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Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS)
| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2026-01-01 | - |
Program Overview
Library and Information Science Master’s Degree
Earn Your Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science
With our Master of Library and Information Science, you will gain the skills to connect communities, advance equity, and promote justice. You’ll learn how to discover, manage, and organize information resources while focusing on user services, data privacy, protection, and information literacy.
Your studies will emphasize information justice, equity, engagement, and technology use in your community, allowing you to put your training to work through experiential learning in various settings.
Program Benefits
- Prepare for or advance your career in libraries, museums, schools, and other settings.
- Available on campus or online to suit your schedule.
- Accredited by the ALA for nearly 100 years.
- Gain experience and build your resume through hands-on experience.
Program Info
Next term starts:
Spring 2026
Total Credit Hours
36
Program Duration:
Complete in as little as one year
Program Delivery:
Available on-campus and online
Courses
12
Admissions Requirements
Below is a summary of what applicants need to prepare:
- Complete the Graduate Program Application – Submit your application through the Graduate Program Application portal. After submission, you’ll receive an email confirmation from Syracuse University.
- Pay the Application Fee – A non-refundable fee of $75 is required. If you’re applying to multiple programs, each requires a separate application and fee. Post-9/11 veterans may qualify for a fee waiver; contact the Veterans Resource Center for details.
- Submit Academic Transcripts – Provide one copy of transcripts from all postsecondary institutions you’ve attended. While unofficial transcripts are acceptable for initial review, official transcripts confirming a U.S. bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) are necessary upon admission. Failure to provide official transcripts may result in revocation of admission.
- Write a Personal Statement – In approximately 500 words, discuss your academic and personal interests, relevant experiences, reasons for choosing this degree and Syracuse University, and your future plans post-graduation. Upload this document through the online application.
- Obtain Two Letters of Recommendation – Request two letters from individuals who can assess your qualifications. Recommendations can be submitted electronically via the OnBase application system. If electronic submission isn’t possible, mail sealed letters, signed across the seal by the recommender, to the Graduate Enrollment Management Center.
- Consider Exam Scores – Submitting GRE scores is optional. If you’ve taken the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT, you’re encouraged to include your scores.
- Provide a Current Resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV) – Include an up-to-date resume or CV with your application.
Admission Requirements for International Students
All international applications are required to submit one of the following:
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- Duolingo scores
Exemptions:
- Applicants with a four-year (or higher) degree from a U.S. institution or select exempt countries (confirm eligibility via).
- Native English speakers or citizens of English-speaking countries.
Financial Documentation
- Not required for admission review but necessary for visa issuance (I-20).
- Demonstrate funding for at least the first year of study:
- Privately Sponsored Applicants: Submit a certified bank statement or loan approval letter showing sufficient funds in U.S. dollars.
- Government-Sponsored Applicants: Submit an original or certified copy of an award letter indicating the annual funding amount.
Financial documents must be in English and valid within one year of the semester start date.
Scholarships & Awards
The iSchool offers a variety of scholarships and awards to make graduate education more accessible.
These include merit-based iSchool Merit Awards, the 30% Upstate Scholarship for residents of certain areas in Upstate New York, the Information Literacy in Academic Libraries Scholarship for those pursuing a career in academic librarianship, and the Veterans and Military Award for military personnel and veterans.
Eligibility and application details vary by award.
How to Apply
If you're interested in pursuing your graduate studies on campus, follow the steps below to ensure a smooth and successful application.
- Gather Required Documents
- Complete the Graduate Program Application:
- Visit the Graduate Program Application portal on the Syracuse University website.
- Create an account and fill out your personal information, educational background, and program-specific details.
- Submit Supporting Documents
- Pay the Application Fee
- Track Your Application
Tuition & Fees
Cost per credit
$1,945
X
Number of credits
36
=
Total Tuition
$70,020
*All on-campus students are eligible for generous scholarships, which may help reduce the overall graduate cost.
What Can You Do with a Master’s in Library and Information Science?
A Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS) opens doors to a wide range of career opportunities in both traditional and emerging fields. This degree equips you with the skills to manage and organize information, whether in libraries, museums, archives, or other information-driven environments.
Career Opportunities
- Archives and special collections librarian
- Competitive intelligence analyst
- Electronic resource librarian
- Information architect
- Information officer
- Librarian and media specialist
- Program consultant
- Publishing manager
- Rare books curator
- Research analyst
- Subject specialist librarian
- Web content strategist
Highly Ranked Program by US News & World Report
Median Pay for Library Professionals
US News & World Report Ranking in Digital Librarianship
Delve Deeper, Explore Farther.
In addition to getting practical, on-the-job experience, students have opportunities to join a research lab or collaborate with faculty on their academic work, exploring the role of information in furthering social justice.
Pursue Your Interests.
Explore topics that interest you most. Our flexible program offers focus areas and the opportunity to solidify your expertise with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Data Science or pursue another professional pathway.
Grow Your Potential.
The iSchool’s tight-knit community, coupled with Orange pride, means that you’ll become part of a vibrant and active professional network when you graduate. That’s how we’re able to place nearly all of our graduates into a variety of roles, from school districts to libraries to universities, to museums, and beyond.
Courses & Curriculum
The 36-credit LIS curriculum is designed to prepare librarians who have the broad range of knowledge and skills needed for exemplary practice in the library and information profession. Students in the School Media specialization should consult the School Media specific curriculum.
Core Knowledge and Skills: 15 credits
LIS core courses provide a solid grounding in the knowledge, skills, and values of the library and information profession. The 15-credit LIS core has three parts:
Introductory Core: 3 credits
Cultural Foundations of Information Studies
IST 511 | 3 CREDITS
Survey of the professional, social, ethical, and legal issues affecting information service professionals and organizations and prepares students to deal with these issues and work with a diverse community.
Information Resources Core: 9 credits
Reference and Information Literacy Services
IST 605 | 3 CREDITSEquips students with foundational knowledge of library ethics/standards, user information behavior, information literacy (including core information search, evaluation, and use practices), library resource types and discovery tools, question answering strategies, and related user-responsive library resources and services.
Library Planning, Marketing and Assessment
IST 613 | 3 CREDITSEnables students to discern gaps between user/community needs/goals and library services, resources, and facilities; students develop recommendations to close gaps. Covers project management, marketing/communications, and assessment. Course content is contextualized in collaboration with partner libraries.
PREREQ IST 605
Information Resources: Organization and Access
IST 616 | 3 CREDITS
Introduction to theories, tools, and standards for information organization and access, including cataloging rules and formats, content analysis, indexing, classification, and fundamentals of information retrieval systems.
Management Core: 3 credits
Library Leadership and Management
IST 717 | 3 CREDITS
Management of academic, public, and special libraries. Relationship between library and its parent institution; internal organization and operation; library information policies; library financing; legislation affecting libraries.
Electives: 18 credits
The 18 credits of electives allows students to extend their core knowledge and skills in directions of their choice. Students can select any graduate-level course in the iSchool, including those from the MS Information Systems or MS Applied Data Science programs. Up to six credits may be taken from other approved graduate programs.
Exit requirement
IST 773 should be taken in the final term of the MSLIS program. This course is intended to facilitate a holistic, comprehensive, and reflective demonstration of the competencies students have learned in the program by allowing them to reflect on their body of work and make explicit connections among coursework and experience.
Reflective Portfolio
IST 773 | 3 CREDITS
Creation of an online reflective portfolio that demonstrates successful achievement of all program learning outcomes for the MSLIS degree.
Professional Pathways
The MSLIS program strives to cultivate leaders in the library and information profession who will become implementers and advocates for information justice and equity, community engagement, and technology use in their communities of practice. It is designed to prepare library and information professionals with a broad range of knowledge and skills needed for exemplary practice and leadership in the library and information profession.
User Services and Community Engagement
Whether working in a college or university library or a cultural institution such as a public library or museum, user services and community engagement is one of the core functions of libraries and cultural institutions of all types. User services librarians are responsible for information literacy instruction, reference, collection management, and outreach to diverse communities to assure equal access to library and information resources.
Archives and Special Collections
Institutions handling historical materials offer job opportunities for a graduate holding an MSLIS degree, including special collections within large academic institutions, small historical societies, museums, and even zoos. Courses in this pathway are suitable for careers in cultural heritage, archives, and special collections.
Digital Curation
Digital curation has become an increasingly important part of library operations. Digital library work includes the management, curation, and preservation of digitized and born-digital resources, including data, in libraries, archives, and museums. These librarians develop policies and workflows, help users locate digital information and data for business or academic use, and organize digital resources for retrieval. Students interested in the digital curation pathway will gain knowledge of digital data systems, metadata theory and practices, programming and markup languages, and data services to the communities they serve.
Organization and Management of Information and Knowledge
Libraries, archives, and museums are central places for the acquisition, organization, management, and dissemination of information and knowledge. Organizing and managing information and knowledge of all types, formats, and forms is the core function that supports information organizations to achieve their goals and enact their values. This career pathway has a wide range of employment potentials, ranging from libraries, archives, museums, government agencies, businesses, and almost any organizations that need professionals to perform functions of organizing, managing, retrieving, and use/reuse information resources.
Children and Youth Services
Libraries strive to facilitate lifelong learning. When is a better time to provoke a permanent passion for curiosity than childhood and adolescence? Children and youth services librarians focus on early literacy, information literacy, readers’ advisory, and the use of emerging technologies by young people. Librarians focusing on children and youth services build relationships that support the learning of young people as well developing sustaining relationships with parents, caregivers, and teachers in the local community.
Digital Information Systems
Modern libraries run on digital data and information systems to provide services anywhere and anytime that require technically savvy librarians to innovate, support, and maintain. Digital information systems in libraries and other types of organizations play a key role in making data and metadata findable, accessible, interoperable, and usable/reusable. Knowledge and skills in this pathway can lead to jobs not only in non-traditional positions in libraries but also in non-library settings such as corporate and government.
Information Research and Analytics
Whether you are conducting research on community profiles for building a new library branch, gathering data and information on emerging trends for market research, or collecting information about products or companies for competitive intelligence, the skills and knowledge in research methods and data science can go a long way in developing a career as a research librarian.
Student Success Stories
Our alumni are a shining example of how a solid foundation in information management can transform careers and shape industries.
Faculty Experts
At the iSchool, our M.S. in Library and Information Science (LIS) program is guided by a distinguished team of experts who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the classroom. Get to know the experts shaping the next generation of library and information studies and how their expertise enriches the student experience:
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to complete the graduate program in library and information science?
With a total of 36 credit hours, the program typically takes about 1-2 years to complete.
Is a degree in library and information science worth it?
Yes, it can be worth it for those passionate about managing information, with a stable job outlook and diverse career options in libraries, archives, and tech.
What career opportunities are available with a degree in library and information science?
Career options include librarians, archivists, information specialists, data managers, and roles in digital asset management, research, and education.
What skills are essential for success in a library and information science program?
Essential skills include critical thinking, research, organization, communication, tech literacy, and knowledge of information systems and ethics.
ALA Accreditation
The American Library Association’s Office of Accreditation regularly reviews library and information programs that wish to be accredited by ALA. Accredited MSLIS programs meet or exceed the Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies, which were established by the Committee on Accreditation (COA) and adopted by ALA Council. The standards address systematic planning; curriculum; faculty; students; administration, finances and resources.
The American Library Association’s Committee on Accreditation has been evaluating LIS programs since 1924. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) recognizes the ALA COA as the authority for assessing the quality of education offered by graduate programs in the field of library and information studies.
Process and Reports
In order to maintain accreditation, an MSLIS program must submit to a regular process that involves rigorous, ongoing self-evaluation. The results of that evaluation are verified through an external review conducted by the Committee on Accreditation. In addition, every program submits data to ALA on an annual basis and submits regular biennial reports.
ALA 2023 Self-Study Final
The MSLIS program at Syracuse University is accredited by the American Library Association Committee on Accreditation, with the status of Continued accreditation. The next comprehensive review visit is scheduled for Fall 2030.
2024 Program Review
Guiding Council
Our guiding council carefully reviews competencies and course offerings to ensure that the iSchool is a leader in library and information science education, and you can find more information on the guiding council in its bylaws.
Learn More About Our Guiding Council
Student Achievement Data
View detailed information about graduation rates and testing success rates, showing what graduates of our program go on to achieve.
View student achievement data.
