Give Me an “i”!

iSchool? What’s that?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the institution which granted my Master’s degree.  Specifically, what was then called the School of Library and Information Science,  and what today is called the School of Library and Information Studies. Either way, the acronym is SLIS. Also, either way, it doesn’t really matter, because everybody calls it Library School.  Others in the profession just say “Where’d you go to Library School?” Much the same as I have heard business people talk about “B School,” and journalists talk about “J School.”

Recently, though, my library school also became an “iSchool.” It’s OK with me. I mean, I think the people who do what I do, and what I did before I retired ARE librarians. But we’re also information professionals. And my school has retained the word “library” in its name. But a lot of people with the degree don’t work in libraries, and we do a lot more than what was traditionally thought of as “librarianship,” but really, our commodity is information.

So give me an “i”! And read more about iSchools. Then tell me what you think.