Wikipedia / List of information schools
Wikipedia / List of information schools
This list of information schools, sometimes abbreviated to iSchools, includes members of the iSchools organization. The iSchools organization reflects a consortium of over 130 information schools across the globe.
History
The first iSchools Caucus was formed in 1988 by Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Drexel and was called the Gang of Three (sometimes gang of four with Rutgers). Syracuse renamed the School of Library Science as the School of Information Studies in 1974, and is considered as the first “iSchool” in history. The group was formally named "the iSchools Caucus" or more casually, the iCaucus. By 2003, the group expanded to include the Universities of Michigan, Washington, Illinois, UNC, Florida State, Indiana, and Texas, and was called the Gang of Ten.
The current iSchools Caucus organization was formalized by 2005, with additions of UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, Penn State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Toronto, Carnegie Mellon and Singapore Management University.
iSchools organization
The 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. "School of Information", "Department of Information Studies", or "Information Department" are often the names of the participating organizations.
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.
Leadership
The executive committee of the iSchools is made up of the current chair (Ina Fourie, University of Pretoria, South Africa), past chair (Gillian Oliver, Monash University, Australia) and the chair elect (Javed Mostafa, University of Toronto Canada), plus representatives from the three regions (North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific). The current executive director is Slava Sterzer.
Member institutions
Between 2010 and 2026, the organization expanded globally beyond North America, growing to 133 member schools as of March 2026. For an updated and complete list of member schools, please visit the member database of the iSchools.
iConferences
Members of the iSchools organize a regular academic conference, known as the iConference, hosted by a different member institution each year.
September 2005: Pennsylvania State University
October 2006: University of Michigan
February 2008: University of California, Los Angeles
February 2009: University of North Carolina
February 2010: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
February 2011: University of Washington, Seattle
February 2012: University of Toronto
February 2013: University of North Texas
March 2014: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
March 2015: University of California, Irvine
March 2016: Drexel University
March 2017: Wuhan University
March 2018: University of Sheffield and Northumbria University
March 2019: University of Maryland
March 2020: University of Borås (virtual only)
March 2021: Renmin University of China (virtual only)
February/March 2022: University of Texas at Austin, University College Dublin & Kyushu University (virtual only)
March 2023: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
March 2024: Jilin University
March 2025: Indiana University
March/April 2026: Edinburgh Napier University
2027: Victoria University of Wellington
Other schools of information
Other information schools and programs include:
Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore
University of Southern California Library Science Degree
Ankara University, Department of Information and Records Management, Ankara/Turkey
Marmara University, Department of Information and Records Management, Istanbul/Turkey
University of Kelaniya, Department of Library and Information Science, Kelaniya/Sri Lanka
University of Colombo, National Institute of Library and Information Science (NILIS), Colombo/Sri Lanka
See also
References