Let me back up a bit and give a brief summary of what the heck is going on. If you're in New Jersey or conversant with Rutgers happenings, then you may please allow your attention to wander down to the next paragraph. For the rest of you, here's what you need to know: Brandy new to the job, SCILS Dean Jorge Reina Schement decided to further the school's emphasis on communications while repeatedly shafting their largest program, library science. The dean argues that the change to SCI away from SCILS will provide a more cohesive unity in the represented schools and ease confusion many outsiders face upon hearing School of Communication, Information and Library Studies.
Excuse me? How does that even make sense? Previous to knowing anything about library science I knew SCILS had a library program. Why? The name told me so. It's that simple. Now that I am only too-versed in library theory I can understand the correlation between libraries and information as a brand, but to the common public? I can imagine it now...
"Hey you wanna give us some money? We need help with library advocacy blah blah blah. Oh you will!? Fabulous! Make that check out to the School of Communication and Information. No... I'm not trying to scam you into giving money for communications and IT, it's our name. ... Yes I know it doesn't say library but I swear to you we teach library ish. For real! We've got the best program in school libraries. Or we did, now we're like number 5 because everyone forgets about us now that we aren't technically a library school. ... No! No! That's not what I meant! We ARE a library school but we're losing street cred because the word library isn't in our name anymore. [sigh] I can send you the FAQ brochure explaining this and other inane decisions made by the powers that be."Here's what other folks are saying:
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