MLIS Student Achievement Data
Master of Library and Information Science program accreditation standards and outcomes
The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program in the School of Information at Kent State University has been continuously reaccredited since 1961. In February 2019, the MLIS program was reaccredited through 2025. It is the only program in the State of Ohio and serves students primarily through our online program.
Student Profile, Achievements
Persistence and Graduation Rates
Most MLIS students begin their programs in the fall semester. To show the persistence rate of students, the table below focuses on students who start in the fall term. All students who persist graduate but are not necessarily registered every semester. Retention is only a measure of students who continuously enroll. Kent State provides persistence and graduation statistics because of our focus on degree completion.
|
Percentage of Enrolled or Graduated Students per Cohort |
|||||||
|
TERM |
ENROLLED |
After 1 Year |
After 2 Years |
After 3 Years |
After 4 Years |
After 5 Years |
After 6 Years |
|
Fall 2014 |
183 |
84.70% |
79.78% |
80.33% |
80.87% |
81.97% |
81.97% |
|
Fall 2015 |
151 |
86.75% |
81.46% |
82.12% |
81.46% |
82.78% |
82.78% |
|
Fall 2016 |
115 |
85.22% |
80.87% |
83.48% |
82.61% |
83.48% |
0.00% |
|
Fall 2017 |
102 |
84.31% |
82.35% |
84.31% |
84.31% |
0.00% |
N/A |
|
Fall 2018 |
98 |
86.73% |
81.63% |
82.65% |
0.00% |
N/A |
N/A |
| Fall 2019 | 94 | 82.98% | 84.04% | 0.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Fall 2020 | 108 | 90.74% | 0.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Fall 2021 | 70 | 0.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Data report downloaded through Kent State University Institutional Research, 3/11/2022.
Many of the students in the MLIS program are employed while they study, resulting in time to completion taking 2-4 years for the majority. The table below shows the graduation rates of the fall cohorts.
|
Percentage of Graduated Students per Cohort |
|||||||
|
TERM |
ENROLLED |
After 1 Year |
After 2 Years |
After 3 Years |
After 4 Years |
After 5 Years |
After 6 Years |
|
Fall 2014 |
183 |
1.64% |
44.81% |
69.40% |
77.05% |
79.78% |
81.97% |
|
Fall 2015 |
151 |
1.99% |
40.40% |
66.23% |
76.16% |
80.79% |
82.78% |
|
Fall 2016 |
115 |
0.87% |
34.78% |
66.96% |
80.00% |
83.48% |
0.00% |
|
Fall 2017 |
102 |
0.98% |
38.24% |
66.67% |
80.39% |
0.00% |
N/A |
|
Fall 2018 |
98 |
1.02% |
52.04% |
76.53% |
0.00% |
N/A |
N/A |
| Fall 2019 | 94 | 1.06% | 44.68% | 0.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Fall 2020 | 108 | 1.85% | 0.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Fall 2021 | 70 | 0.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Data report downloaded through Kent State University Institutional Research, 3/11/2022.
Achieving Student Learning Outcomes
MLIS students are successful at achieving the learning outcomes of the program. Through the student exit survey, an average of 93% of respondents feel confident or very confident in their mastery of program learning outcomes. Below is a chart with the student achievement per each learning outcome.
|
Learning Outcome |
% of students who are confident or very confident |
|
Outcome 1a: Apply the field's foundational theories, principles, values, ethics, and skills to everyday practice. - Analyze and discuss how environmental context governs and shapes information production, sharing, and management, including social, cultural, economic, and legal aspects of the information society |
81.01% |
|
Outcome 1b: Apply the field's foundational theories, |
94.94% |
|
Outcome 1c: Apply the field's foundational theories, principles, values, ethics, and skills to everyday practice. - Apply major theories, models and approaches describing how people access and use information to real-life contexts, and incorporate information fluency |
82.28% |
|
Outcome 2a: Critique and synthesize research and identify appropriate research methodologies to solve problems in the field - Describe the range of research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, that are used to investigate questions |
87.35% |
|
Outcome 2b: Critique and synthesize research and identify appropriate research methodologies to solve problems in the field - Articulate and apply steps in the research process to identify a research problem, formulate a researchable question, choose an appropriate method to investigate a research problem, satisfy ethical concerns related to the protection of human subjects, data gathering, analyzing the data, drawing conclusions, and communicating the results |
82.28% |
|
Outcome 2c: Critique and synthesize research and identify appropriate research methodologies to solve problems in the field - Create an effective research proposal for conducting some form of guided research and/or for a financial grant application |
74.69% |
|
Outcome 3a: Analyze and engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social roles and responsibilities of librarians/information professionals and the environments they work in within the global society. - Give examples of communities in which information institutions may be situated and describe political, social, technological, economic, and cultural forces that influence those communities |
87.34% |
|
Outcome 3b: Analyze and engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social roles and responsibilities of librarians/information professionals and the environments they work in within the global society. - Investigate issues related to diversity, ethics and intellectual freedom in the context of the information ecology |
87.34% |
|
Outcome 3c: Analyze and engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social roles and responsibilities of librarians/information professionals and the environments they work in within the global society. - Explain characteristics of individuals, groups, and the organization that influence behavior and operations in information institutions |
84.81% |
|
Outcome 4a: Evaluate systems and technologies in order to implement improvements and innovations relevant to a particular information context. - Recognize and define key concepts relating to technologies used in the organization, storage and retrieval, distribution, and consumption of information |
81.02% |
|
Outcome 4b: Evaluate systems and technologies in order to implement improvements and innovations relevant to a particular information context. - Discriminate among information systems using core principles and functions of information organization and retrieval |
77.22% |
|
Outcome 4c: Evaluate systems and technologies in order to implement improvements and innovations relevant to a particular information context. - Apply information organization concepts as they relate to searching, browsing, and navigating information retrieval systems of any type effectively |
96.07% |
|
Outcome 5a: Identify needs and connect individuals and communities with information that engages and empowers them. - Use different approaches to represent documents for retrieval in different environments at a basic level of proficiency |
86.07% |
|
Outcome 5b: Identify needs and connect individuals and communities with information that engages and empowers them. - Apply major theories, models and approaches describing how people access and use information to real-life contexts, and incorporate information fluency |
86.07% |
|
Outcome 5c: Identify needs and connect individuals and communities with information that engages and empowers them. - Distinguish among the different ways of valuing information and how definitions of value shape the ways in which information is created or produced, managed, distributed, and consumed |
87.34% |
Employment Picture of 2021 Graduates
The iSchool surveyed 2021 graduates of the MLIS program in the summer of 2022 to determine employment success. Of those who responded:
- 79% are employed in a field related to their program of study
- 83% of those employed have permanent positions
- 87% of those employed are in professional positions
- 69% of graduates are employed in the type of institution they intended at the beginning of their studies.
Our graduates take advantage of opportunities such as those listed below to help them secure their first professional position.
Program Profile
- Program Learning Outcomes
- Degree Requirements
- ALA Core Competencies and MLIS Program Learning Outcomes