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Skip to: [What is Information Architecture?] [What is Knowledge Management] [Putting it all together]

What is Library Science?

When you picture a librarian do you see a quiet, unassuming woman with her hair in a bun? Is she stamping books? Does she give you a stern look an say, "Shh!?" This traditional view of what a librarian is, could not be further from the truth. Librarianship has a long and venerable history - learn more about Ashurbanipal's library at Niniveh during the 7th century BCE. Librarians for centuries have served as the gatekeepers of information for society. Library Science is concerned with a number of areas including:

Acquisition
Dissemination of Information
Classification and Organization
Storage and Retrieval Systems
Information Use

Modern librarians reach well beyond the borders of library buildings and deep into cyberspace working with digital libraries and remote user access.

Learn a different view of Librarians: [Lipstick Librarian] [Laughing Librarian] [Shifted Librarian] [Become a Librarian] [Modified Librarian] [Librarian Romances]

What is Information Architecture?

It is easy to think of Information Architects as Web Developers. It is true that many Information Architects are working in the World Wide Web environment. However, the science of Information Architecture goes beyond web design and administration. Information Architects are the librarians of the web. They work to build content (acquisition); organize and classify information through navigational structure, labeling, and indexing; design digital storage and retrieval systems (dissemination), and perform user analysis before, during, and after a project to determine an interface's usability (information use). Information Architects often work with teams that include: graphic designers, programmers, librarians, business professionals, and systems administrators.

Kent State University has a cutting-edge Masters program in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management.

 

What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge Management is a business process where an organization seeks to assemble, organize, analyze and share its information amongst its members. The information often includes competitive intelligence, tacit knowledge, and best practices - types of knowledge that are often missed if they are not specifically mined as a resource. Knowledge Managers seek innovative ways to collect this information and make it easily available to the organization. Although this is often seen as an endeavor for profit and corporate intelligence, many non-profit organizations are seeing the benefit of harnessing their previously uncaptured knowledge.

Kent State University has a cutting-edge Masters program in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management.

 

Putting it all together:

I decided to pursue both the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and the Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management (IAKM) because I am fascinated with the study of information in all its forms. As a librarian, I have the unique ability to see information problems, be they of a design nature or a corporate intelligence nature, from a user perspective. I am able to analyze the information need, retrieve relevant results, analyze the data, and present it in a format that will maximize its usefulness.

Paige Lucas-Stannard