SLA 2005 Conference (Toronto)
WISE, the Web-based Information Science Education consortium, made its official launch at the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto from June 5-8, 2005. The consortium, comprised of thirteen library and information schools, had representatives from member schools on hand at Exhibit Booth #1139 providing information, reviewing course offerings, and discussing the growth and development of WISE.
The WISE booth was a success, generating attention from many conference attendees. The booth featured pennants from each participating WISE school. This drew in graduates of member schools who were interested in learning how their alma mater was involved with WISE. Representatives from other universities stopped by and expressed interest in joining the WISE consortium.
What is WISE?
The initiative is part of a two-year, $713,492 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant received by the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, the WISE consortium includes thirteen member schools worldwide:
- Indiana University- Indianapolis
- Rutgers University
- Simmons College
- University of British Columbia
- University of Maryland
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Western Ontario
- University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
- Victoria University of Wellington
- Syracuse University (founding member)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (founding member)
“Many people aspire to pursue graduate studies in LIS, but with just over 50 accredited schools in the U.S., potential students often do not have access to local site-based programs. With the introduction of our new members, students can access a wide variety of high-quality courses and faculty from leading information science schools across the world,” says Bruce Kingma of the WISE consortium. He added that WISE courses are available for the summer semester, with expanded offerings in the fall of 2005.
WISE is a unique and groundbreaking collaboration in online education. Leading library and information science (LIS) schools have extended their reach on a global basis to broaden the educational opportunities available to students. WISE uses advanced online technology to enrich education and foster relationships among students, faculty, and universities. The focus is on developing faculty training for online pedagogy, standards and metrics for high-quality online LIS education, and a collaborative marketplace for online LIS courses.
See http://www.sla.org for more information about the SLA Conference.