Message from the Dean

Dear iSchool students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends,

As we head through the end of summer toward the Autumn quarter, I can’t help but feel energized by the work that lies ahead. I look forward to the events that mark the beginning of every year, including welcoming new students. The upcoming School retreat will be a time to prepare to embark on a new year of showing the world how the iSchool makes information work.

As Governor Gregoire demonstrated in a speech this past May, awareness of the importance of information is on the rise. The Information School has understood for a long time the transformative power information can have in people’s lives. We continue to stump for it, as Dean Emeritus and Professor Mike Eisenberg did in a recent interview in the Seattle Times. I can honestly say that the work the faculty, students and staff at the iSchool are doing has never been more needed, as we move further into an age dominated by the ubiquity and influence of information and technology.

I recently had the chance to put on the prognosticator’s hat, during a speech to the Summer Institute for Chinese Studies Librarianship, held here on the UW campus earlier this month. In my presentation, I identified some trends I have observed that will directly impact the future of information education and information research. I wanted to share two of these trends with you:

1. The widespread availability of communication technologies and networks (such as the Internet) has created a growing need for information security. Information assurance and cybersecurity includes a very broad set of issues. In addition to the technology issues, there are issues around developing policy that supports increased security of information. But often lost in discussions of cybersecurity are the ethical considerations that impact the people using information systems. The UW iSchool is exerting leadership in this area, in particular through the Center for Information Assurance & Cybersecurity and the Center for Information & Society, by providing an appropriate context in which these issues can receive interdisciplinary attention.
   
2. The nature of information and information systems requires an ever-expanding range and depth of expertise. Information specialists are now necessarily trans-disciplinary. Their skills bridge disciplines. They manage information so that it can flow across the spaces that separate fields of practice and expertise. They are experts in the synthesis and presentation of information so critical to the work of complex teams. All these skills coupled with project management are essential for advancing the interests of many modern organizations, and our faculty, staff, students and graduates are responding to this need.

I can say without reservation that the University of Washington Information School is helping our students to understand these trends. We are also preparing them to lead the way forward with the important work of enabling individuals and society to create, store, find, manipulate and share information efficiently and ethically.

Best wishes and warm regards,

Harry Bruce
Professor and Dean
The Information School