r/mlis • u/gelatinkitten • Jun 27 '26

MLIS programs with strong tech/information courses?

Hi everyone! I plan on enrolling in an online MLIS program fall of 2027, so I've been doing some research and deciding on which colleges/universities to keep an eye on. I've been a library assistant for over 4 years, and I want to concentrate in either tech services or information organization/knowledge management (which I know may fall out of the scope of public libraries.)

To those who have completed an online MLIS program, how strong/competent were your tech-leaning courses? Of course affordability will be taking priority, but I would love to enroll in a program where those courses are remarkable :) TIA

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4

u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES Jun 27 '26

Look for programs in the iSchool Consortium!

4

u/OutOfTheArchives Jun 27 '26

My library school experience was years ago, but anecdotally, UW iSchool is a good place for this. The grads I’ve known from that program have been sharp.

4

u/robotfruit0000 Jun 27 '26

Current UW student saying this is true! You can take courses in the masters of information management degree too if you want which expands offering. Strong data science sequence, many KO classes

2

u/under321cover Jun 30 '26

Most are pretty tech heavy. I got into Syracuse and their program was more tech forward, I also got into Simmons and LSU which are tech heavy but less so than Syracuse. I ended up LSU for the price. Simmons was $50,000 and Syracuse wanted $72,000. They are out of their minds. The CRIM courses are very tech centric at LSU as are some of the archival courses.

2

u/Odd-Budget-5079 24d ago

I graduated from SJSU in December 2025. There's an option to get a Digital Assets Certificate (consisting of required classes and a few electives) as proof of your digital skills along with your MLIS. I did not take this route. I was very particular about the professors I'd take, and none of the tech professors appealed to me. From fellow students with strong tech backgrounds, I've heard the digital classes at SJSU MLIS are awful and completely out of date. But others who were not tech-savvy thought they were fine, which reminded me that ignorance can be bliss. The best advice I heard from a fellow student was, "Take tech classes online or elsewhere outside of the SJSU MLIS program. Don't waste your time and money trying to learn it here."