What is an I-school? This is a question I often get asked. Even when I first heard about I-schools I had to ask what exactly that was? Frequently today I have to explain to people exactly what it means that I am getting a graduate degree in Information Sciences and Technology. I am lucky if the people recognize that it might be related to something with technology. Often times people ask if it is similar to computer science or occasionally if it is similar to library science, both of which are in fact different fields though there is some overlap in the issues studied in I-schools and in computer science and library science programs.
I-schools are different than more traditional departments, colleges, and fields for several reasons. One immediate difference from more traditional departments, colleges and fields it that I-schools offer the opportunity for more interdisciplinary research. Within an I-School one can find people from various disciplines (e.g. computer science, engineering, psychology, sociology, law, business, other I-School, etc.). This means that there is more work done with combining ideas and research from different fields to study one problem.
Another difference between I-schools and traditional fields is that I-schools are a new phenomena and are thus still developing. So, there is no one clear definition of exactly what an I-school is. This means that there is more room for exploring topics that might otherwise not be considered just because the field hasn't studied that particular topic before. One thing that shows that I-schools are a developing discipline is that there is a confusion over schools, if you look at a list of I-schools, such as the ones that belong to the
I-school caucus, is that there is a wide variety of names for the schools most of which , but not all which, mention information. In addition, there is confusion over how to write I-schools (e.g. ischool, iSchool, ISchool, I-School, I-school, etc.). Another thing that supports the idea that I-schools are still developing is the fact that many people still have to ask exactly what an I-school is. As I-school develop more and become more well known hopefully fewer people will have to ask that question.
Still despite the fact that I-schools are still developing there are some key ideas that seem to be core to I-schools in general. One common idea about I-schools is that they look at information, technology and people. The I-school Caucus website gives one definition of I-schools:
"The iSchools are interested in the relationship between information, technology, and people. This is characterized by a commitment to learning and understanding the role of information in human endeavors. 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, as well as information technologies and their applications." http://www.ischools.org/oc/index.html
Wikipedia, on the other hand, defines I-schools as:
"emergent academic programs committed to understanding the role of information in human endeavors and nature. The schools conduct research into the fundamental aspects of information and information technologies and into the relationships between people, information, and technology. ISchools educate new information professionals, researchers and scholars in order to provide leadership, scholarship and vision for our increasingly information-driven world." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_I-Schools
These two definitions provide two views of I-schools and show how it can be difficult to define exactly what an I-school is specifically. However they also show something that I-schools have in common. They bother emphasize the importance of relationships between people, information and technology. This definition can be abstract since it is hard to define exactly what is meant by information, but this is partially because there is such a wide variety of research and focuses within I-schools.
The wide variety of topics studied within I-schools leads to the point that all I-schools are different and yet similar. They have similar goals but there are several different flavors of I-schools that can be found. Many I-schools originally came out of departments or colleges that taught library science and thus are still geared towards studying archives and librarianship, while other I-schools come from computer science and are thus geared towards a more technological and computational view of information sciences and technology. A third flavor of I-schools are those that are closely associated with business schools and management. A fourth flavor of I-schools are school that were not formed or developed from previously existing schools but instead created to be an I-school.
All of this discussion of what I-schools are and the different flavors of them leads finally to a brief discussion of why I choose to attend an I-school for my graduate education. As I mentioned in a previous post I was double major in computer science and history as an undergraduate. This led me to want something more than just an computer science program or a history program as an graduate student. It was suggested by multiple people that I look at several I-schools including Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology. Looking at those schools and seeing the wide range of research that was done at them and also seeing how much interdisciplinary work was done made I-schools an obvious choice when I was choosing schools to apply to for graduate education.
As stated in previous blog entries my advisor is Dr. Bernard J. Jansen, usually referred to as Jim Jansen (his personal website is: http://ist.psu.edu/faculty_pages/jjansen/index.html). Above is a picture of him. I don't know much about my advisor's personal life, perhaps because generally when I talk to him it is about research. Most of the information in this blog posting came from his website. 
