COURSE SCHEDULING Please remember that not all graduate courses are offered every semester. Furthermore, personnel changes and other scheduling considerations sometimes require modifications to the timetable of classes (USM Class Schedule Guide) published each year by the Office of the Registrar. It is important that you consult with your faculty advisor in order to plan a schedule that will satisfy your program-of-study.
TRANSFER OF GRADUATE COURSES FROM OTHER INSTITUTIONS
TRANSFER OF REQUIRED DEPARTMENTAL CORE COURSES: If you believe that a required core course taken at another accredited institution is equivalent to the one required for the Master's of Library and Information Science you may request that it be considered for transfer by providing the school with a copy of the transcript on which that course grade appears, a copy of the course syllabus, and any other available materials which you believe will be helpful in determining whether the course in question is equivalent to the one required at USM. The material will be furnished to the USM instructor who normally teaches the course. That person, in turn, will make a recommendation to the director and the Faculty Council regarding course equivalence. The Faculty Council will review this recommendation for possible approval.As many as six (6) semester hours of graduate credit from other ALA accredited institutions may be transferred to your program at USM, if such course work is within the time limitations that the University allows for the degree and earned at least a 3.0 on a scale of 4.0 equals an A and are approved by the director and USM faculty of record.
REVIEW OF ALL RESEARCH BY THE HUMAN SUBJECTS PROTECTION REVIEW COMMITTEE OR THE INSTITUTIONAL ANIMAL CARE AND USE COMMITTEE The Southern Miss Human Subjects Protection Review Committee must review and approve all research conducted using human subjects. This includes interviews, surveys, or observations. The USM Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee must review and approve all research using non-human subjects. Such approval must be obtained prior to the beginning of any data collection. The appropriate approval forms may be obtained from the University of Southern Mississippi Institutional Review Board (IRB) web pages at http://www.usm.edu/irb/. These regulations are discussed in detail in LIS 668 Research Methods in Library and Information Science.
DEVELOPING PROBLEM SOLVING AND RESEARCH SKILLS Throughout your program in library and information science, we will strive to assist your development of competencies that will serve you as an information professional. You should familiarize yourself with the Mission, Goals and Objectives of the School of Library and Information Science (Appendix A). One area of particular emphasis in your coursework will be in the development of research skills. All of your graduate courses will involve a component of research, and writing so that you will more fully develop your critical analysis and problem solving skills to prepare you to design a master's research project. The master's project is the capstone product of your program. Being able to plan, organize, conduct and report research will be a critical professional skill. The same tools that help you to complete a significant research project will aid you in preparing plans for program development, budget justifications, grant proposals, and reports for governing or funding bodies. Implicit in the ability to report research, request funding, or respond to community inquiries is the capacity to write clearly in standard formal language.
MASTER'S PROJECT COMMITTEE Your master's project work will be supervised by two readers that include the director of the program and at least one other reader, a third unnamed reader will also review the project. Consult with the Southern Miss SLIS faculty member who will be guiding your work in LIS 695, this person is the 'primary reader'. Use the primary reader's course section of LIS 695 to register. The student selects the primary reader based on the faculty member's specialty area and requests the faculty member serve. Complete the Master's Project Request for Approval and Application form, obtaining signatures indicating the primary and secondary reader's agreement to supervise your project. The student must have the permission of the professor and the director of the school prior to beginning any research. (Students at a distance will manage all this via email with the faculty.)
CONTINUOUS ENROLLMENT POLICY Students who have been permitted to enroll in LIS 695 Master's Project, must enroll in a minimum of one hour of coursework (usually 697 if you are not taking other graduate classes) each semester until the semester they complete the master's project and it is accepted for a grade. Failure to enroll for the appropriate hours will result in the student’s being discontinued from Southern Miss and will require that the student reapply for admission to the program (USM 2004 Graduate Bulletin, p5).
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