Information Science is the study of the acquisition, structuring, management, retrieval and dissemination of information in a variety of forms and contexts and the distillation of that information into knowledge. In the last decade, information science has had a profound impact upon society, opening to the public broad avenues of access to information previously available only to those with advanced training.

The primary mission of the Information Science subprogram of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Informatics (IGPI) is to:

1. Train information science researchers for academia, industry, and research institutes, and
2. Train individuals aspiring to become leaders and visionary administrators responsible for effectively involving information and computational systems.

The Information Science subprogram represents an inherently multidisciplinary field with a strong computational nature, offering training in the application and development of computational methods addressing a variety of fundamental problems in Information Science. It also provides sufficient flexibility so that students with prior training in related fields (e.g., computer science, library and information science, linguistics, management science) may establish an essential foundation in the key areas. Students with academic backgrounds in other fields can establish a foundation in information science by completing a short sequence of preliminary coursework.