Social networks formed in MLIS classroom settings can affect students’ career trajectories after graduation. However, in online learning environments, students often feel isolated and disconnected from their peers. In fact, students who graduated from online or primarily online MLIS programs may not have access to resources such as employment opportunities that traditional peer networks offer. Despite the rise in enrollments in online courses and popularity of distance education in US colleges and universities, little research has been done to investigate the important role such social networks play in graduates’ career and employment prospects. This study thus attempts to do so, by examining the career trajectories of graduates from six MLIS programs. In particular, it analyzes the ways in which social networking, especially in terms of the exchange of employment information, evolved over a 3-year period after graduation
