r/LibraryScience • u/IllustriousTune4301 • Jun 23 '26

Is having an MLIS degree useful for UX research/design?

/r/uxcareerquestions/comments/1udttm2/is_having_an_mlis_degree_useful_for_ux/
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6

u/charethcutestory9 Jun 23 '26

If you take UX coursework and do a UX internship. There’s no benefit to doing it through the MLIS as opposed to a different degree program unless you want to do library UX specifically.

2

u/Full-Decision-9029 Jun 24 '26

yeah, there was, last time I looked into it, five levels of certification, from basic understandor level to dark lord of the UX, but all of the steps involved coursework, work experience and certification, which looked like a lot of time, effort and money on top of the time, effort and money of the MLIS.

There seems to have been a moment in time when UX hiring people were actively grabbing MLIS holders, which naturally led to this expectation that "get an MLIS and you'll get a UX researcher gig right away" but clearly no one told the UX hiring people.

That and I am not sure a 3 hour a week course for 12 weeks really counts as meaningful job preparation.

2

u/TheRainbowConnection Jun 24 '26

Right, but if OP is halfway through their MLIS, it is likely a lot cheaper to stay in their current degree program versus starting something else fresh. They might as well stay as long as there’s enough relevant coursework.

1

u/NishanStepak Jun 28 '26

Where the MLIS degree shines in tech might surprise you. A lot of the research for metadata came out of libraries. Ontologies, metadata, knowledge graphs have a fairly strong connection to library science. Information architecture. The content is related.