Proposed IU Informatics School Would Share Faculty, Be Virtual

Staff -- Library Journal, 1/11/1999

The University of Indiana (UI) has taken initial steps to establish its first new school in 25 years, the interdisciplinary School of Informatics. Its purpose will be to study the "representation, manipulation, distribution, maintenance, and use of information, particularly in digital form." An interdisciplinary approach to the "new science of information" would focus on four areas: distributed information and knowledge systems, the human/computer interface, social and organizational informatics, and the foundations of the science of information. The school will be virtual in nature, and available to students at both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses. It will initially make joint use of faculty from a number of programs, including the schools of Library and Information Science, Cognitive and Information Science, Information Systems in the School of Business, Instructional Systems Technology Department in the School of Education, and others. The school will incorporate the New Media Program and initially offer a bachelor's degree, minor, or a certificate. During the next year, a formal request for the new school will be made, in consultation with faculty groups, to the trustees of IU. The proposal will then be presented to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education for its approval.