MSI specializations
Within the Master of Science in Information (MSI) degree program, students may complete one or two areas of specialization, or they can work with a faculty advisor to design a tailored course of study. While a specialization gives an area of focus, students will have room in their degree program to explore, drawing from SI’s diverse course offerings.
Archives and Records Management (ARM)
Applies the best aspects of traditional archival teaching and research to novel problems of online access, digital preservation, and records management; at SI the emphasis is on modern records, modern technology, and stretching the traditional boundaries of archival work.
Community Informatics (CI)
Explores ways to deploy information and communication technologies in service of the public good and for the changing role of information and technology in a civil society, including work in the areas of community networks, E-governance, and information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D).
Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
Emphasizes the design of interfaces and user experiences and the social consequences of technology innovation, considering not just the visual/auditory display and interaction dialog, but the situation in its entirety, the group in which this task takes place, and the organizational goals and resources.
Information Analysis and Retrieval (IAR)
Examines how information is stored in computer systems, how it is searched and analyzed, and how humans access it, utilizing natural language processing, database design, information retrieval, and text, Web, and network analytics.
Information Economics for Management (IEM)
Focuses on the art of designing systems or institutions to align participants' (individual) incentives with overall system (social) goals, analyzing information for planning and decision-making and strategizing optimal improvements in system and organizational effectiveness.
Information Policy (IPOL)
Builds expertise in shaping the structural elements of our fast-evolving digital society through policy development and analysis in order to guide decisions that will have local, national, and international impact in areas such as digital governance, IT standards, intellectual property, telecommunications, privacy, and security.
Library and Information Science (LIS)
Prepares a new generation of service minded librarians and information specialists with the skill-set needed to lead the field into the future, leveraging new technologies and introducing novel approaches to retrieving information and increasing access to knowledge.
Preservation of Information (PI)
Responds to the urgent need for expertise in preservation, digital curation, and Web archiving in the 21st century, teaching the principles and knowledge of preservation administration across all media and formats, including collection evaluation and threat assessments, preservation policies, facilities and environmental controls, and resources and stable funding models.
School Library Media (SLM)
Develops instructional information leaders for school media centers in K-12 education; leaders who embrace technology and are capable of creating innovation in pedagogy and classroom collaborations and who are committed to fostering information literacy, lifelong readers, and informed citizens.
Social Computing (SC)
Recognizes the potential for innovating new and better ways of capturing and utilizing the resources of the digital age for human benefit by analyzing, inventing, and/or deploying recommender systems, reputation systems, prediction markets, social network analysis, online communities, and computer-supported cooperative work, as well as tools or methods yet undiscovered.