School of Information at the University of Michigan

Story

The University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) or iSchool in Ann Arbor is a graduate school offering baccalaureate, magisterial, and doctoral degrees in informatics and information science.Its field of study is information: how it is created, identified, collected, structured, managed, preserved, accessed, processed, and presented; how it is used in different environments, with different technologies, and over time. The school's stated mission is: "We create and share knowledge so that people can use information -- with technology -- to build a better world. " Its slogan is "connecting people, information, and technology in more valuable ways."The School of Information is part of a growing list of i-schools devoted to the study of information as a discipline. These institutions have varied histories, some being newly created, others developing from earlier schools or departments focused on library and information science (as with SI), computer science, communications, or information technology. SI was the first of these institutions to relabel itself as a "school of information." It is currently housed in the North Quadrangle on the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus.In 2008, the School of Information, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the College of Engineering unveiled a new undergraduate major called Informatics. In 2011, the School of Information and the School of Public Health announced the creation of a master's degree in health informatics. In 2014, the School of Information enrolled its first students for a bachelor's degree in Information.