The department's research program spans library and information
science from youth services to information retrieval and from policy to
school media. The faculty are widely published and heavily cited in
these and other areas, supporting the high status of the M.L.I.S.
program in national rankings, informing the undergraduate program, and
contributing to the education of Ph.D. students. The faculty design and
study new information technologies and new uses for information and
media. Research addresses the organization and dissemination of
information; the design, management, and evaluation of information
services and systems; and diverse topics in professional education for
library and information science. There are many opportunities for
students at every level to become involved in faculty research
projects, gaining valuable hands-on understanding of the interplay
between new research and the cumulated achievements of the field.
Faculty in the Department of Library and Information Science have
interactions across the university with other faculty members from
departments as varied as cognitive science, computer science, business,
and education.
Members of the Library and Information Science
faculty serve as editors of internationally recognized journals in
their fields of interest, and their research is supported by
organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Council on
Library and Information Resources, the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Special
Libraries Association, as well as individual libraries. Much of this
work is conducted in the school's Alexandria Project Laboratory (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/ci/aplab/),
located on the second floor of the SCILS building. Members of the
department also play a leading role in the university's Distributed
Laboratory for Digital Libraries (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/ci/RDLDL/), which supports research and graduate
students.
The diverse research interests of the faculty are
united by the shared conviction that the revolutionary technologies of
computers and networking will serve humanity best when they are
developed and understood in terms of their service to the needs of
individuals and organizations. The Department of Library and
Information Science recognizes that for effective teaching in our
rapidly changing field, it is essential that every member of our
faculty be active in the creation of new knowledge in that field,
through innovative research.
