The University of Texas School of Information is a

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have earned an Undergraduate education, un ...

and undergraduate school at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, offering master's and doctoral degrees in information studies, as well as certificates of advanced study and an undergraduate minor. In 2021, they began offering a bachelor's degree in

informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

. UT iSchool graduates find careers in archival enterprise,

information architecture Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...

information policy Information policy is the set of all public laws, regulations and policies that encourage, discourage, or regulate the creation, use, storage, access, and communication and dissemination of information. It thus encompasses any other decision-makin ...

information systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, information storage, store, and information distribution, distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems a ...

design and management, information usability,

librarianship Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

, multimedia design, museum work,

preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

, and

records management Records management, also known as records and information management, is an organizational function devoted to the information management, management of information in an organization throughout its records life-cycle, life cycle, from the time of ...

. With more than twenty faculty, a range of joint appointees from across the university, and numerous adjunct faculty selected for their expertise in information studies, the School of Information balances the values of information access as a human and social benefit, with the intellectual and technical skills needed to lead developments in the information age. The Austin program is unique among the information schools for its emphasis on the full lifecycle of information.

History

The school was founded in 1948 as a part of the UT Graduate School as the Graduate School of Library Science, offering a Master of Library Science (MLS) degree as well as certification for school librarianship, an offering which has been continually provided to this day. In 1967 the school initiated a Certificate of Advanced Study followed in 1969-70 by a doctoral program, leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The school's name was changed in 1980 to Graduate School of Library and Information Science in recognition of the increased emphasis on information science in the curriculum as it had evolved since the late 1960s. At the same time, the name of the master's degree became

Master of Library and Information Science The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), also referred to as the Master of Library and Information Studies, is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States. The MLIS is a relativ ...

(MLIS). Change has continued into this century with the master's degree name changed again to Master of Science in Information Studies (MSIS) in 2000. In 2002 the faculty voted unanimously to change the school name to School of Information. The new name took effect in 2003 to better reflect the diversity of issues and the multidisciplinary nature of the studies in the information field. The school is a founding member of the .

Academic programs

The School of Information offers programs leading to the Master of Science in Information Studies degree, the Doctor of Philosophy degree, Certificates of Advanced Study, and the Learning Resources Certification for School Librarians. The school also offers a minor in information studies for undergraduate students at UT. In 2015, the School of Information launched an

executive education Executive education (ExEd or Exec. Ed) refers to academic programs at graduate-level business schools for executives, business leaders and functional managers globally. These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometime ...

program in identity management and security (MSIMS) partnered with the University of Texas Center for Identity. The school does not provide

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

Student organizations and groups

All iSchool students are members of SASI: the Student Association of the School of Information. Archives and Preservation *The Cultural Heritage & Information Preservation Society (CHIPS) (UT Austin Student Chapter) *

Society of American Archivists The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the organi ...

(SAA) (UT Austin Student Chapter) Librarianship *

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

(ALA) (UT Austin Student Chapter) *

Special Libraries Association The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is an international professional association for library and information professionals working in business, government, law, finance, non-profit, and academic organizations and institutions. History The S ...

(SLA) (UT Austin Student Chapter) Information Technology *

Association for Information Science and Technology The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is a nonprofit membership organization for information professionals that sponsors an annual conference as well as several serial publications, including the ''Journal of the Associ ...

(ASIS&T) (UT Austin Student Chapter) * Advocating for Women in Technology (AWIT)

Rankings

In 2013, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked School of Information the number six library and information science program in the nation (tied with

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

) and in the top five among public universities. The school was ranked number two nationally in law librarianship, number four in archives and preservation, number nine in digital librarianship, and number eleven in information systems.

People

Notable alumni

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...

, former first lady *

Carolyn Harris Carolyn Harris (born 18 September 1960) is a Welsh politician serving as Deputy Leader of Welsh Labour since 2018. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea East since 2015. Harris served as Shadow Minister for Safeguarding and Vul ...

, library conservationist *

Shelley Sweeney Shelley Sweeney (born 1959) was University Archivist at the University of Regina from 1983 to 1998, and the Head of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections from 1998 to 2020. She helped found two regional archival organizations, ...

, archivist

Current and former faculty

* David B. Gracy II, former professor *

Loriene Roy Loriene Roy is an American scholar of Indigenous librarianship, professor and librarian from Texas. She was the first Native American president of the American Library Association when she was inaugurated in 2007. Biography Background and educa ...

, professor *

Roberta I. Shaffer Roberta Ivy Shaffer (born November 27, 1953) is an American librarian and attorney and is the former Director of the Law Library of Congress. Shaffer received a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1974 and a master's degree in library science ...

, former dean and professor *

Brooke E. Sheldon Brooke E. Sheldon was an American librarian and educator who served as the president of the American Library Association from 1983 to 1984. Career Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Sheldon also grew up in Nova Scotia. She graduated from Cambridg ...

, former dean and professor

Publications

Since 1976, the School of Information has housed ''

Information & Culture ''Information & Culture'' is an academic journal devoted to the study of the history of information, and any topic that would fall under the purview of the modern interdisciplinary schools of information creation, organization, preservation, or uti ...

'', an academic journal on the subject of

information history Information history may refer to the history of each of the categories listed below (or to combinations of them). It should be recognized that the understanding of, for example, libraries as information systems only goes back to about 1950. The a ...

References

External links

School of Information
{{Authority control Information schools

Information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

1948 establishments in Texas