[Asis-l] IU trustees approve merger of schools of informatics, library science

[Debora Shaw]

We are pleased to report that the Indiana University Board of Trustees has 
approved merging the university's two iSchools, with the effective date of July 
1, 2013.

        Bobby Schnabel, Dean, School of Informatics and Computing
        Ralf Shaw, Dean, School of Library and Information Science



Indiana University
IU News Room
                                 News Release

Last modified: Friday, October 12, 2012

IU TRUSTEES APPROVE MERGER OF SCHOOLS OF INFORMATICS, LIBRARY SCIENCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 12, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Board of Trustees has approved
the merger of the university's School of Informatics and School of Library
and Information Science into a single school to be called the IU School of
Informatics and Computing.

SOIC Deans
Indiana University School of Library and Information Sciences Dean Debora
Shaw and School of Informatics and Computing Dean Bobby Schnabel said the
merger would provide new and significant opportunities for expanding
research and education.

The change will affect schools at both the Bloomington and Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis campuses and is being heralded by
IU President Michael A. McRobbie and administrators at both schools as an
opportunity to create a single school of expanded breadth, size and quality
that addresses the rapid evolution of informatics, computing and libraries.

"The study of information and computation has become more closely linked and
important than ever," McRobbie said. "Combining these two high-quality,
highly ranked schools will create a single unit that can compete more
effectively with the best schools in the world in this area.

"The new school will also create excellent opportunities for new initiatives
that are being pursued immediately, including a new cutting-edge program in
big data science, an initiative in network science, strengthened
collaborations and emphasis in health informatics, and the revitalization of
IU's leadership role in social informatics."

Demand for trained professionals in computing and informatics is expected to
continue, and the need for librarians and information professionals is
shifting to graduates with skills in digital curation and preservation,
e-science and user-systems interaction, emphasizing the importance of a
strong technological base, McRobbie noted.

"By placing these programs in a combined culture where rapid change is
expected to be the norm, IU is provided with an excellent opportunity to
contribute in a broader sphere at the confluence of information and
computing," he said. "Deans (Bobby) Schnabel and (Debora) Shaw are to be
congratulated on developing an excellent proposal after an extensive process
of discussion and consideration, and in particular for obtaining such
enthusiastic support of an overwhelming number of faculty."

With the only school in the U.S., and most likely the world, that educates
and conducts research in everything from computer science and cybersecurity
to network science and large-scale data, the new school is expected to
broaden perspectives that will ultimately benefit students, faculty and
future users of information technology and libraries.

Informatics' Schnabel and library and information science's Shaw agreed that
new and significant opportunities exist for expanding collaborations and for
bringing new and expanded curricula to undergraduate and graduate students.

"A myriad of important current and emerging areas stand to benefit from the
combined school's expertise in information and computing, enhancing IU's
ability to offer undergraduate and graduate education and to conduct
leading-edge research," Schnabel said. "To date, these interactions have
been primarily focused on research, but significant opportunities exist for
expanding these collaborations to the benefit of all students."

Increased interaction in the areas of big data science, health informatics,
human computer interaction, media sciences, network science and social
informatics is expected, Schnabel and Shaw said, and new initiatives are
already being anticipated, including a new curricular emphasis in data
science, a university-wide institute in network science, and a focus on
expanding the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics, already a joint
venture between the two schools

"Merging the two schools helps address issues of the pace of change in
information and communication technologies," Shaw said. "It also helps
prepare students in our graduate-level information and library science
programs for careers that increasingly require technical skills and
sophisticated understanding of the effective uses of technology."

The School of Library and Information Science is consistently among the top
10 (seventh in the most recent rankings) in the U.S. News and World Report
rankings, and an outside analysis of information and library science
journals found IU second, behind Harvard University, in the impact of its
publications. The Bloomington and IUPUI campuses combined have 455 graduate
students and 26 faculty members this fall; the school does not have an
undergraduate program.

The School of Informatics, the first of its kind in the country, was founded
as a core school in 2000 and introduced the nation's first Ph.D. in
informatics. The school, which has 1,490 undergraduate students and 892
graduate students this fall at both campuses, is an international research
leader in areas including bioinformatics, complex networks and systems,
cyber-infrastructure, data and search, human-computer interaction, networks
and systems, programming languages and security and privacy. It has 110
faculty members.

For more information, please contact Steve Chaplin, IU Communications, at
812-856-1896 or stjchap at iu.edu.

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MEDIA CONTACTS

Steve Chaplin
IU Communications
stjchap at iu.edu
812-856-1896