Published: October 27, 2016

Spring courses for 2017 offer flexibility and exciting new classes.

If you’re like me and most current students at the SJSU School of Information, you’re deep in the trenches of the fall semester, but now is the time to plan for the future. The spring semester course schedules have been posted and registration begins on November 1, 2016 by appointment for Regular Session students and November 8, 2016 for Special Session students. Registration closes on January 23, 2017 for all students.

A Little Bit of Everything for Everyone and Flexibility to Boot
As usual, the iSchool doesn’t hold back on new and interesting courses and they have a lot to offer for the Spring 2017 semester.

The iSchool’s Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA) degree program will offer a handful of courses taught by Dr. Pat Franks and instructors Dr. Lisa Daulby and Jason Kaltenbacher.

If you are an MLIS student looking for a way to add just a little bit to your coursework, the ability to try something new for several weeks or you just can’t resist something new and exciting (that would be me) then check out some of the one and two unit courses in both Regular and Special Session. In Regular Session, for example, Dr. Pat Franks, who teaches many of the MARA courses, will also be teaching MLIS course Info 284 Enterprise Content Management and Digital Preservation. There are also some great Info 281 courses being offered, such as Info 281 Metadata. Regular Session will offer a one-unit Info 281 Indigenous Librarianship course. This course offers a great way to learn about the distinctive information needs and challenges presented in Indigenous librarianship. Instructor Dr. Christie Koontz will be offering a one-unit Info 283 Marketing of Information Products and Services in Regular Session and a two-unit course Info 281 Marketing Your LIS Skills in a Networked and Changing World in Special Session. A class that I’ve always thought looked interesting is Info 220 Music Librarianship and being taught by Timothy Dickey in Special Session as a one-unit course.

Become an Advocacy Expert
I am super-excited about a new one-unit course Info 282 Political Advocacy offered by Patrick Sweeney of EveryLibrary. I was so excited about this offering that I tracked him down while he was deep in the trenches advocating during election season and asked him a few questions about his course and the EveryLibrary organization.

“Essentially, EveryLibrary is the nation’s first and only Political Action Committee for libraries,” says Sweeney. “We work with local libraries and take on local fights for funding for libraries. We train librarians and libraries how to better position themselves politically in their communities and we do a lot of research and data building about effective strategies for library political activism.” I know enough to know that more libraries, more money for libraries to do what they do best and more library staff positions for MLIS graduates is a good thing—for myself personally, for my community and for every community around the country.

The specifics of the course will include building and understanding data-sets, analyzing advocacy methods and strategies based on data, outreach, fundraising, budgeting and so much more. Sound fun? Sweeney can appreciate fun too but he understands the difference between effective activism and fun for libraries. With the iSchool’s course in Political Advocacy, students can learn the most effective ways to make a lasting and positive difference for libraries and the communities they serve. “I’m also hoping that every librarian will learn something from this course about how to better position their library so that they can get the funding and political and community support that it needs,” says Sweeney. This course is a unique and ground-breaking offering for students because a lot of graduate students and most librarians don’t have the resources or opportunity to really focus on getting the support they need—they’re too busy being librarians. “We have a lot of work to do as a profession in this arena and we don’t train librarians how to be politically effective or organize their libraries in a way that’s politically effective.” This course is aimed to accomplish that.

As you can see, there are a lot of exciting options coming up for next semester. Be sure to map out your course work carefully to find out what you need and check the course schedules and course rotations to plan out all your graduate classes. Do this before you enroll and then insert all the course information through your MySJSU account. Happy course shopping to all!

For related content, check out this:
SJSU iSchool’s New Advising Pages Help Students Customize Their Unique Path to Success

The iSchool’s Best Resources for Networking and Planning Your Career

image courtesy of Stuart Miles