The University of Texas School of Information is a graduate school of library and information science at the University of Texas at Austin.
The school was founded in 1948 as a part of the UT Graduate School, and was named the Graduate School of Library Science, offering a Master of Library Science degree and certification for school librarianship, offerings which have been continually provided to this day. In 1967 the School initiated a Certificate of Advanced Study followed in 1969-70 by a doctoral program, leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
The School's name was changed in 1980 to Graduate School of Library and Information Science in recognition of the increased emphasis on information science in the curriculum as it had evolved since the late 1960s. At the same time, the name of the master's degree became Master of Library and Information Science. Change has continued into this century with the master's degree name changed again to Master of Science in Information Studies in 2000. In 2002 the faculty voted unanimously to change the school name to School of Information. The new name took effect in 2003 to better reflect the diversity of issues and the multidisciplinary nature of the studies in the information field. Since then the school has been an active member of the iSchool Caucus
Today approximately 300 graduate students study in the master's, Certification of Advanced Study, and doctoral programs. The School of Information also offers an undergraduate minor.
With more than twenty faculty, a range of joint appointees from across the University, and numerous adjunct faculty selected for their expertise in information studies, the School of Information balances the values of information access as a human and social benefit, with the intellectual and technical skills needed to lead developments in the information age. The Austin program is unique among the information schools for its emphasis on the full lifecycle of information, with a certificate program in conservation. The school does not provide distance education, all students must study in Austin.
In 2009, US News and World Report ranked the program #8 in the nation and #1 nationally in archives and preservation, #3 in law librarianship, and #13 in digital librarianship.
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—Eviatar Zerubavel, U.S. sociologist, educator. The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life, ch. 5, University of Chicago Press (1991)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)