An Interview with 2006–07 ALISE President Connie Van Fleet

Abstract

Connie Van Fleet is well known to RUSO readers. She edited the journal (in conjunction with Danny P Wallace) for twelve years. Upon completing her final term as editor, she assumed leadership for the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). ALISE is the premier organization for faculty teaching in graduate programs in library and information science in North America. Connie graciously took time out of her busy schedule to respond to my questions about library education and LIS students. All of a sudden librarianship is becoming portrayed as a hot occupation. Last spring, U.S. News & World Report (see Best Careers for 2007, in the issue dated March 19, 2007) ranked librarianship as one of the top twenty-five careers for 2007. This summer, the New York Times (see A Hipper Crowd of Shushers, in the July 8, 2007 issue) ran a story on how librarianship is becoming a career choice for Generation Xers. Have library schools noticed a marked increase in applications over the last year or two? I loved those articles and really got quite a kick out of sharing the NYT piece with my students. It's great to see librarianship getting attention and respect. I think those articles, however, reflect recognition of a trend, rather than drive enrollment figures. Enrollment in ALA-accredited programs has been increasing steadily since an inexplicable dip in 1999. In fact, according to the ALISE statistics, enrollment in accredited masters' programs grew by about 8% per year between 1999 and 2006, resulting in an increase of over 65%. The 2007 statistics have just been collected from the schools and have not yet been analyzed, but it is my sense that this upward trend is continuing. Who is attending graduate programs in library and information science these days? Is there a demographic profile of the typical student enrolled in a master's degree program? Is librarianship a second career for many individuals? There is a very diverse group of individuals who attend graduate programs in library and information science for a variety of reasons. The profession may still be overwhelmingly female and white, but we are seeing more men and ethnic groups represented in the program. I think the data gathered in Fall 2006 probably gives a pretty accurate picture of this year's class. It shows that enrollment in MLIS programs was 71% female and 29% male. Of those students for whom ethnicity data is reported (such reporting is illegal in Canada), 74% of the students were identified as white, with about 4.4% black, 4.34% Hispanic, and 3.37% Asian. Nearly 5% were international students. Perhaps the most dramatic change is in the age of those attending graduate programs in library and information science: 40% were under the age of 30; 69% were under 40; and 87% under 50 years old. The majority (73.7%) of students reside in the state or province in which they attend school. Librarianship still remains a second career for many individuals. We don't have statistics on students who come into our programs with advanced degrees or from other careers, but my experience at three different universities and my impression from speaking with other faculty indicate that a number of students come to us from a variety of professions, including law, music, education, business, and retail sales. We also see a number of library workers who enroll in school for advancement or professional development. It appears that there has been an explosion in online course offerings in library and information science. Are there data on how many students are enrolled in distance versus residential programs? Are there some master's degree programs that are a hybrid? Has ALISE or any other body sponsored research evaluating the quality of online programs? We don't have figures that indicate the balance of enrollment in distance and residential programs that have been aggregated on the national level, nor do we have directly comparable data on those enrollments. …