Undergraduate library and information studies programs in North America

Abstract

All 57 library and information studies programs in the United States that are accredited by the American Library Association offer master's degrees to candidates who already have at least a bachelor's degree in some other subject. The dominance of the graduate route to professional qualification, however, has not gone unchallenged, whether viewed in a historical or a contemporary context. First, it took seventy years from the establishment of the first library school in the United States for graduate programs to become the standard. Second, many undergraduate LIS programs do function in North America, albeit without a stamp of approval from the American Library Association. Third, critics of the graduate program as the only way to professional qualifications continue to argue the case for undergraduate programs, either in parallel with or as a precursor of graduate programs. And fourth, some schools with accredited LIS master's programs are establishing new undergraduate programs in specialised areas like information systems or information management.