FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 2, 2003
CONTACT: Dan Roland (800) 552-4770
BY: Dan Roland

New admissions and recent graduations reflect variety of programs at SLIM - EMPORIA, KS


The School of Library and Information Management (SLIM), Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas admitted 103 new students for the fall semester of 2003. The number marks a 43% increase over the fall semester a year ago, but that is more a reflection of the school’s successful distance education program and variety of degree and certificate options than of a dramatic increase in interest in library and information management careers.

Ninety of the new students enrolled in the Master of Library Science (MLS) program and sixty of those will take their classes in Portland, Oregon. SLIM starts a new MLS program in Portland every other year and the new students this fall brings to 453 the total number who have applied to the Portland program since it began in 1995. MLS graduates from the Portland program number 140 and current students number 131.

An entirely new degree at SLIM is the Master of Legal Information Management. The program, offered in partnership with the School of Law at the University of Kansas, combines thirty hours of library and information management courses with twenty hours of law school courses. The new program has a total of seventeen students, eleven of which are new to Emporia State University. Four of the students already hold a Juris Doctorate and four hold the MLS degree from SLIM.

Two new students joined the SLIM doctoral program this fall. Brenda Hough is returning to SLIM to pursue the doctorate. She earned her MLS degree from SLIM in 1995. Following graduation, Ms. Hough worked as a reference librarian and technology trainer at the Lake Agassiz Regional Library in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota before taking a position with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle as a Public Access Computer Trainer and Staff Development Coordinator in the US Library Program. She is currently the Director of the SLIM Learning Services Support Center.

Oana Pusca is a native of Romania and continues her studies at Emporia State University in the SLIM doctoral program after earning her Masters in English this past May. Ms. Pusca works as a graduate assistant in the ESU Office of Graduate Studies and Research.

The average age of the new students is 35 years and 3% of the new students represent ethnic minorities.

This past spring SLIM graduated 56 with the MLS degree in commencement ceremonies held in Emporia and Denver. The SLIM distance education program in Denver graduated its sixth class of MLS students for a total of 301 graduates from its “Emporia in the Rockies” program. Eleven percent of the spring graduates represent ethnic minorities. Ten graduates completed coursework for certification as K-12 school librarians and seven worked towards a more business-oriented career path in the Information Management Certificate program.

SLIM is currently accepting applications for what will be its eighth student cohort for the MLS program in Denver. Classes will start in the summer of 2004 and the application deadline is March 1. For more information, contact Dan Roland, Director of SLIM Communications, at 1-800-552-4770 ext. 5064 or by email to sliminfo@emporia.edu.

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