ravenclawace

From my experience, I don't think it would count against you at all. A lot of libraries specifically want to hire librarians who have degrees (especially advanced degrees) in their field as well as LIS. I know a number of people in my program who already have at least one master's degree but are getting an MLIS to work in a specialized library. Also, you might want to look at other schools than UIUC if you're interested in archives. I'm not an archives person, but the people I know who are doing archives at UIUC have expressed some frustration, particularly with the fact that there aren't really very many archives-specific classes offered. Again, I am not an archivist, so all of this is based on what I've heard or what friends have told me. However, I do know that UIUC is definitely more focused on libraries than archives in their LIS program. I'd encourage you to look at other options or at least reach out to current archives students (you can check out the Society of American Archivists chapter) to get their take on the program before making any sort of decision on that front.

Hi if you're still looking for advice, here's some from a soon-to-be MLIS graduate: Have you tried emailing the second professor at Alabama? January is super busy for professors, and it's not uncommon for emails to get lost in the shuffle. Just a quick ping of "hey just wanted to check in" kind of thing usually works. As someone in this area of study (youth services is my jam), I will tell you that I've heard more about Alabama. The 2018-2019 president of ALSC is a faculty member there, for example. I don't know that I've ever heard anything about Missouri other than that it exists. My school also has a mandatory campus visit weekend for online students, and a number of the ones I've spoken to said that it was one of their favorite parts of the program. My other two suggestions would be a) looking into student organizations at the school (particularly ALA chapters as they're usually fairly active) and seeing if they have any sort of contact information so you could reach out to a current student, and b) email an advisor (they're usually the ones who know what's up) and ask if there's a possibility you could be connected with a current student to learn more about the program. My school, for example, has a student ambassador program for reasons like this. Hope this helps!