Information technology courses and their relationship to faculty in different professional ranks in library and information science programs

Abstract This study investigated information technology (IT) courses offered in American Library Association–accredited library and information science (LIS) programs and the role of faculty with different professional ranks in teaching those courses. More than 20% of the courses offered in 42 programs in the academic year 2002 are IT-related, and 57% of the programs require one particular IT course as part of their core requirements for the master's degree. The contents of the IT courses range widely and go beyond traditional library settings. Faculty with different professional ranks teach significantly different subject areas of the IT courses. Almost half of the junior faculty and more than half of the senior faculty are from multidisciplinary fields; others have a traditional LIS background. Junior faculty's predominant research areas are as follows: information issues; information needs, information-seeking behavior, and information services; cognitive science; systems analysis and evaluation; and information organization.