I finished library school earlier this year, and I've found that the question current students ask me most often is this one. Setting aside the fact that the instructor had a lot to do with how much I enjoyed a given class, some of the best/most useful ones I took (at Drexel, FWIW) were:

--Cataloging: Although I don't do cataloging now, I did a lot in my internship, and I think this is just generally good to know.

--Systems Analysis and Design: Many of my classmates hated having to draw all those ERDs, but I thought this was a useful way to look at problem-solving.

--Information Architecture: I work on a library website now, and this class was a nice way of bringing together the principles of librarianship with with way web people think.

--Managing Information Organizations: This class dealt with budgeting, communication, leadership, and so forth. My college was very liberal arts-oriented, so this was my first exposure to a lot of these topics and very helpful to me.

Anyone else?

I had several classes that were really helpful, but a few stand out in my mind.

1) Digital Libraries - We often talk about the "added value" of libraries, and unique library collections that have cultural and historical value are part of the value libraries offer. It's even better when we get to digitize our special collections. This class was a great overview of how to go about building a digital library.

2) Government Documents - I have confessed to my professor that I thought this would be boring (apologies to all the gov docs folks!) and that I only took it because 1) it was one of few I could take that semester and 2) I loved the professor and knew he could make anything interesting. I learned a great deal and use what I have learned even though I don't work in government documents.

3) Technical Services - This was a special course offering that provided an overview of all areas of technical services. At the time, I was working in a small library where I was working in almost all of these areas, so it helped me at work immediately (and class was much easier because of my work, too!). The best part was that the instructor had a great deal of practical experience and brought years of knowledge and wisdom to the table.

4) Information Technologies - This was a good overview of computer hardware and software, networking, some Web 2.0 topics, etc. - very techie (and I loved it!). It was a good background for troubleshooting problems with public workstations and so much more.

5) Project Management - This was a special seminar class I took because it was just about the only class I could take. However, our organization uses project management for our big projects, so this class has surprisingly turned out to be one of the most useful.

OK, OK...so I have five, even though we're supposed to pick the best. I have trouble picking!

The best class I took was offered as part of continuing education and it was also my last class before graduating. It was called Digital Design and Visual Data (or something like that) and I use what I learned in that class pretty much every day in my job. We learned how to present data visually (utilizing lots of Tufte's ideas) and how to design web sites (and present information online) for real clients. It was amazing! Oh, and I rather enjoyed my Intro to Library Science class (taught by Loriene Roy) because that's where I met my husband.

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Susanne Markgren
Systems / Electronic Resources Librarian
Purchase College, SUNY