School Profile

The School of Information is a multidisciplinary department where faculty researchers focus on many aspects of information organization, management, or use and its impact on individuals and society. Our broadly trained and diverse faculty and student populations work towards establishing and advancing what we know about information amid massive digital shifts in contemporary society. These foci range from the philosophies of information, and studies of digital literacy or digital archives, to computational social science, data science, machine learning, and information retrieval or text mining. Beyond the wide methodological spectrum represented by the faculty, and alongside a broad commitment to issues of diversity and inclusion, much of the research happening in the School focuses on behavior, and related human factors across sectors of life, to include economic or business contexts, education, health, and art.

We have faculty focused on computational science and management information systems working side by side with those focused on issues of information behavior and societal change. We house faculty who specialize in virtual/augmented reality (e.g., Bozgeyikli and Bozgeyikli), biodiversity informatics and data curation (e.g., Heidorn), natural language processing (e.g., Jansen, Bethard, Cui, Heidorn), data science (e.g., Thompson, Morrison, Bethard), neural networks (Bethard), cognitive artificial intelligence (e.g., Jansen), machine learning/artificial intelligence (e.g., Morrison), and text mining/information retrieval (e.g., Cui). Alongside those faculty with strong credibility in technical sciences, we have those who bridge methodologies and academic disciplines (e.g., Brooks works across/blends qualitative small data and aggregate data/statistics). Alongside these faculty, we have a set of information philosophers (e.g., Lenhart, Fallis and Mathiesen) studying issues of policy and property, as well as those focused on digital culture and information communities (e.g., Daly, Lenhart, Brooks), issues of information organization and related technologies (e.g., Fricke, Fulton), multimedia work, archives (e.g., Lee, Daly), collections, leadership, and libraries (e.g., Stoffle, Macaluso), and issues of justice and access (e.g., Knott, Lee).

Our broad spectrum of methodological tools (e.g., computation, informatics/analytics, social network analysis, qualitative/interpretive research), field-specific perspectives (e.g., performance, librarianship, data curation in the sciences), and paradigmatic approaches (e.g., critical cultural scholars and queer theorists working alongside positivists or systems theorists) in our information-related research make us distinct.

Student Stats

Main Campus MA: 64
ArizonaOnline MA: 127
MS: 13
PhD: 15
Undergraduate Majors Overall: 539
Undergraduate Minors Overall: 242

Rankings 

25 Best Bachelor's in Information Technology Degree Programs for 2019

Library and Information Science program ranked top 25 in US News & World Report - 2017