Program Overview

MA/PgDip Library and Information Management

The MA/PgDip Library and Information Management course is designed to develop expertise in the world of information, in all forms, from digital to analogue across every sector. Recognised and approved by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), this route prepares graduates of all disciplines for a career in the modern information society across all industries.

Course Overview

The course focuses on the principles for the organisation, retrieval, and accessibility of information, and on the strategic management of information organisations, such as libraries, the information landscape, for example online and on the web, and on the development of library services of all kinds. Successful completion of a dissertation develops your knowledge of the field and skills as a researcher, resulting in the award of MA. If you are studying the PGDip, you will not be required to complete a dissertation.

Features and Benefits

• Accredited course: The course is recognised and approved by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).
• Engaging content: Explore information and communications from the digital and human perspective.
• The digital revolution: Assess how information is managed and how individuals' lives, organisations, and society have been influenced by the digital revolution.
• Real-world experience: Gain skills that will enable you to be well-placed to pursue a career aligned with your interests, in a range of sectors.
• Placement opportunities: The course has strong connections to all sectors of the profession extended to you via fieldwork placements, visiting speakers, and workshops.
• Research-informed: We have close links with departmental research groups, and this research feeds into our teaching throughout the course.
• Units for industry: You will have the opportunity to study our specialist option module, ‘Introduction to Health Librarianship’, which was devised in conjunction with the NHS Library and Knowledge Services North to address a specific industry need for more library and information professionals in this sector.

Course Structure

The course is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, and practical sessions, with a focus on independent study. The full-time course is 1 year, while the part-time course is 2-3 years.

Core Modules

• Assessing Information Seeking Behaviours: This module introduces the theoretical and methodological framework for understanding information seeking behaviour and use, and applies this knowledge of the user, the task context, and professional understanding of information literacy to the design, usability, and user experience of physical and digital libraries.
• Digital Rights: This module explores information governance, legislative and regulatory compliance, and whether there is adequate balance and protection for the competing interests of government, business, civil society, and the individual.
• Dissertation: The aim of the dissertation is to give you the opportunity to study an individual area of interest in depth whilst developing essential research, analytical, time-management, and problem-solving skills.
• Evidence Bases in Library and Information Science: This module provides you with the opportunity to understand and develop skills in relation to the use of evidence and data in a wide variety of practice-based settings.
• Information Organisation and Search: This module introduces the intellectual foundations and practices of the organisation of information, search, and retrieval, and the application of providing information access.
• Research Methods: This module develops skills in the design of research projects to collect, analyse, and interpret primary research data in response to research questions.
• The Information Organisation: The focus of this module will be at the organisational level. It aims to develop your understanding of the information organisation landscape and, in particular, it adopts a proactive and realistic stance to the issue of sustainability of information organisations in a volatile and challenging marketplace.
• The Information Professional: The focus of this module will be at the individual professional level. It aims to develop your understanding of the information organisation landscape and, in particular, it adopts a proactive and realistic stance to the issue of sustainability of information organisations in a volatile and challenging marketplace.

Option Modules

• E-Learning and the Organisation: This module provides an introduction to teaching and learning principles, from which you will be taught how these principles may be applied to blended and online learning.
• Introduction to Health Librarianship: This module provides an introduction to the range of knowledge and skills required to manage, provide, and co-ordinate library and knowledge services for healthcare staff, learners, patients, and the public.

Entry Requirements

You will normally have a second-class honours degree or above (or international or professional equivalent) in any discipline. Overseas applicants will require IELTS with an overall score of 6.5 with no less than 5.5 in any category, or an equivalent accepted English qualification.

Fees and Funding

• UK and Channel Island Students: Full-time fee: £10,250 per year (MA), £6,836 per year (PG Dip). Part-time fee: £1,709 per 30 credits studied per year.
• EU and Non-EU International Students: Full-time fee: £20,000 per year (MA), £13,336 per year (PG Dip). Part-time fee: £3,334 per 30 credits studied per year.

Careers Support and Prospects

The increase in available digital information has led to a growing demand for professionals who have an understanding of information organisations. As well as libraries, this includes the health sector, industries of cultural heritage, research, publishing, broadcast and media, and those employed to develop methods for storing, curating, accessing, and using information in innovative ways. You will be ideally placed to pursue a career as an information professional.

Graduates on this longstanding master's course have been successful in building careers as diverse as librarians, eTextbook programme managers, digital heritage specialists, information scientists, media researchers, records managers, web developers, learning resources managers, digital librarians, health librarians for the NHS, and government archivists.