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The iSchools landscape: diversity, inclusiveness and global identity

  • D. Wang
  • , Lihong Zhou*
  • , Michael Seadle
  • , Gobinda Chowdhury
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

The iSchools represent an international community of over 130 university faculties. They have a shared interest in research and teaching about information. The findings reported here provide insight into the perspectives and visions of the deans and directors of 75 iSchools. Findings show that (1) attention to people, information, and technology represents shared values; and, (2) the global identity of the community blends diversity and inclusiveness. The diversity and inclusiveness of the iSchools requires balancing academic traditions with innovations. The current leaders use this balance to the community’s identity as well as Information Science scholarship as a discipline.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1065-1081
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Volume76
Issue number8
Early online date9 Mar 2025
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2025

Funding

The primary contributors to this paper are: Dr. Di Wang from Renmin University, who wrote most of the article's text; Prof. Lihong Zhou from Wuhan University, who contributed to integrating and analyzing the data from all three regions; and Prof. Gobinda Chowdhury from the University of Strathclyde and Prof. Michael Seadle from Humboldt-Universit\u00E4t zu Berlin, who wrote the original proposal, the research design, as well as portions of the text. Special acknowledgement should also go to Prof. Vivien Petras, PhD, Dr. Ben Kaden, and Dr. Michael Kleineberg from Humboldt-Universit\u00E4t zu Berlin, who carried out the interviews in Europe, and to Prof. Gary Marchionini, Dr. Leslie Thomson, and Dr. Rachael Clemens from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who carried out the interviews in North America. The team would like to thank all the iSchools leaders, faculty, and other affiliates who offered their time and perspectives on the project. The team also gratefully acknowledges the funding support from the Mellon Foundation in carrying out this project.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education
  2. SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
    SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Keywords

  • iSchools
  • information science diversity,
  • social contribution
  • global identity
  • collaboration
  • research focus

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