Archives and Public History

MSLS/MA and MSIS/MA

Today's marketplace frequently demands that archivists, manuscript curators, and records managers have both historical knowledge and advanced information management skills. Neither a master's degree in history nor one in information and library science is ideal, by itself, to prepare the new archival workforce that must be able to appraise and describe historical records, create Web sites, and preserve electronic documents.

To meet the needs of the archival profession, SILS, in conjunction with the Public History program at the North Carolina State University (NCSU), offers a cooperative archival program. Students who enroll in this program can earn either an MSLS or MSIS degree and an MA in public history in 69 credit hours. If taken individually, these degrees would require 84 credit hours.

Admission

Students may apply only three credits toward their SILS degree when they take the following pairings of SILS and NCSU public history courses due to content overlap:

• INLS 753 Preservation of Library and Archive Materials & HI 688 Conservation of Archival and Library Materials
• INLS 795 Professional Field Experience & HI 691 Practicum in Public History

It is unusual for any SILS student to apply more than three hours of field experience/practicum toward the SILS degree.

Contact Information

SILS Contact

Dr. Helen R. Tibbo may be consulted for information about this cooperative program at 919/962-8366 or tibbo@ils.unc.edu.