Librarianship and Archival Practice

The Librarianship and Archival Practice mastery course, Capstone Projects in Librarianship and Archival Practice, is a project course in which you will synthesize your previous coursework as you accomplish real-world professional goals. It differs from other UMSI courses, because the focus is on application of that synthesized knowledge, not on acquiring new knowledge.

UMSI Mastery courses are special types of courses that allow you to demonstrate synthesis of the major theories, methods, and approaches to inquiry and/or schools of practice necessary for entry into a particular career in the information professions.

This course provides an in-depth capstone experience to those pursuing careers in librarianship and/or archival practice. Based on skills, experiences, and knowledge developed in prerequisite courses, you (alone or with a partner) will assume primary responsibility for planning, carrying out, and evaluating a significant project of approximately 100 hours that aligns to one or more of these professional themes:

collections: projects related to materials selection, processing, metadata, cataloguing, weeding, and/or outreach;
instruction, programs, or events: projects about the planning, facilitation, project management, marketing, and/or evaluation of formal and informal learning activities or community events;
and community engagement and partnerships: projects that assess community needs, identify service gaps and opportunities, seek and nurture new relationships with partner organizations or communities.

Your work will be conducted in collaboration with a mentor within a professional organization. In very rare cases, you may propose a project to be conducted without a mentor in the field. Class meetings provide opportunities for feedback from peers and the instructor, and the chance to discuss current issues facing information professions. To maximize the growth and impact of your project during this semester, you will work with the instructor in the semesters leading up to the course to identify relevant prerequisite courses and select a project focus.