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Overview

The MLIS program prepares professionals to exercise creativity, integrity and leadership in designing, implementing and promoting programs and systems for the creation, organization, management, preservation and effective use of information and collections. Graduates of the MLIS program go on to careers as librarians, information managers, researchers, analysts, interaction designers, web content specialists, and more.

The MLIS degree program offers a wide range of courses and is highly customizable based on specific student interests. Areas of particular focus include the following:

  • Information sources and services
  • Digital resource management
  • Human-information interaction
  • Information analysis and management
  • Services and management of information organizations
  • Youth services and literature

There are four pathways in the program and students may use these as a guide to focus their studies:

Moreover, students can add formal specializations to their degree:

What makes the program unique?

The program has strong connections to the local and provincial library community, offering opportunities for professional development, networking and job experience with libraries, archives, museums and cultural heritage organizations.

Our wide range of hands-on learning courses offer students the opportunity to put their theory into practice through for-credit Professional Experiences and paid Co-op experience.

Within the school students also have many opportunities to collaborate with faculty on a wide range of research projects.

The school also offers one of the only programs in North America to focus on Indigenous issues in information management. The First Nations Curriculum Concentration (FNCC) is designed to prepare information professionals to work effectively with, and within, Indigenous communities in support of ongoing developments in Aboriginal culture and languages, self-government, treaty negotiation and litigation. During their program of study, iSchool students are supported in gaining experience working in Indigenous-oriented information organizations.

The program participates in a collaborative, cross-disciplinary program called Designing for People (DFP). The DFP is a research-oriented program, structured as 12 credits of specialization components that enrich another degree program. Students receive a degree in their home department but their program is enhanced with core knowledge from anchor courses and electives. Students are required to complete a research thesis with their DFP supervisor(s). 

Blockchain and decentralized trust technologies are transforming how records are created, managed and preserved. UBC has launched Canada's first Blockchain and Decentralized Trust Technologies training pathway for graduate students under the direction of School of Information faculty member, Dr. Victoria Lemieux. The Graduate Pathway on Blockchain and Decentralized Trust Technologies is a 12-credit non-degree multidisciplinary, research-intensive training program that augments existing Master's and PhD programs.

While students may add DFP or Blockchain as formal specializations to enhance their degree, they will not appear on their transcripts.

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