Passed January 24, 2008, by the ILS faculty at a Special Meeting

Special Project Requirement

for the MLS degree

The Special Project and Capstone Portfolio Requirements

All students enrolled in the MLS degree program are required to complete a Special Project in lieu of a thesis or comprehensive exam as one of the university requirements for graduate degrees.

The Special Project demonstrates the application or drawing together of knowledge and skills acquired in the MLS program and is documented in the Capstone Portfolio. The Capstone Portfolio is a well-organized Web- and CD-deliverable demonstration of the body of work a student completes in the MLS program and how this work relates to professional competencies. Significant projects are typically completed in connection with upper level courses and result in a written report or other product. While each student should complete at least one advanced level or significant project that demonstrates the qualities of a Special Project, it is the Capstone Portfolio that will be taken as satisfying the Special Project requirement. The Capstone Portfolio is to be submitted to the department on a CD disc and will be kept on file for review by students, faculty, and accrediting agencies.

The Capstone Portfolio should include: a narrative overview; courses taken (with catalog descriptions), with links to samples of work; professional competencies appropriate for beginning professionals and the student's area of specialization, with links to work that demonstrate each competency; reflection on the student's program of study and preparation for the information profession; and a professional resume. A template and sample portfolios as well as links to helpful resources are available on the department's website.

In preparation for successfully assembling and submitting the Capstone Portfolio as the Special Project requirement for the MLS degree, entering students are advised to gain early in their studies the skills needed to produce a Web- and CD-deliverable portfolio, to begin collecting work in at least a rudimentary digital portfolio, and to remain familiar with current professional competencies and how course work relates to these competencies.

Comments concerning the Special Project requirement for the MLS

The capstone portfolio represents a body of accomplishments to be used as the Special Project requirement in a 36-course-credit professional program.

The capstone portfolio presents a strong program assessment tool to view individual courses across students, interconnections among courses, and overall programs of study compared to nationally derived professional core competencies.

Concepts concerning and supporting the Special Project requirement for the MLS

• ILS 501 should include an exercise in creating a template for the portfolio and skills needed to establish and maintain a website, upload web pages and files, including images and sound.

• ILS 503 should include an exercise in identifying professional competencies appropriate to the student's professional goals.

• ILS 680 should include a review of the capstone portfolio to insure that is meets the listed criteria.

 Preparing the Capstone Portfolio

The suggested general structure of the capstone portfolio is:

  o Home (with narrative overview)
         o Courses taken (with catalog descriptions) 
                  o Links to samples of work in selected courses
         o Core Competencies (with applicable competency statements)
                   o Links to work that demonstrates each competency
         o Reflection on program of study and preparation for the profession
         o Resume

You can be creative with the capstone portfolio including a range of media from Word documents to sound to images (still and moving). It should be unique to you while retraining the prescribed structure.

The capstone portfolio is logically organized, condensed information that catches the reader's attention and delivers the message almost instantly.

The capstone portfolio should begin with a well-written overview that is a clear, concise, and relevant account of what you hope a visitor will learn from your portfolio (about you and your educational career); this will likely highlight the learning achieved over the course of your program of study and perhaps how that learning lead to and/or was applied to research you have conducted in the field.

The reflection is a personal statement that explains who you are, where you come from, and where you are headed in your career. It is an opportunity to reflect on your educational and career goals as you think about your MLS career. Here you have the opportunity to examine and reflect on your learning in a broad context of people, career, culture, and experience.

Course catalog descriptions can be found it the Web version of the Graduate Catalog

The American Library Association has published a draft proposed set of eight core competencies areas, with specific competency statements under each competency area. These competencies are intended to be for the beginning generalist librarian; they can be used to identify and assess the knowledge or concepts and skills you have acquired over MLS studies.

Students who have taken specialized courses such as in medical librarianship or children's services may want to include Competencies relevant subject competencies. Some of the published competencies are:

YALSA competencies for Youth Services Librarians
ALSC competencies for Children's Services Librarians
ASERL competencies for Research Librarians
SLA competencies for Special Librarians
RUSA professional competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians
AALL competencies for Law Librarians
cross-sectoral competency analysis for Information Resources Management Specialists in Archives, Libraries and Records Management
core competencies for Music Librarians

 

Sample Template for the Portfolio