MLIS Capstone Details
The Degree Final Project for MLIS students is completed via a Capstone project. The Capstone experience involves identifying an information problem in a real-world setting and developing the means to address it. Capstone projects can be research-oriented or design-oriented. Solutions are typically interactive, meaning the end product is something that can be implemented and used. For specific details about Capstone guidelines, information about locating a team or project sponsor and more, current MLIS students should visit the Capstone Handbook in Canvas.
Goals for the Capstone experience include:
- Define the information problem or opportunity
- Determine what techniques to use to master this information problem or opportunity
- Synthesize all aspects of the information problem; integrate people, technology and information
- Make a positive difference for the community, be it a business, school, library, hospital or other organization
- Choose a topic or focus you are passionate about
The Capstone course involves the following components:
- LIS 569 - Capstone I (1 credit)
- Preparation for implementing a Capstone project. Topics include choosing a project, team formation, professional communication with a project sponsor, identifying the scope of the project, assessing feasibility, developing a project charter and sponsor agreement.
- Taken in autumn quarter.
- LIS 596 - Capstone II (2 credits)
- Analysis and preliminary design of an approved individual or group research or implementation project demonstrating professional-level knowledge and skills.
- Prerequisite: LIS 569
- Taken in winter quarter.
- LIS 597 Capstone III (2 credits)
- Implementation of a project demonstrating professional-level knowledge and skills based on a project plan developed in LIS 596. Completion of project deliverables and presentation of project results.
- Prerequisite: LIS 596.
- Taken in spring quarter.
Capstone is celebrated in an event in late May/early June, featuring oral and written presentations. View the Capstone archives, including past event programs.
Project Examples
The primary goal of your Capstone project is to demonstrate your mastery of the knowledge that you have gained in your program. You may emphasize different components of your learning, but will be expected to show how all your education has contributed to the solution you come up with for your problem. Examples might include:
- Develop a system design for adoption by the client and include socio-technical evaluation.
- Do a requirements study for the creation and integration of taxonomies in an information management system and provide recommended solution for adoption by the client.
- Build a policy portfolio for an organization in a specific information management area.
- Conceive and design a new department for an organization that centralizes the management of information resources and create a plan for how to get the department established.
- Perform a system integration between two data systems that requires you to map between the schemas of each system, draw data from each and produce a unified view.
- Assess the information needs of a group of people. Determine where in the organization the information all exists and design a methodology for drawing it all together into a unified view.
- Perform an information inventory across a large and diverse set of documents.
- Create a system design for the incorporation of taxonomies in a portal or Web UI of client’s product.
- Do a requirements study incorporating needs assessment, analysis of technologies, proposed solution and ROI.
- Analyze a defined collection of information in its existing state and usage. Develop a set of recommendations for expanding or shifting the focus of the collection, including the means for description, cataloging and tracking of the collection. Include a review of existing and potential technologies.
- Assess a program by defining metrics and providing an analysis of the success of the program through various measures.
- Research best practices for information vendor assessment and synthesize to produce a set of recommendations.
- Design mobile/virtual service for users of a given library. Analyze technology, hosting options and modes of delivery.
For any project, think in terms of the deliverables you will provide to document the end result of your work, and make sure that you have scoped the project well enough to come up with some concrete products at the end of the quarter. They may be interim reports, a finished product or a completed project plan ready for approval.