News

Update: The fund met its endowment goal of $50,000 by March 31, and will be able to begin awarding scholarships in fall 2023.

In response to a call for increased diversity at the University of Texas (UT) Austin iSchool—and to boost representation and participation among students of color in information sciences fields overall—a group of UT alumni have created an endowed scholarship for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) students. The committee’s goal is to raise a total of $50,000 by March 31 so that it can begin awarding scholarships in fall 2023.

In the beginning of October, the Department of Education announced temporary changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) that are projected to help 22,000 borrowers with consolidated loans without further action, and another 27,000 may be able to qualify with additional certification. The DOE expects the changes will help over 555,000 borrowers who previously consolidated their loans and may get an additional two years of qualifying payments. The new program stands to help out librarians in particular.

Catherine Sheldrick Ross died on September 11. Professor, dean, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she was a renowned library and information scholar. She leaves a legacy of research and publications critical to reader, reference, and public services.

2020 LIS graduates faced a dip in salaries, an increase in remote work, and a drop in satisfaction, but not a major rise in unemployment.

In fall 2020, the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island (URI) launched a master’s track in Information Equity, Diverse Communities, and Critical Librarianship. The 12-credit track, one of four that comprise the university’s LIS program, is fully online and will continue to be offered remotely as URI transitions to a fully online setting in the next year.

Internships and practicums are important to learning and jobseeking. During COVID, LIS programs and students have had to get creative at a distance.

LJ caught up with Dr. Nicole Cooke, Augusta Baker endowed chair and associate professor at the School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, to ask what librarians need to know about how misinformation and disinformation work in the modern era and how they can be combated effectively.

The LJ placement and salaries survey provides a valuable professional snapshot of the job-seeking experiences of graduates and their institutions as a service to the LIS community. LJ invited each of the 52 American Library Association–accredited library and information science schools located in the United States to participate.

Library Journal’s annual Placements & Salaries survey reports on the experiences of LIS students who graduated and sought their first librarian jobs in the previous year: in this case, 2019. Salaries and full-time employment are up, but so are unemployment and the gender gap; 2019 graduates faced a mixed job market even before the pandemic.