News and Features
The iSchool at Drexel
a pioneer in the iField
By David E. Fenske
We live in an information world. It is a world in which information and technology are inextricably linked. In order to successfully navigate this information environment, The iSchool at Drexel prepares students to become leaders in the information field (iField) through education, experience and training, adapting to the ever-changing advancements in technology and the needs of society.
The iField is a relatively new term developed by the iSchools Caucus — a consortium of 21 prominent colleges dedicated to the study of information science — used to define an area of work and study that has evolved during the past two decades.
The iSchools Caucus states: “The iField empowers people in all fields to create, find, store, manipulate and share information in useful forms. The iField makes sure our world is not inundated by information overload, but rather emancipated by information access.”
The iField is at the heart of what the iSchool does — dealing with the challenges and the opportunities faced by people during an information age. Simply put, as technology expands, so does the ability to access information, and it is the iField expert’s responsibility to make sure information is used as effectively and efficiently as possible, to connect people with information, and as the world becomes smaller through digital technology, to utilize this technology to enhance these connections.
One highly regarded example of how the iSchool coordinates information and technology across industries to have a positive impact on the community is the college’s work with the Eleventh Street Family Health Services Center in Philadelphia.
Students and faculty from Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions, the School of Public Health, Lebow College of Business and the iSchool have all collaborated on this project, bringing to the table varied skills and research backgrounds. The iSchool has been immersed in the project for more than a year, with faculty analyzing the role of technology in patient safety and care, designing and developing enhancements to the current electronic health record, and analyzing how best to efficiently disseminate important information to patients.
This clinic is just one example of the many ways the iSchool endeavors to increase access to and improve the quality of information across industries.
iSchool prepares students for the iField
Information is vital to everything we do as human beings, from entertainment to agriculture, politics to finance, and any imaginable field in between. Every program offered at the iSchool — bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees — prepares students for the iField. Information experts, whether librarians, Web developers, systems engineers or quality assurance professionals, enhance society’s ability to succeed through access to the right information, at the right time, in the right form.
A master’s degree from the iSchool in Library and Information Science, Information Systems or Software Engineering, ensures your role in this ever-expanding field. There are nearly 3 million iField jobs in the region, and a graduate degree from the iSchool at Drexel, with some of the highest-ranked, most respected programs in the nation, will position you as leader.
For more information about the iSchool, attend the graduate open house on April 26. For details about the open house, visit www.ischool.drexel.edu.
David E. Fenske is Dean and Isaac L. Auerbach Professor of Information Science at The iSchool at Drexel. E-mail info@ischool.drexel.edu or call 215-895-2474 to learn more about the iSchool.
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