Program Overview

Children’s and Young Adult Library Community Services Certificate

Program Overview

The graduate academic certificate in youth services in libraries and information settings provides students with core knowledge in literature, services, programs, and information organization for youth. Graduates will develop skills to effectively organize resources for youth and for culturally diverse communities and skills to develop and implement storytelling and other youth programs.

Program Type

• Graduate Academic Certificate (G.A.C.)

Format

• Online
• Hybrid

Estimated Time to Complete

• 1 year

Credit Hours

• 9-12

Program Highlights

• Special lectures hosted by the College of Information and the department feature renowned scholars who provide different perspectives and insights into the information science field.
• Our students and faculty are active members of different professional associations and learned societies, such as the iSchools consortium, the American Library Association, the Association for Information Science and Technology, and the Knowledge and Information Professional Association.
• Proactive students can choose accelerated options, such as the “degree in three” program or grad track option to accelerate their education.
• The Department of Information Science offers financial support and scholarships to its students to recognize exceptional academic and creative accomplishments.
• The Career Center is one of the many valuable resources available to you at UNT. The Career Center can provide advice about internships, future employment opportunities and getting hands-on experience in your major.

Program Courses

• Information Resources Development (3 hrs)
  • Principles and methods of evaluating, selecting and acquiring different kinds of information resources. Development and maintenance of information collections. Bibliographic tools and online databases. Searching and verification; publishers and publishing; censorship issues; acquisition processes. Representative research, problems and practice.
• Advanced Information Resources Development (3 hrs)
  • Advanced study of current problems and practices in collection development and management, with emphasis on evaluation techniques and the development of cost-effective policies and procedures for maintaining collections. Individual investigation of selected problems and practices. This course is an EC-12 school library certification course.
• Storytelling for Information Professionals (3 hrs)
  • Storytelling ethnography, history, theory, methods, and bibliographic resources. Story research, analysis, selection, adaptation, and preparation. Oral performance development and audience dynamics. Program planning, implementation, evaluation, and grant writing for schools, libraries or other information settings.
• Organization and Control of Information Resources I (3 hrs)
  • Descriptive cataloging and subject analysis of different kinds of information resources. Anglo-American Cataloging Rules; Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classification systems; vocabulary control; subject headings; principles and techniques of catalog construction, maintenance and use; information indexing and retrieval; use of on-line databases; representative research, problems and practice.
• Information Resources and Services in Culturally Diverse Communities (3 hrs)
  • Seminar in information resources and services for ethnic cultural minorities. Issues in the provision of information services to ethnic cultural minority communities. Study of the needs and cultural milieu of these communities. Materials and methods for serving these groups.
• Literature for Youth (3 hrs)
  • Survey of literature and media, including multicultural and multiethnic materials. Wide reading and use of materials for children and young adults.