Course description
The MA in Library and Archive Studies is taught in collaboration with The University of Manchester Library. This is major multi-site research library with National Research Library status. It includes the stunning John Rylands Research Institute and Library with its world-leading collections of archives and rare books and cutting-edge digital practices. The Rylands Library has close links to research and teaching through the John Rylands Research Institute and Library and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.
These relationships give students on the MA in Library and Archive Studies the opportunity to engage with a wealth of academic specialisms closely linked to Library and Archive Studies, in addition to benefitting from broad-ranging core courses centred on working with special collections.
This MA focuses on contemporary practices in collection-led librarianship and archival studies. It provides unique curriculum-based access to world-leading special collections and comparative cultural institutions alongside a strong professional practice element in collaboration with University of Manchester Library staff. Course delivery includes core courses in librarianship, archival studies, and records and information management in addition to optional work placements in a variety of library and collections-based fields.
Additionally, students are offered a choice of optional courses in a variety of specialist topics linked to collections management, rare books curation, information governance and compliance, exhibitions and public engagement, law librarianship, digital practices, and archives management. Students are also given the option to take modules from and gain experience with a variety of research specialisms within the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures in art gallery and museum studies, arts management and policy, creative and cultural industries, digital media and culture, and heritage studies.
Aims
The aim of the MA in Library and Archive Studies is to introduce students to the theory, practice, and collections that will enable you to:
- acquire a deep and nuanced understanding of current practices in libraries and archives, including all aspects of their work around collections, curation, preservation, and analysis;
- produce original research that reflects an understanding of specific areas in collections and archives, including opportunities to engage with placements in specific specialist areas;
- gain experience and expertise necessary to progress in careers encompassed by, or relating to libraries, archives, cultural institutions, and information-centred organisations.
Outcomes
After finishing this programme of study, students receiving the MA in Library and Archive Studies will be able to:
- demonstrate, through both written and oral communications, their personal understanding of historical and current issues and debates in the library and archive field;
- apply critical skills to assess, reflect on, and challenge structures, issues, and initiatives in libraries and archives;
- use established research skills to critically analyse and contextualize primary and secondary sources relevant to the field of library and archive studies;
- apply key transferable capabilities such as information and data literacy, collaboration communication skills, and physical and digital collection management protocols to future careers in libraries, archives, cultural institutions, and information-centred organisations.
Special features
Placement Experience
Work placements within the standard duration of study offered as an optional module.
The course will draw on the existing successful placement course unit SALC70300/SALC070150 which is offered by Institute of Cultural Practices to all current ICP Master's students as an optional unit. This scheme has over 100 regional and national partners who provide project-based placement in arts, cultural heritage, community and third sector organisations for a minimum of 20 days, spread over Semester 1 and Semester 2. Placements take place between November and May, and are supported by Academic Mentoring and Supervision, Placement Mentors, professional support staff coordination and support. Placements form part of the elective course options and are assessed in Semester 2 via placement reports, reflective accounts, and blogposts. Part-time students can choose to undertake their placement in Year 1 or Year 2. Students will therefore benefit from at least 20 days library/archive/industry experience on a relevant project or programme, hosted on site and remotely by a relevant sector business or organisation, supported by the host supervisor and an academic supervisor. There is also the potential for students to develop their own placement, subject to the approval of the course unit convenor and course director.
World-class Libraries
The University of Manchester Library is the third largest academic Library system in the UK and one of only five designated National Research Libraries. Consisting of more than ten million items and operating across almost twenty sites, including the world-renowned John Rylands Library, Manchester offers its MA students an unparalleled research collections environment.
Teaching and learning
Sessions for the semester 1 compulsory modules will be delivered entirely in-person at the John Rylands Research Institute & Library. In each compulsory module session, students will interact with practicing librarians and archivists from the Rylands and the Main Library and occasionally from other local cultural institutions.
In these sessions, students will engage directly with rare and unique material from the collections of the Rylands (e.g., items of world-historical cultural significance in media ranging from parchment to photographs) or with important sector-standard technologies (e.g., the electronic file archiving tool DROID and the International Image Interoperability Framework which undergirds digital collections of libraries and archives around the world).
Each course session will begin with hands-on activities that introduce core concepts through physical action and social interaction (though, always accommodating any accessibility needs of neurodiverse students or students with mobility limitations). After each session's activities students will participate in small-group or full-seminar discussions during the second half of each course. Students will then be expected to read scholarship about that session's activities and discussions following the meeting. Weekly summative assessments will include reflections that synthesize each session's activities, discussions, and reading by asking students to reflection on the session and make that reflection visible to their peers using the Blackboard discussion board tool. Every other week summative assessments will require students to write authentic documents commonly produced in libraries and archives, including:
• selection policy • collection development policy • equality and equity impact assessment • finding aid • community engagement campaign • exhibition brochure • wireframe of a data dashboard • access policy • repatriation agreement • strategic plan • cataloguing and classification strategy• grant application
Students will be required to annotate these documents and to include citations of the scholarship that inspired the shape and aims of their plans. Optional units are available from a range of areas within the School and Faculty and allow students on the MA to focus on a particular area of interest, such as early collections, decolonisation, cultural relations. Students will also receive group and individual tutorials including placement and dissertation supervision. Guidelines and schedules for placements and dissertations are set out transparently and in full in the joint ICP MA programme handbook. Individual and group tutorials are also offered on each taught core and elective course to support formative feedback on interim assessment plans such as essay plans or dissertation proposals. Each student will have access to academic advisement (two meetings per semester) and the office hours of all course tutors and lecturers Additionally, students will have access to research-and-practice-based skills training from the ICP Research and Training Programme as well as from Library workshops. These extracurricular experiences offer guidance on work placement, professional practice, digital literacy, and research skills.
Course unit details
Compulsory Modules
- Strategic Practice in Libraries (30 credits)
- Managing Archives and Special Collections (30 credits)
- Records and Information Management Practise (15 credits)
- Dissertation (60 credits)
Optional Modules
- Library and Archive Studies Work Placement Module (30 credits).
Indicative list of additional optional modules (15 credits):
- Open Knowledge in Higher Education
- Business Strategies for Arts, Culture, and Heritage
- Creative Producing
- Creative Learning
- Producing Digital Projects
- Reading the Middle Ages: Palaeography, Codicology, Sources
- Curating Art
- Decolonise the Museum
- The Art of Medieval Manuscripts
- Intangible Cultural Heritage
- Arts and International Cultural Relations
- Up to 30 credits of a language (Options to take other languages, such as Hebrew, Arabic, or Greek can be considered, in consultation with the Course Director. You can take no more than 30 language credits. Course units are also available that are not on the above list; students may take up to 30 credits from LEAP Language units subject to the approval of the Course Director. Students should research the available LEAP language courses here . Credited language courses run through both semesters, and you must join at the start of semester 1. Places are limited and you are encouraged to register your interest early via your Course Director. You will then need to apply to take the language course online. For specific queries related to LEAP language units, please contact leap@manchester.ac.uk
Compulsory Modules :
Strategic Practice in Libraries (30 credits)
Students will engage with contemporary debates in and best practices for working within and leading libraries in the UK and internationally. Students will practice their leadership skills through the production of authentic documents related to strategies for and management of contemporary libraries such as:
- collection policies, equity and diversity plans, and engagement campaigns for community cocreation;
- strategic library management: resource management in research libraries; managing risk and reputation; the future of library spaces and technology design; building a culture of collecting;
- leadership: leading with authenticity and managing in the workplace; designing vision and values; promoting EDI; creating a dynamic organisation;
- libraries in society: open libraries and the future of publishing; the socially engaged librarian, open knowledge in HE;
- developing effective services: user-focussed service design; measuring and improving; user engagement and collaborative working;
- managing information: ethics and the law in libraries; information literacy and critical thinking;
- leading in the sector: consortia and partnerships; advocacy and influencing.
Archives and Special Collections (30 credits)
The compulsory Archives and Special Collections unit will offer students first-hand practice with rare and unique materials and an overview of the many systems that archivists and other records managers use to ensure these materials are selected, curated, described, made accessible, and preserved ethically. Students will practise the many facets of managing archival material, rare documents and artifacts, and records by producing authentic resources such as access policies for reading rooms, repatriation agreements, and finding aids. This will include:
- understanding rare and unique material: collections and records management and development; collections formatting; internal policies and international frameworks; archives, special collections, and the law;
- structuring collections and records: standards and descriptions; enabling discovery; versioning the record; international interoperability; preservation and collection care;
- engagement and advocacy: teaching and learning with archives and special collections; exhibitions and public engagement; community archives;
- digital infrastructures: digital preservation; digitisation; digital platforms and formats;
- digital practices and approaches: collecting born digital; visual and sound records and collections; collection-and-record-centred practices; research-led technical development;
- special collections laboratory: scholarship in archives and special collections; academic partnerships and community collaborations.
Course unit list
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dissertation | SALC60090 | 60 | Mandatory |
| Strategic Practice in Libraries | SALC63321 | 30 | Mandatory |
| Archives and Special Collections | SALC63391 | 30 | Mandatory |
| Art of Medieval Manuscripts | AHCP61642 | 30 | Optional |
| Wondrous Transformations: Translating the Medieval Past | ENGL60872 | 15 | Optional |
| Decolonise the Museum! | SALC60242 | 15 | Optional |
| Intangible Cultural Heritage | SALC60302 | 15 | Optional |
| The Arts & International Cultural Relations | SALC60312 | 15 | Optional |
| Creative Learning: Approaches and Contexts | SALC60502 | 15 | Optional |
| Business Strategies for Arts, Culture and Creative Industries | SALC60702 | 15 | Optional |
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Facilities
The University of Manchester has world-class facilities.
We have the third largest academic library system in the UK along with a £24 million learning facility.
As a student of the Graduate School, you'll have access to excellent training within a dedicated postgraduate space where you can meet with each other, access resources, organise events and participate in a thriving academic community.
Find out more on the Facilities page.