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 (
Gillian Oliver, Monash University, Australia), past chair (
Sanda Erdelez , Simmons University, United States of America
) and the chair elect (
Ina Fourie, University of Pretoria, South Africa), plus representatives from the three regions (North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific). The current executive director is Slava Sterzer.
Member institutions
Between 2010 and 2025, the organization expanded globally beyond North America, growing to 134 member schools as of March 2025. 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.
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September 2005: Pennsylvania State University
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October 2006: University of Michigan
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February 2008: University of California, Los Angeles
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February 2009: University of North Carolina
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February 2010: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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February 2011: University of Washington, Seattle
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February 2012: University of Toronto
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February 2013: University of North Texas
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March 2014: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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March 2015: University of California, Irvine
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March 2016: Drexel University
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March 2017: Wuhan University
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March 2018: University of Sheffield and Northumbria University
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March 2019: University of Maryland
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March 2020: University of Borås
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March 2023: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
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March 2024: Jilin University
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March 2025: Indiana University
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2026 Edinburgh Napier University
Other schools of information
Other information schools and programs include:
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Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore
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San Jose State University, School of Information
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University at Albany, SUNY, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity
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University of Southern California Library Science Degree
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Ankara University, Department of Information and Records Management, Ankara/Turkey
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Marmara University, Department of Information and Records Management, Istanbul/Turkey
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University of Kelaniya, Department of Library and Information Science, Kelaniya/Sri Lanka
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University of Colombo, National Institute of Library and Information Science (NILIS), Colombo/Sri Lanka
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Chicago State University, Department of Information Studies
See also
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List of Library Science schools
