School of Information and Library Science

We foster creativity and innovation for the digital world - our cutting-edge seminar/lab classrooms designed for participatory hands-on learning experiences inspire students to be high academic achievers and to be leaders in the LIS field.  - REAL Education for the DIGITAL World  - 

Our beautiful facility is located at 144 West 14th St and Manhattan is our campus. In our global information society, culture, communication and digital technology are at the heart of library and information science. Our diverse programs across libraries, museums, archives, and IT sector prepare students for exciting and challenging careers as information professionals in the digital age.  Our graduates excel in the LIS field - our Fall 2011 alumni survey shows that 94% of recent SILS graduates currently hold professional positions which they found within six months of graduating.

As a graduate of Pratt-SILS with an MSLIS degree, you will be qualified to enjoy the many new opportunities available to information professionals across a wide range of environments from libraries, archives, and museums to the IT sector to law and health information.  You will find yourself working at the heart of today's exciting and expanding information society in the digital age!  Importantly, our program enables you to connect to and interact with the real information community of your chosen profession, learn its culture, and meet many leading professionals of NYC's world-class cultural and educational institutions.     

Spring 2013, we will be accepting applications for academic year 2013-2014 for SILS students to participate in M-LEAD-TWO (Museum Library Education and Digitization, Technology, Web Online, an IMLS grant for $261,967 with Brooklyn Brooklym Museum, The Frick Reference Library and NYARC (NY Art Resources Consortium which includes MoMA. Learn more about M-LEAD-TWO.

Distinguished as the only ALA-accredited graduate school of information and library science based in Manhattan, and the oldest LIS school in North America, Pratt-SILS was established in 1890 and has been continuously accredited since 1923, when accreditation was first introduced.

Building upon Pratt's national reputation as a leading school in art and design, we bring creativity and innovation to LIS education through our focus on Cultural Informatics and World Information, Society & Environments (WISE).  A truly interdisciplinary field, information science (IS) makes digital technology and computing usable and useful to people and guides the design of systems that meet people’s information needs and benefit the societies and cultures in which they live and work. IS principles define the information professions and underlie the fields of knowledge organization, information, architecture, usability, and interaction design, and they form the basis for research and development in the digital world of the Internet, Web, and mobile technology in our global digital landscape of systems and networks.

We offer students exciting and cutting-edge programs and courses from archives and digital libraries to special libraries and library media specialist. In addition to the Master of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS), Pratt offers a dual degree programs with Pratt's History of Art Department (MSLIS/MS in History of Art) and with the Department of Digital Arts (MSLIS/MFA in DA), joint degrees with the Brooklyn Law School (MSLIS/JD or LLM), and certificate programs in archives and in museum libraries.  New York's great libraries and museums serve as site locations for students to gain professional work experience through the practicum course, NYPL Research Libraries and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For more information on our exciting educational opportunities at Pratt SILS, please visit our websites for: degree programs, dual degree programs, advanced certificate programs, program concentrations, international programs, scholarship opportunities, student groups and admissions.