Syracuse University School of Information Studies: A tradition of innovation

✍ Scribed by Settel, Barbara ;Marchand, Donald A.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1001 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-8231
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(198809)39:5<331::aid-asi8>3.0.co;2-6

✦ Synopsis

This article describes the School of Information Studies' approach to the education of information professionals, the School's perspective, as it evolved in the 197Os, and the addition of two new degree programs in the 1980s. Unique features of the curriculum and degree programs are explained. The authors suggest future directions for the School and its programs, especially In relation to societal trends and developments within Syracuse University.

Syracuse University School of Information Studies is committed to providing an innovative teaching and learning environment within which students are prepared for broad-based careers as librarians, information managers, researchers, and educators. The education of these professionals is based on three propositions:

. information is a resource crucial to the social, cultural, and economic well-being of mankind; . information processing is a process vital to every individual in survival, self-realization, and social interaction; . the information and library professions possess working knowledge and unique skills of significance to a wide variety of institutions and activities.

A Unique Approach

The School has long been concerned with the transfer and use of information in a broad range of organizations, and this perspective served as a catalyst for changing its name in 1974. At that time the School recognized that the content of its courses and the career interests of its students could no longer be described only as "library science." Its concerns were moving towards an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, drawing from fields of communication, computer science, and information science, as well as traditional library science. This unique approach to graduate library education was defined as Information Studies: "the study of information needs of and use by different populations, and the design, opera-