InfoMatters

Check out InfoSpeak, a podcast program from students at UW’s iSchool: www.infospeak.org/shows/show3/index.htm. You can listen to former dean and all round library-enthusiast Mike Eisenberg tell it like it is! As he says in the interview, it’s not an L world or an I world, it’s about people! The whole production is very high quality and a welcome addition to the world of information studies. If you are a radio fan like me, there is a real pleasure to be found in listening to interviews rather than just reading the words - in this case you need to hear Mike talk to feel his passion.

US News and World Reports issues its latest graduate school rankings which this year included LIS programs for only the second time. As always, those who do poorly dismiss the exercise but those who do well feel a little differently The ranking is hardly scientific but it does indicate pretty accurately how the deans and senior staff at the various programs view each other (and we know that none of these people would ever try to grade their rivals inappropriately). For the record, Texas did well, moving up to #7 overall from #10 in the last ranking, and scoring notable sub-area rankings of #1 in Archives & Preservation, #3 in Legal Librarianship, and #11 in both Digital Libraries and in Information Systems, both of which are new concentrations for us. Here’s the listing of schools, with ranked score from 1-5 (5 being Outstanding):

1. University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign 4.5
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill 4.5
3. Syracuse University (NY) 4.3
4. University of Washington 4.2
5. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 4.0
6. Rutgers State University–New Brunswick (NJ) 3.9
7. Indiana University–Bloomington 3.8
University of Pittsburgh 3.8
University of Texas–Austin 3.8
10. Florida State University 3.7
11. Drexel University (PA) 3.6
University of Wisconsin–Madison 3.6
13. Simmons College (MA) 3.5
University of California–Los Angeles 3.5
University of Maryland–College Park 3.5
16. University of North Texas 3.0
University of Tennessee–Knoxville 3.0
18. Wayne State University (MI) 2.9
19. Kent State University (OH) 2.8
University at Buffalo–SUNY 2.8
University of South Carolina–Columbia 2.8
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee 2.8
23. SUNY–Albany 2.7
24. Catholic University of America (DC) 2.6
Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge 2.6
University of Kentucky 2.6
University of Missouri–Columbia 2.6
University of Oklahoma 2.6
University of South Florida 2.6
30. San Jose State University (CA) 2.5
University of Alabama–Tuscaloosa 2.5
University of Hawaii–Manoa 2.5

I just returned from a trip to the School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh (www.sis.pitt.edu/). Currently the home to two depts (one in LIS and the other in Information Science and Telecommunications), the school has now agreed to merge these departments into a single entity. I was pretty impressed with what I saw and I think the merger is exactly what is needed to create a more inclusive sense of an information school. The old disciplinary divisions that made sense in the 1970s probably do not work too well now and it’s important to note that intellectual fields shift and evolve — I doubt any name that is chosen now will remain with us forever. But if you are counting, the number of ALA-accredited degree programs which are issued by a school without the L word in its name has reached 18 out of 54, that’s one-third. Suddenly being an i-School has become quite normal.