UNT Home | Graduate Studies | College of Information | Library and Information Science
Graduate faculty and areas of research
Yvonne J. Chandler, Associate Professor and Director of Georgia and Nevada Cohort; Ph.D., Michigan. Legal information services and research; Internet resources and services; education for library and information services.
Jiangping Chen, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Syracuse. Natural language processing; cross language information retrieval; automatic question answering; information retrieval systems design and analysis.
Ana D. Cleveland, Regents Professor and Director of Houston Program; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve. Medical informatics; information storage and retrieval; indexing and abstracting.
Yunfei Du, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., North Texas. Academic libraries; international librarianship; learning styles; e-learning.
Elizabeth Figa, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Ethnographic study of information retrieval and information behavior; ethnographic study of storytelling and the oral tradition; narrative analysis; historical research methods.
Shawne D. Miksa, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Florida State. Information organization, control, access and theory; classification research and theory; information retrieval; bibliometrics; scholarly communication.
William E. Moen, Associate Professor and Director of Research; Ph.D., Syracuse. Information organization/metadata; networked information discovery and retrieval; information technology standards development and implementation; information policy; digital libraries; networked services design.
Brian O'Connor, Professor; Ph.D., California at Berkeley. Image document access; information-seeking behavior; browsing studies, representation of questions and documents.
Guillermo A. Oyarce, Associate Professor; Ph.D., North Texas. Information retrieval systems; human-computer interaction; cognitive issues in distributed networks and digital libraries.
Miguel Ruiz, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Iowa. Cross-language information retrieval; automatic classification/categorization; contentbased image retrieval applications for medical images; intelligent user interfaces.
Linda Schamber, Associate Professor and Associate Dean; Ph.D., Syracuse. Information and communication theory; information seeking, evaluation and use behavior; information organization; qualitative research methods.
Barbara Schultz-Jones, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., North Texas. Collaboration networks, social networks; automation technology in the school library; information literacy in K-12 schools.
Barbara Stein Martin, Peace Professor of Children's Library Services; Ph.D., North Texas. Children's and young adult literature and services. Dale Thompson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Syracuse. Information security.
Herman L. Totten, Regents Professor and Dean; Ph.D., Oklahoma. Management of libraries and information agencies; diversity issues related to management of library and information agencies; reading activities of all age groups.
Philip M. Turner, Professor and Special Assistant to the Dean for Distributed Learning; Ed.D., Texas A&M-Commerce. Communications; special materials – audio-visual and telecommunications; management of libraries and information centers – school/media; research methods.
Maurice Wheeler, Associate Professor and Department Chair; Ph.D., Pittsburgh. Management; leadership; organizational culture; diversity; public libraries.
For More Information
University of North Texas
College of Information
1155 Union Circle #311068
Denton, Texas 76203-5017
Discovery Park, Room E290A
Phone: 940-565-2445
Toll free: 877-275-7547
TTY callers: 940-369-8652
Fax: 940-565-3101
www.unt.edu
www.unt.edu/slis
Toulouse School of Graduate Studies
940-565-2383 or toll free 888-868-4723
Library and Information Science
Master's Degree Programs
Opportunities for graduate students
The Department of Library and Information Science (LIS) offers Master of Science degrees in Information Science and Library Science. The unique nature of this program is the approach to the study of information, its behavior and use from the user's point of view. This creates a broad conceptual framework, which is developed in the core courses and further explored in courses that prepare information professionals for a number of different client settings.
The M.S. degree will prepare you for professional positions in information agencies in government, education and industry. Many graduates work in public and academic libraries, with the Internet, for software or database producers, or as digital information managers.
The LIS program has been accredited since 1965 by the American Library Association (50 East Huron Street, Chicago, Ill. 60611, 800-545-2433), indicating it has continually passed strict standards of excellence.
The master's degree programs are offered both on campus and via the web. The core courses are provided in a unique face-to-face component called a Web Institute. You will attend two four-day institutes or one nine-day in Denton, Houston, Nevada/Utah, California or Georgia to begin the program. After completing the institutes, you can finish your studies online or take a combination of web-based and face- to-face courses. While you have up to six years to complete the program, most students do so in four to seven semesters.
You can pursue a major in library science or information science and choose a program emphasis in a variety of areas:
- digital image management
- distributed learning librarianship
- general program of study
- health informatics specialist
- information organization
- information systems
- law librarian and legal informatics specialist
- school librarianship
- youth librarianship
The educational experience is enhanced by student organization activities, interaction with local chapters of national professional associations, and pre-professional work with a growing community of libraries and corporations.
Admission requirements
You must meet the admission requirements of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies. For graduate school requirements and possible exceptions, access the graduate catalog online at www.unt.edu/catalog.
Additionally, the department requires a program application, three letters of recommendation and a statement of purpose, indicating qualifications and interest in the information sciences profession. For forms and minimum admission requirements, visit www.unt.edu/slis/resources/e-forms.
Degree requirements
A minimum of 36 semester hours, including a 9-semester-hour core curriculum and 27 semester hours of elective courses, is required. The elective courses are determined in consultation with a faculty advisor and depend upon career objectives, interests and previous experience.
You must present evidence of field experience through proof of six months of LIS professional experience or a 120 practicum/internship. In lieu of a thesis, a capstone exit exam is required during your last semester before graduation.
Research resources
The Science and Technology Library, which contains the LIS resources, including 10,000 volumes of LIS journals and more than 19,000 items in the Z book collection. It also provides 24 subscription database and journal packages and 37 individual electronic journals for LIS, along with an online subject guide to LIS resources.
Students also have access to the rich resources of the Dallas-Fort Worth region, which has the third-highest concentration of colleges and universities in the nation. UNT is a member of the Alliance for Higher Education of North Texas, which provides research and educational programs, library cooperation, TeleVideo links with other universities and more than 20 high-tech industries within the region, and reciprocal library loan arrangements.
Financial assistance
The department offers several financial aid awards to help students pay for graduate education, including loans, library or teaching assistantships, scholarships, internships or co-ops, and part-time employment. Students may apply for graduate library assistantships in one of the university's libraries after the completion of 9 semester hours of study.
Flexible scheduling permits students to work either part or full time while pursuing their degrees. Libraries, agencies and corporations in the Dallas-Fort Worth region offer part-time employment, internship or co-op experiences.