Cornell Information Science

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The Information Science Major
College of Arts and Sciences

Information Science (IS) is an interdisciplinary field that studies the design and use of information systems in a social context. The field studies the creation, representation, organization, application, and analysis of information in digital form. The focus of Information Science is on systems and their use, rather than on the computing and communication technologies that underlie and sustain them. Moreover, Information Science examines the social, cultural, economic, historical, legal, and political contexts in which information systems are employed, both to inform the design of such systems and to understand their impact on individuals, social groups, and institutions.

The Information Science major organizes its courses into three area-based tracks:

Human-centered Systems- This area examines the relationship between humans and information, drawing from human-computer interaction and cognitive science.

Information Systems- This area examines the computer science problems of representing, organizing, storing, manipulating, and accessing digital information.

Social Systems- This area studies the cultural, economic, historical, legal, political, and social contexts in which digital information is a major factor.

Students must complete a set of eleven core courses: one introductory course, four courses in math and statistics, and two courses from each of the three IS areas. Students must also obtain depth in two tracks --- a primary and a secondary track --- that together best represent their interests. In particular, completion of the major requires four advanced courses from the selected primary track and three advanced courses from the secondary track.