The School of Information Studies (SIS) will change its name to the School of Informatics to better reflect the school's redefined areas of growth and development.

The name change, effective July 1, better represents "the modernization of the field of librarianship, as well as the digital convergence of all forms of information circulation and mediated human communication," said Thomas L. Jacobson, associate professor and acting dean of the SIS.

"It signifies better than the school's current name precisely what we see as its major areas of growth and development, which include information-technology research, education and the kind of workforce development with which AT&T is helping us," Jacobson said.

AT&T has awarded the SIS a two-year, $200,000 grant to support curriculum development for a 36-credit-hour interdisciplinary master's degree in information and communication that will prepare students to enter the information workforce by mixing theory with practical experience.

Representatives of AT&T presented a check for the first installment of the grant on Tuesday to President William R. Greiner and Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi.

An initial $50,000 planning grant from AT&T received last year enabled UB to conduct interviews and focus groups with businesses and government agencies to identify the information-technology skills needed to be successful in today's workplace. This process laid the groundwork for the current $200,000 grant for the development of an informatics curriculum that blends technical training with communication and strategy skills education.

"Developing a skilled workforce is critical to the survival of technology-dependent companies like AT&T," said Greg Douglas, AT&T sales center vice president for government markets. "It's these graduates that make it possible to deliver information-based services like the automated calling card services first introduced by AT&T here in Buffalo in 1980."

The grant will help build and refine the school's equipment and technical infrastructure, including collaboration software for organizing and building the new curriculum, in-class presentation of projects and high-speed Internet access. Some of the funds will be used for technical and administrative support, as well as for a speaker series on topics such as information-technology trends, products and services.

"AT&T's generous gift will enable us to train a new generation of leaders in information technology, while also enhancing educational technology at the university," Greiner noted.

"College campuses across the country are becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, breaking down the barriers between traditional disciplines in fruitful ways. This support will help keep UB at the forefront of these developments as we create exciting new programs to meet the needs of a rapidly transforming world."

Capaldi praised AT&T for recognizing the leadership of SIS "in designing a curriculum where students learn not just about technology, but about how human beings interact with the technology and with each other in workable systems."

"We anticipate this will be a very popular program, and that graduates with these skills will have an easy time finding jobs in many industries.”

Jacobson noted that the grant and the resulting new program “will add a whole new dimension to the school, invigorating faculty members with a cross-disciplinary approach while broadening opportunities for students.”

Targeted enrollment for the first year is 25 students, with a projected enrollment of 50-75 students at the end of five years. As an added component, the school will collaborate with UB’s Office of International Programs to recruit in Asia for the new master’s-degree program.

AT&T will play an active role in the informatics curriculum. The company will provide guest lecturers, share product-development case studies, and a representative will sit on the school’s advisory council. The expanded alliance also will provide an opportunity for collaborative research projects between the school and AT&T, as well as create a ready source of highly trained information-technology graduates for recruiting purposes.

The school plans to have new courses available at the undergraduate, doctoral and continuing education levels by the fall of 2001. This will include active experimentation with distance-learning opportunities, with an emphasis on delivering portions of the library curriculum to New York State’s Southern Tier and Rochester areas via fiber-optic networks.

Jacobson noted that incorporating “informatics” into the school’s new name is indicative of “what most schools of information studies already do”—improve the ways society stores, retrieves, analyzes, manages, archives and disseminates information.

Moreover, “informatics is a field in which access to information is facilitated, whether in art, science or the professions,” he said. “That is a definition of librarianship.”

Jacobson pointed out that similar efforts are under way at other institutions, including the University of California at Irvine (UCI) and Indiana University (IU).

ICI is planning a “heavy infusion of informatics throughout its programs”—defined as the “technological manipulation of information, including its generation, transmission, storage, analysis, management, visualization, cognition and impact on society,” he said.

And IU recently established a School of Informatics to educate students, according to its mission statement, “broadly in the technical, psychological and social aspects of information technology and help them to apply this knowledge to another chosen discipline.”

UB is not trying to mimic either institution’s plans, Jacobson said. “But rather, we conclude with them that while information technology enables all fields, its use requires a widely shared set of skills and knowledge that can sensibly be combined in a School of Informatics.”