About

About the Information Field

The information field is the rapidly evolving profession of our time. Just as business careers and MBAs became de rigueur in the industrial age, information professionals are now in high demand, as businesses and society grapple with the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

The study of information is interdisciplinary, fed by multiple diverse fields. Librarianship and computer science have historically been the primary feeders of the field, but information studies is also fed by fields such as education, psychology, anthropology, business, journalism—indeed, the range of social sciences.

The study of information focuses on the intersection of information, technology, and people, which requires a broad interdisciplinary approach to those phenomena, the relationship between them, and their relationships to other aspects of culture and human endeavor. The ubiquity of information in human endeavor requires that the field of information aims to have an impact on all fields of science and all aspects of culture.

About the iSchools Organization

The iSchools organization was founded in 2005 by a collective of Information Schools dedicated to advancing the information field in the 21st Century. These schools, colleges, and departments have been newly created or are evolving from programs formerly focused on specific tracks such as information technology, library science, informatics, and information science. While each individual iSchool has its own strengths and specializations, together they share a fundamental interest in the relationships between information, people, and technology. The iSchools organization is governed by the iCaucus.

Our Vision

The iSchool Caucus seeks to maximize the visibility and influence of its member schools, and their interdisciplinary approaches to harnessing the power of information and technology, and maximizing the potential of humans. We envision a future in which the iSchool Movement has spread around the world, and the information field is widely recognized for creating innovative systems and designing information solutions that benefit individuals, organizations, and society. iSchool graduates will fill the personnel and leadership needs of organizations of all types and sizes; and our areas of research and inquiry will attract strong support and have profound impacts on society and on the formulation of policy from local to international levels.

Our Goals

1. Lead and promote the information field.
Member schools are committed to collective efforts that will shape the information field, communicate its purpose and value and enhance its visibility.

2. Create effective responses to strategic research and academic opportunities.
Member schools work together to enhance academic initiatives and to leverage funding for important research challenges in the information field.

3. Provide support for, and solutions to shared challenges.
Member schools provide one another with mutual support and a collective identity, helping constituent schools respond to local challenges and advance the information field.

4. Provide informed perspectives on matters of public policy as they affect the collection, organization, dissemination, use, and preservation of information.

Our Approach

iSchools promote an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the opportunities and challenges of information management, with a core commitment to concepts like universal access and user-centered organization of information. The field is concerned broadly with questions of design and preservation across information spaces, from digital and virtual spaces such as online communities, social networking, the World Wide Web, and databases to physical spaces such as libraries, museums, collections, and other repositories.

Degree programs at iSchools include course offerings in areas such as information architecture, design, policy, and economics; knowledge management, user experience design, and usability; preservation and conservation; librarianship and library administration; the sociology of information; and human-computer interaction and computer science.

Every year, the iSchools organization sponsors the iConference. This gathering of information professionals is a shared, onsite experience that fosters interaction, spontaneity, reflection, and forward movement. Affiliation with the iSchools is not a prerequisite for participation; everyone is encouraged to participate in the annual iConference.

Joining the iSchools

The iSchools take it as given that expertise in all forms of information is required for progress in science, business, education, and culture. This expertise must include understanding of the uses and users of information, the nature of information itself, as well as information technologies and their applications. The iSchools have organized under this charter to pursue common objectives with a collective commitment of resources.

Criteria for being recognized as an iSchool are not rigid, but schools are expected to have substantial sponsored research activity, engagement in the training of future researchers (usually through an active, research-oriented doctoral program), and a commitment to progress in the information field. Within North America, the School’s head should be a dean who reports to a provost or president or equivalent. In other parts of the world, a determination will be based on local circumstances, such as the reporting structure within the country and within the institution.

Schools that share these purposes and can provide evidence they meet the baseline characteristics described above are encouraged to complete this application form. If your organization is accepted, your school will be listed on ischools.org as an iSchool. You will also be assessed a modest annual administrative fee (currently $500). Once that fee is paid, you may contribute to ischools.org brief descriptions of your students, faculty, research, and academic programs, for the various parts of the web site, and you may tag RSS-based news items to be picked up by the ischools.org newsfeed aggregator.