Collection Development Statement
Information Sciences & Technology
Principal Selector
Daniel Hickey
Business & Information Sciences Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Secondary Selectors
Tom Conkling
Head, Engineering Library
325 Hammond Building
Diane Zabel
Benzak Business Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Fund
IST
General Statement
Information Sciences and Technology was first established as a School in 1999 at the behest of President Spanier. In January 2006 it was instated as the most recent of Penn State’s Colleges. The college currently offers two BSs:
“The Information Sciences and Technology (IST) major cultivates students with business and technical skills to prepare them for work in several sectors, or to serve as a bridge between them. The IST curriculum focuses on engaged learning; students hone their communication and people skills through group projects and presentations.”
“The Security and Risk Analysis (SRA) major helps put students on the front line in confronting threats to national security, responding to emergencies, protecting vital information, and helping to create laws and policies that ensure personal privacy. The major prepares students to be problem solvers with the broad skills and experience necessary to meet challenges in a dynamic and technology-driven environment.”
IST graduates are professionals who bridge the gap between the users and creators of technology. They often serve in a consulting role and must have skill sets tailored to the specific needs of their institution. IST graduates assist individuals, companies, and government agencies in creating, selecting, implementing, maintaining, and assessing technologies. They have been trained to think critically, problem solve and troubleshoot, pay strict attention to technical details and standards, and to work both independently and in teams.
Students who major in IST or SRA prepare for careers in public, corporate, government, or high-tech non-profit institutions. Most students plan to enter the workforce rather than attend graduate school. The College of IST has a 95% placement rate for graduating seniors and an average starting salary of $55,000.
Program Information
Collections in this area support IST degree programs in the College of IST at University Park, 19 of the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses, and the World Campus.
The Baccalaureate degrees in IST prepare students for competitive IT-related jobs in a variety of spheres—predominantly industry and government. Students who strive for academic excellence and leadership opportunities participate in the Schreyer Honors College, which provides opportunities for special study and research. The College also offers Master and Doctoral degrees to students seeking graduate-level experience.
The College of IST is developing several new degree programs, including a BA, a joint degree with the Smeal College of Business, and an online Masters of Professional Studies (MPS). Planning and development of these degree programs is currently in a formative stage. IST also plans to rework their BS degrees in IST and SRA, making technical requirements more stringent.
Collections also support several research centers and labs: The Center for Human-Computer Interaction, Center for Cyber-Security, Information Privacy, and Trust (The LIONS Center), Enterprise Informatics and Integration Center, Network-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion Center, Applied Cognitive Science Laboratory, Cyber Security Laboratory, Intelligence Information Systems Laboratory, Laboratory for Computer-Supported Collaboration and Learning, Laboratory for Intelligent Agents, Spatial Information Laboratory, and the User Science and Engineering (USE) Laboratory.
The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked the College of IST as the 7th in their list of “Top Research Universities Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index of Information Science/Studies” in 2007. The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities has also ranked them 14th out of 4,000 universities. Penn State has received the following relevant designations from the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security: National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (2008-2013) and National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (since 2003).
IST has 49 full-time faculty members , more than 30 of which are located at University Park . Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the College, there are also many affiliated and adjunct faculty members. IST has 96 graduate students.
Areas of Focus/Strengths
The collections focus on design and development of information systems, integration and application of information technology, information context, information policy, information visualization, information and image fusion, relational network sciences and complexity, technology for social inclusion, web science, intelligence analysis and modeling, artificial intelligence and cognitive science, global prescience, human-computer interaction, cyber-security, privacy and trust, cyber infrastructure, psychology of terrorism, risk analysis, extreme events system science, security informatics, computational informatics, social and community informatics, enterprise integration and informatics, and health and bio informatics.
Description of Materials Covered
IST collections consist of resources that support advanced research in the areas outlined above, including monographs, serials, and multimedia formats. Because IST funds have historically been a supplement to Engineering, no part of the IST collection funds have been dedicated to electronic databases.
Overlap with Other Collections
Information science and technology is a highly interdisciplinary area of study and research, and as such utilizes materials from a wide variety of disciplines. Major areas of material overlap include the following subject areas: engineering, computer science, and business. Other areas include: economics and political science, foreign languages and cultures, geography, microbiology, psychology, sociology, statistics, mathematics, and government documents.
The selector works closely in collaboration with others that collect in these subject areas to accomplish collection-level objectives.
Subject & Language Modifiers
IST collections focus primarily on English-language materials published in the United States, although it is common for faculty to request foreign language and international materials for research purposes. Due to the speed at which technology advances, it is highly important that students, instructors, and researchers have access to highly current information.
Exclusions
IST collectors do not systematically acquire IST course textbooks or exam preparation materials. Such materials are acquired only on an infrequent basis.
Future Directions
Currently, IST is reviewing the entirety of its curriculum with an eye to transforming the academic experience at the College. To this end they have decided to restructure their degree programs.
For undergraduates, the Faculty Senate has recently approved a new BA program that will result in the creation of many new courses and partnerships with other colleges and schools. In addition, the BS degrees will be retooled in an effort to prepare graduating seniors for placement in competitive IT-related positions in industry, government, and the non-profit sectors. The College of IST also plans to offer a joint degree with the Smeal College of Business. For graduate students, a new, online Masters of Professional Studies degree is in development. The MPS degree will fill a need articulated by non-traditional and World Campus students.
When IST became a College it experienced exponential growth during a time when there was not a primary selector to advocate for the collections. The curriculum has evolved significantly since the IST collections budget was first established, and will continue to evolve in the coming years. During the 2009-2010 fiscal year it is advisable that the University Libraries redirect funds into the IST collections budget to address the anticipated increase in enrollment at the College due to the new degree programs, the growth of faculty and sponsored research, and the disparity between the College’s advances in status and reputation and its historical University Libraries collections budget. The primary selector will work closely with other selectors and the Collection Development Council to ensure adequate resources are available to address past and current changes within the College, in addition to its evolving needs.
May 2009
