty
• Course-based, thesis option and/or co-op program
• Interdisciplinarity across other faculties
  depts (e.g. geography, communications)
• Focus on information management
• High standard of IT skills required at entry

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Consultations to date

• Deans of all Canadian LIS graduate programs
• Initial discussions with American Library
  Association (ALA) Committee on Accreditation
• University of Ottawa approval to develop
  business plan

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Accreditation Agencies

• Ontario Council on Graduate Studies (OCGS)
• ALA Committee on Accreditation (COA) 24 month
  process

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Professional association consultations

• Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA)
• Canadian Council of Archives (CCA)
• Association of Records Managers Administrators
  (ARMA)
• Association des archivistes du Québec Inc.
• CLA / ASTED
• Corporation of Professional Librarians of
  Quebec(CORPO)
• PWGS Information Management certificate program

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Milestones ahead

• Formal approval University Senate (Q4 2005)
• Submit program plan to OCGS (Q1 2006)
• Initiate formal application to ALA (Jan 2006)
• Hire accreditation consultants (Q1 2006)
• Hire program director (July 2006)
• Hire faculty recruit students (2006/07)
• Offer courses 1st semester (September 2007)

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• For more information contact
• Leslie Weir _at_ lweir_at_uottawa.ca or
• Mary Cavanagh _at_ mcavanag_at_uottawa.ca