University of Michigan School of Information

School of Information
Established	1969
Type	Public
Dean	Jeff MacKie-Mason (2010)
Academic staff	66
Students	317
Location	Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Campus	Urban
Website	si.umich.edu

The School of Information (SI) or iSchool at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is a graduate school offering both a Master of Science in Information (MSI) and a Doctor of Information (Ph.D.).

Its field of study is information: how it is created, identified, collected, structured, managed, preserved, accessed, processed, and presented; how it is used in different environments, with different technologies, and over time. The school's stated mission is "connecting people, information, and technology in more valuable ways."

The School of Information is part of a growing list of i-schools devoted to the study of information as a discipline. These institutions have varied histories, some being newly created, others developing from earlier schools or departments focused on library and information science (as with SI), computer science, communications, or information technology. The school was the first of these institutions to relabel itself a "school of information".

In 2008, the School of Information, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the College of Engineering unveiled a new undergraduate major called informatics.

Master's degree

The Master of Science in Information (MSI) degree is a 48-credit hour professional degree built on a core curriculum of "foundations" courses that synthesize content and methodology from library and information science, computer science, the humanities, and the social sciences. Real-world engagement is a hallmark of the master's program: all students are required to complete internships or mentorships in the field.

The MSI program is highly interdisciplinary, featuring faculty from a wide range of academic fields. It draws students from diverse undergraduate majors, ranging from the arts and humanities to science and engineering.

Master's students may specialize in the following areas, or opt for a self-designed curriculum under the guidance of a faculty member.

• Archives and Records Management (ARM)
• Community Informatics (CI)
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Information Economics for Management (IEM)
• Library and Information Science(LIS)
• Information Analysis and Retrieval (IAR)
• Information Policy (IPOL)
• Preservation of Information (PI)
• Social computing (SC)
• School Library Media (SLM)

Doctoral degree

The school's doctoral program is a full-time course of study, typically four years post-baccalaureate, leading to the Doctor of Information (Ph.D.). The program is designed to enable students to engage in advanced study and research in a various information fields such as the economics of information, human-computer interaction, library and information services, organizational issues, archives and records management, new systems architecture, digital libraries, information systems management, and digital documents/digital publishing.

Faculty and research

Faculty at the school are drawn from an unusually wide range of academic backgrounds including linguistics, public policy, computer science, library and information science, management, law, business, economics, psychology, history, and communications.

The school's faculty and students are active in research, pursuing projects in various areas and methods. Their stated goal is to develop an integrated understanding of human needs in relation to information systems and social structures, searching for unifying principles that illuminate the role of information in computation, cognition, communication, and community.

The school's infrastructure includes a range of research facilities and equipment. Researchers also have access to a number of off-campus research sites. Projects are often collaborations with researchers from other units at the university.

Established and emerging areas of research at the school include:

• archives and records management
• collaboratories
• community informatics
• community technology
• digital libraries
• digital preservation
• documenting cultural heritage and social memory
• electronic commerce
• health informatics
• human-computer interaction
• human-information interaction
• incentive-centered design
• information access
• information analysis and retrieval
• information and organizational systems
• information architecture
• information behavior and use
• information diffusion
• information economics
• information filtering
• information infrastructure
• information policy
• information retrieval
• information systems
• information use in communities
• information visualization and representation
• knowledge management
• library and information services
• library science
• natural language processing
• network theory
• organizational learning
• organizational productivity
• pervasive and ubiquitous computing
• social capital
• technology-mediated collaboration
• telecommunications policy
• trust and recommender systems
• user-centered design

History

Before 1992, the School of Information was the School of Information and Library Studies. In 1992, the president of the University of Michigan, James Duderstadt appointed Daniel E. Atkins III as the dean of the school. Under the direction of Dr. Atkins and with support from Duderstadt and W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the school became the School of Information with the intent to reach beyond traditional library science arena. The School of Information was officially established in 1996 offering a master's of science in information with some specializations (library and information science, archives and record management, human computer interaction, information economics management and policy, and a tailored program).

External links

• University of Michigan School of Information
• Research Centers at SI
• SI Faculty
• SI Ph.D. Program
• SI MSI Degree
• SI Course Catalogue
• The i-Schools Project