Editorial: Celebrating 50 years

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Information Science celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the founding at the University of Sheffield of what was then called the Postgraduate School of Librarianship. The first member of staff, Professor Wilf Saunders, was appointed in April 1963, since when the School has changed its name on three occasions: to the Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science in 1967; then to the Department of Information Studies in 1981; and most recently to the Information School in 2011. These changes in name have been accompanied by substantial changes in the size and the composition of the School. By the late 1960s, it had seven academic staff (both full-time and part-time) teaching an annual cohort of around 35 postgraduate students on diploma programmes in Information Science and in Librarianship. Two decades later, when the School celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, it had 13 academic staff teaching an annual cohort of around 100 postgraduate students on master’s programmes in Information Management, Information Studies and Librarianship. The School has grown considerably in the succeeding quartercentury and in the current academic year (2011–2012) comprises 33 academic, administrative, secretarial and technical staff, and around 350 taught-course and 70 research students. There are approximately equal numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students on a total of three undergraduate and eight postgraduate programmes, several of which are delivered in collaboration with other parts of the University of Sheffield (specifically the Department of Computer Science, the Management School, the School for Health and Related Research, and the School of Languages and Cultures). The most recent change of name, to the Information School, coincided with Sheffield becoming the first UK iSchool in 2010. The iSchool organization was founded in 2005 by a group of information schools, at that time all in the USA, that shared an interest in the relationships between information, people and technology, and that were dedicated to the advancement of the field. The iSchools have drawn on both new and established academic programmes in information technology, library science, informatics and information science, and there are now (mid-2012) 38 iSchools, covering not just North America but also Australia, Asia and Europe. There are no formal criteria attached to being an iSchool, but they are all characterized by a strong commitment to the information field in general and to research in information in particular, as demonstrated by substantial research-funding and research-training programmes [1, 2]. These iSchool characteristics certainly apply to Sheffield, where research has always played a key role in the School’s activities. A 1964 article by Saunders detailed his vision for the School [3]. While some of Saunders’s comments are now of historical interest only (most obviously those relating to the ready availability of research funding and to favourable staff–student ratios), those relating to research have proved to be of great importance to the School. He recognized the need for the new School to develop a range of research activities, a novel idea at a time when there was little academic research in the UK in library and information science (LIS). Within a few years, the School had a well-established research portfolio covering work in information retrieval, library management, and information-seeking behaviour, as summarized in a subsequent article by Saunders that was published to celebrate the School’s twenty-fifth anniversary [4]. This strong research focus was further strengthened by Tom Wilson, who became the School’s next head of department in 1982 and who held the position with great distinction until 1997. In addition to his international reputation for work on information-seeking behaviour, he pioneered our teaching and research in information management and was the cofounder of what is now the International Journal of Information Management. The School’s current research portfolio is