1960
1970
1980
“Information” and other discipline
in name, and is not a member of the
Dean’s Group or iCaucus
“Information” is only discipline in
name, and is not a member of the
Dean’s Group or iCaucus
“Information” and other discipline
in name, and is a member of the
Dean’s Group or iCaucus
“Information” is only discipline in
name, and is a member of the
Dean’s Group or iCaucus
“Information” not in name or is in
the form of information systems,
which for the purposes of this chart
represents something different,
and is an iCaucus member.
NORTH CAROLINA
MICHIGAN
MCGILL
MONTREAL
WISCONSIN
WASHINGTON
TORONTO
ILLINOIS
FLORIDA STATE
UT-AUSTIN
WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE
INDIANA-SLIS
RUTGERS
DREXEL
UC BERKELEY
SYRACUSE
UCLA
TENNESSEE
UC IRVINE
MARYLAND
NORTH TEXAS
PIT TSBURGH
1960 1970 1980
1990
2000 2010
CMU
SINGAPORE MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY
GEORGIA TECH
INDIANA-INFORMATICS
PENN STATE
1990
2000
2010
[ 4] Ostler, L. J., T.C.
Dahlin, and J. D.
Willardson. The Closing
of American Library
Schools: Problems and
Opportunities. Westport,
CT.: Greenwood Press,
1995.
March + April 2009
[ 5] Cronin, B. “An
I-dentity crisis?
The information
schools move-
ment.” International
Journal of Information
Management, 25 (2005):
363-365.
failed to meet the academic standards of leading
research universities. In addition, librarianship was
overshadowed in the eyes of many by the rapidly
expanding, highly paid information technology
profession [ 4].
Itwas in this period that many schools added
the term “information” to their name, most often
by shifting “library” to “library and information,”
although there were other combinations as well.
Pressure continued into the 1990s as the spread
of digital technologies raised questions about the
future of libraries and publishing. Several schools
with a major library focus rethought their missions. In 1996 the University of Pittsburgh rechristened its school as the School of Information
Sciences, and the University of Michigan officially
sanctioned the School of Information.
The dean of the School of Library and
Information Science at Indiana wrote of the
change at Michigan: “In 1996, the School of
Information and Library Studies at the University
of Michigan metamorphosed into the School of
Information. A first. Used though we were to talking about schools of business, we found it devilishly difficult to insert a period after ‘information.’
We’d become accustomed to ‘information’ being
coupled with a qualifying noun such as ‘studies,’
‘science,’ or ‘management.’ It took a little time to
get used to the new moniker, and snickering could
be heard in certain quarters. Those who scoffed
have since had to eat their words. Michigan’s
scholar-dean, diverse faculty and research accomplishments mark it out as a program of note, a
benchmark for other aspiring I-schools [ 5].” Here,
we describe the process at Michigan, in which one
of us participated, in more detail.
The University of Michigan School of Information
In 1992 University of Michigan President James
Duderstadt appointed computer scientist and
innovator Dan Atkins to be dean of the School of
Information and Library Studies (SILS). Duderstadt
provided resources to support change and convinced the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to invest, over
