ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES

PITT LIBRARY SCHOOL REORGANIZED; TWO ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS CREATED

The University of Pittsburgh’s graduate school of library and information sciences has been reorganized and two academic departments have been created within the existing administrative framework of the school. A department of information and communication science, culmination of the school’s increasing commitment since 1963 to the teaching of information/communication science courses as a vital area of professional study in modern librarianship, has been established with Professor Allen Kent as Chairman. A department of library science, with Dr. Frank B. Sessa as Chairman, has been formed and assigned responsibility for research and instruction in the fundamental concepts and more traditional applications of librarianship. Previously, the school has functioned as a single unit, without departmentalization of internal functions.

“The size and complexity of the graduate school of library and information sciences has grown to such an extent,” explained Dr. Harold Lancour, Dean of the graduate school, “that it became clear an administrative division was essential to achieve the needed simplification of our operations. The departmental organization is a recognized academic arrangement giving suitable status to those responsible for developing academic programs and desirable visibility to major activities of the school.” The division does not imply that two different degrees will be awarded. Regardless of the field of specialization the student chooses while in the master’s program, the Master of Library Science degree will be awarded upon completion, as before.