Information fundamentally enables knowledge, understanding, possibilities and solutions. How to define, verify, promote use of and provide fair access to data, facts and expertise are ongoing challenges. The College of Information Studies, Maryland’s iSchool, works to realize the promise of information while embracing the challenges. The iSchool produces transformational information leaders who eliminate digital divides across the information literacy landscape, open access to information resources for diverse users and turn "big data" into "big solutions."
Scholarships and Faculty Support
Emerging Information Professionals Scholarship
The iSchool will provide scholarship and fellowship support through the campaign including the Emerging Information Professionals Scholarship. This scholarship will enable top students to pursue the iSchool’s new Bachelor of Science degree in information science, which will educate the next generation of information professionals for careers in areas such as data analytics, cybersecurity, library science, social media and information management.
Endowed Professorships and Chairs
The iSchool will provide faculty support by endowing three professorships and one chair.
New Facilities
The iSchool will raise funds to support the building of a state-of-the-art, collaborative information learning environment. New spaces in demand are an iSchool makerspace, a team room workshop for the HCIM Capstone course, a Usability and Inclusive Design lab, an isolated cybersecurity lab and new classrooms that can accommodate the growing undergraduate student population enrolling in the InfoSci BS program.
Programs and Initiatives
CMNS will raise support for programs and initiatives, including:
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iSchool Information Innovation Seed Fund
The iSchool Information Innovation Seed Fund (i3 Fund) will allow faculty, students and staff to develop the pilots, prototypes and plans they need to realize the potential of their ideas to transform how we use and work with information.
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Usability and Inclusion Lab
A usability and inclusion lab to provide new equipment that students, faculty and community partners need to create new technology for an increasingly diverse population of information consumers.
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iDo
iDo will expand and enhance experiential learning opportunities for students. Moving beyond internships and projects, iDo will include workshops, cultural exchanges and community engagements that open a variety of pathways for information interactions. It will increase opportunities for students to apply training and theory to real-world problems, operate new equipment and accumulate new knowledge from a diverse array of perspectives.