Morville & Rosenfeld's "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web" positioned IA as an approach to web/interface design that is deeply embedded in, and strongly informed by, the LIS discipline. To re-consider of the impact of the LIS discipline on the IA profession, this presentation (and a subsequent paper) reports the preliminary results of an analysis of syllabi of information architecture courses offered by graduate schools of Library and Information Science in the United States and Canada. Presented for the Teaching IA workshop at the 2014 IA Summit in San Diego, CA.

1. What Can IA Learn from
Library and Information
Science (LIS)?
Perspectives from LIS Education
Craig M. MacDonald, Ph.D.
Pratt Institute
School of Information and Library Science
Academic and Practitioners Roundtable | IA Summit 2014

2. Why LIS?
As self-identified librarians,
Morville & Rosenfeld
promoted an LIS-based view
of IA that emphasized:
• Information seeking and
information behaviors
• Information classification
and categorization
• Information retrieval
(search)
• Thesauri, controlled
vocabularies, and
metadata
2

3. Some more questions
Q: Is LIS still relevant to IA?
A: Yes.
• A large part of IA is still about controlled vocabularies,
taxonomies/ontologies, information classification,
information seeking behaviors, etc1.
Q: Are other disciplines important to IA?
A: Yes.
• Architecture, cognitive psychology, human-computer
interaction, art, design, anthropology, etc., also inform
IA practice at various levels.
31 Source: Abby Covert.

4. But really: why LIS?
Morville & Rosenfeld established a
permanent link between LIS and IA.
From 2001-2002, Andrew Dillon published a
series of articles arguing for the need to
develop a theoretical framework for IA.
He argued that IA should be a “meta-discipline”
and should emphasize collaboration and
interdisciplinarity.
4

5. Snapshot of IA education in 2002
Zhang (2002): analyzed IA curricula in LIS
programs and determined that a lack of
coordination led to instability and
inconsistency in what was taught in IA
classes.
Robins (2002): surveyed IA courses in LIS
curriculum and found that skills are being
taught without a common vocabulary and
without a coherent conceptual
framework.
5

6. More interdisciplinarity in LIS
Chu (2006): discovered an increase in new, web-oriented
courses and new types of course clusters outside of
traditional LIS topics.
Zhang and Benjamin (2007): built a conceptual framework
for LIS, Information Science, MIS, and HCI to help unite
the information-related fields.
Yang (2008): found a significant growth in collaboration
in LIS publications, with authors coming from many
disciplines outside of LIS.
Wise et al (2011): job listings show an increasing emphasis
on a broader base of knowledge rather than high-
specificity.
6

7. What happened (visually)
7
Library &
Information
Science
Information
Architecture

8. What happened (visually)
8
Library &
Information
Science
Information
Architecture
HCI
Design
Computer
Science
Big Data &
Analytics

9. Current state of LIS-IA education
Analysis of syllabi from IA courses offered by
North American LIS programs.
The goals of this analysis are:
1. To define the perspective that LIS brings to IA,
2. To discover how IA is taught within the LIS
discipline, and
3. To develop a common set of topics, principles,
and/or guidelines to be used by LIS programs
offering courses in IA.
9

10. Summary Statistics
58 MSLIS programs accredited by the
American Library Association.
19 (33%) offer a course in Information Architecture
10
iSchools Library Schools
Drexel University
Indiana University
University of
Michigan
University of Pittsburgh
University of Toronto
University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
University of Alberta
Catholic University
Dominican University
Pratt Institute
University of Rhode
Island
Simmons College
University of South
Florida
Southern Connecticut
State University
St. John’s University
Valdosta State
University
Wayne State
University
University of Western
Ontario
University of
Wisconsin-Madison

11. Course Titles & Syllabi
Information Architecture
(10)
Information Architecture
and Web Design (5)
(with some slight variations)
Others (4):
Information Architecture &
Interaction Design
Information Architecture &
Knowledge Org.
Advanced Web Design
Web Design for Libraries
and Information Centers
11
Syllabi were located
for 14 of the 19
courses (74%).
Semester Breakdown:
1 Fall 2010
1 Spring 2011
1 Fall 2011
3 Winter/Spring 2012
1 Winter/Spring 2013
3 Winter/Spring 2014
4 no semester (ECD)

12. Course Topics
Topic Courses Pct. (N=14)
Navigation, organization, and labeling 11 57.9%
Usability/user testing 10 52.6%
IA history/fundamentals 10 52.6%
Programming, web development, and CMS 9 47.4%
Deliverables (wireframes, prototypes, personas, etc.) 7 36.8%
Search systems 7 36.8%
Process (e.g., strategy) 7 36.8%
User needs and information seeking 6 31.6%
Graphic/visual design 5 26.3%
Information organization and metadata 4 21.1%
Accessibility and web standards 3 15.8%
Mobile 3 15.8%
Writing web content 3 15.8%
Social media 2 10.5%
Other: copyright, analytics, branding 1 each 5.3%
12

13. 2-12 topics per course; 6.4 avg
Topic Courses Pct. (N=14)
Navigation, organization, and labeling 11 57.9%
Usability/user testing 10 52.6%
IA history/fundamentals 10 52.6%
Programming, web development, and CMS 9 47.4%
Deliverables (wireframes, prototypes, personas, etc.) 7 36.8%
Search systems 7 36.8%
Process (e.g., strategy) 7 36.8%
User needs and information seeking 6 31.6%
Graphic/visual design 5 26.3%
Information organization and metadata 4 21.1%
Accessibility and web standards 3 15.8%
Mobile 3 15.8%
Writing web content 3 15.8%
Social media 2 10.5%
Other: copyright, analytics, branding 1 each 5.3%
13

14. Program x Topic Matrix
Alb Cat Do DU IU UM Pra RI Sim SCT St J Val WS WO
IA Hist/Fund x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Nav/Org/Lab x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Usability x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Info Org/Meta x
x
x
x
User needs x
x
x
x
x
x
Search x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Graphic Des x
x
x
x
x
Programming x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Deliverables x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Mobile x
x
x
Accessibility x
x
x
Process x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Writing x
x
x
Social Media x
x
Copyright x
Analytics x
Branding x
14

15. Required Readings
15
Material Courses Pct*
Information Architecture for the WWW (Morville & Rosenfeld) 4 40%
Don’t Make Me Think (Krug) 3 30%
The Elements of User Experience (Garrett) 2 20%
Using Wordpress as a Library CMS (Jones & Farrington) 2 20%
HTML, XHTML, and CSS Visual Quickstart (Castro) 2 20%
Web Styles Guide (Lynch) 2 20%
Others (59 distinct texts) 1 each -
*Required texts could only be identified for 10 of the 14 courses.
0
1
2
3
4
5

16. More about Required Readings
16
Type Count Pct. (N=65)
Books or book chapters 27 42%
Journal/magazine articles 25 38%
Websites 13 20%
Required Readings Number of Courses Pct. of Courses
14+ 3 30%
7-10 2 20%
1-4 4 40%
0 1 10%

17. So, what can IA learn from LIS?
Unfortunately, these things are still true 12
years later:
A lack of coordination leads to instability and
inconsistency in what is taught in IA classes
(Zhang, 2002)
Skills are being taught without a common
vocabulary and without a coherent
conceptual framework (Robins, 2002)
17

18. Maybe this was the wrong question…
Q0: What can IA learn from LIS?
QA: What can IA educators learn from how
IA is taught in LIS?
A:
Better coordination between educators can lead
to more consistency in what’s taught in IA
courses
Better marketing/branding of IA can prevent
people from conflating IA with web design and
other topics
18

19. Still missing a conceptual framework
Dillon, 2002:
“IA, as a meta-discipline, should engage and
share, not partition.”
Me, 2014:
IA, as a regular discipline, should narrow its
focus to what IA’s do best.
19

20. I is for Information
The field was called information architecture
(kind of) by accident.
But, the term has stuck around because
providing structure (and meaning) to
information is incredibly valuable but still
very difficult to do.
In my view, this is what IA’s do best.
20

21. Toward a conceptual framework
Some questions to consider:
1. What LIS concepts, theories, or models
are most salient to IA?
2. What are the foundational competencies
of an IA?
3. What role can the IA Institute play in
shaping IA curricula?
4. How can IA curricula be customized to fit
different audiences (e.g., LIS, design, CS)?
21

22. Toward a conceptual framework
Some questions to consider:
1. What LIS concepts, theories, or models
are most salient to IA?
2. What are the foundational competencies
of an IA?
3. What role can the IA Institute play in
shaping IA curricula?
4. How can IA curricula be customized to fit
different audiences (e.g., LIS, design, CS)?
22

23. Thank you
Craig M. MacDonald, Ph.D.
cmacdona@pratt.edu
@CraigMMacDonald
23
*Special thanks to my graduate assistants, Seth Persons and Samantha
Raddatz, for their help with data collection and analysis.