Welcome to the McGill School of Information Studies

SIS offers a dynamic learning environment which keeps pace with the rapidly evolving and expanding field of information studies. Our diverse faculty positions itself under the broad area of human information interaction (HII) 鈥� the dynamic interface between people and information, facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). Our research and teaching expertise spans such areas as archival studies, cybersecurity, data mining, digital curation, knowledge management, librarianship, and user-experience design.

With a rich history of over 100 years, SIS continues to offer an ALA-accredited master鈥檚 program. Our master鈥檚 programs represent an effective balance between theory and practice. Students can work on real-world problems in their courses and can also elect to participate in our practicum course, which offers a supervised learning opportunity in an information organization for academic credit. Our research options allows students to concentrate up to 18 credits on a research project of their choosing. All students master the key components of our curriculum through our six required courses, and then craft their own path through our broad range of elective courses.

As part of the McGill community, our students have access to a world-class learning environment and benefit from collaboration with such emerging areas as digital humanities and bioinformatics. Services such as McGill CaPS (Career Planning Services) offers workshops and individual guidance on preparing for interviews, having CVs reviewed, and learning about job searching strategies. Practicing professionals in organizations such as law firms, archives, public libraries, government agencies and private sector firms are part of our community as course lecturers, guest lecturers, and practicum site supervisors. Our alumni work in such organizations as the World Bank, Supreme Court of Canada, Jewish General Hospital, Bombardier, Business Development Bank of Canada, and the US Department of Veteran Affairs.

Last but not least, our students are active and are members of a number of student groups and associations. They partner with our 鈥渟ister鈥� school at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al, EBSI, every year to organize a career fair and a research conference. Students are actively involved in such initiatives as Librarians without Borders and have set up student chapters of associations including ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and Technology), ABQLA (L'Association des biblioth茅caires du Qu茅bec Library Association) and ACA (Association of Canadian Archivists).

SIS is an exciting place to be. We look forward to welcoming you into our community.

Joan Bartlett
School of Information Studies Director