The 2017 U.S. News and World Report have ranked the University’s School of Information Science, or iSchool, as No. 1; however, this isn’t news to them. The graduate program has consistently been ranked No. 1 in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report, since the publication has started polling. 

The iSchool is currently home to more than 700 graduate students studying either library sciences or information management. They are proud members of a larger project encompassing various iSchools across the country.

According to the school’s website is, an iSchool is “a community of schools interested in the relationship between information, technology and people, and committed to increasing the visibility of the field of library and information science.”

The principal values of library science include information organization, access, use and preservation. The program is pervasive and constantly changing to meet the needs of present-day society, which is why the school now includes the study of information science.

The school added the information science program around the time Professor and Executive Associate Dean Linda C. Smith entered the program.

Smith said the idea of information science as a discipline separate from library sciences became relevant in the 1960s.

“It was around the time I was getting my master’s that you had a broader perspective that there was this interdisciplinary field, not limited to library science, that could be both an area for research but then also an informing practice,” Smith said.

Smith also said the Information Management Program was added because the way people use information has changed. This is, in part, because of the rise of internet use.

“How everyone interacts with information has changed, so we’ve gone from an environment where to be an information specialist, you were the one who had the keys to accessing digital information,” Smith said.

Today, anyone with internet access can quickly find information with a Google search.

Smith said since roles have changed in research, it is crucial for information specialists to influence others in how to do their own searching, so they can be more capable users of information.

Maria Bonn, senior lecturer in the iSchool, said the information field is rapidly developing. She said it’s opened up possibilities for careers that she’s not sure would have been thought of 20 years ago.

“We have a very strong emphasis on data management and everybody in the world wants people to do data now, so they go off and work in private corporations, helping to manage data,” Bonn said.

Bonn also said social media has caused a large impact on how people circulate and access information.

“There are people working social media because they understand users and uses of information and can help facilitate the interactions between people and information resources services,” Bonn said. “Our Career Services actually tracks where people go; our graduates are out in the world everywhere.”

Students who choose to take the information management route have the choice of four different pathways to enhance their degrees: data science and analytics; privacy, trust, security and ethics; information architecture and knowledge management.

Mark McCarthy is an MS candidate at the iSchool studying information management.

He chose to go the information architecture route, which focuses on user experience design and research, setting up apps, websites and other digital spaces. McCarthy hopes to gain experience in this area in order to help people.

“I really just want to work with people,” McCarthy said. “I’ve always been interested in technology and how technology can help people like, you know, in my life experience and in my world, and particularly how technology can help folks with (a) disability.”

McCarthy described information management as a combination of library sciences and engineering.

“It’s not like a watered down engineering; it’s kind of like a different focus on engineering,” he said.

McCarthy is currently working on an app to help people with disabilities navigate the campus in an easier way.

He credits the School of Information Sciences faculty in helping make his experience such a positive one.

“All of our professors are hands-on with us, which I really like. They are very forthcoming with information, they are very supportive … they will do anything for us, honestly,” McCarthy said. “My mentors that I have have been there for me in ways that, you know, you don’t really get in undergrad.” 

What is fascinating about the iSchool is because it is so interdisciplinary, people come from all different backgrounds.

Bonn said some have more technical backgrounds, while others have more of a humanities background.

Another part of what makes the iSchool so remarkable is its ability to change with the development and use of new technology.

“We have a very strong faculty with a wide range of expertise, and its attention both to the kind of core values, principles, long tradition of libraries and service orientation combined with its embrace of change and willingness to innovate and change the program to keep up with the pace of change,” Bonn said. 

Information sciences help people learn how to accommodate the needs of any user of information, no matter how young or old.

To Bonn, the study is about finding the best ways to connect users to information.

“For me, it’s just a thrill understanding those needs and helping meet them. Yeah, we are doing something good here.”

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