1) isn't this whole name change thing taking up time and money (meetings, new letterhead, signage, etc) that could be better spent on just improving the school in general, including the library curriculum? i mean, really, all this effort just to remove the word "library" from your name? …and

2) how did they think that going to all that trouble to remove library from the name was not going to insult all of us libeerians? it's like they're distancing themselves from one of their largest constituencies (largest if you're talking about the grad school.) no matter what their reasoning is, that's going to be hurtful, and going to alienate us.

what i really wish is that instead of trying to distance ourselves from the word "librarian", we would redefine it as the tech-savvy, tech-centered, information-aggregating career it should and could be. we don't need to turn ourselves into "information professionals", we need to bring the field of librarianship into the future (and the now…) i know that's a bit off-topic, but i feel like we don't need to scrap the title, it's not completely a lost cause, we can still redeem ourselves! (maybe all we need is a good PR campaign?)

It is also not clear to me what a master's degree in library studies would resemble without an information science component. Reference desk pointers? Cataloging rules? Collection development practices? Forgive me for going there, but I'm thinking if that's what library studies sans infosci resembles, perhaps it ought to be a one-semester workshop rather than a bona fide graduate program?

I support the iSchool initiative. Period. Library folks would do well to learn more about information science and incorporate it into their trade. SCILS has just handled the transition in what seems to be a very clumsy way given the reaction.

@Trevor But of course. ;)

I'm not sure why I didn't think of that name. I think SCHOOL (and it should probably be all caps) would be the best name. May I forward your suggestion to the dean?

I think the curriculums of many of these 'information schools' are just about right, actually. And I think it's a shame that their not proud to be associated with libraries.

And it's a shame that the library sector is not associated with sophisticated innovation in information organization and retrieval, along with public service, and stewardship of recorded knowledge–and an even bigger shame that the more negative perception of the library sector is not entirely undeserved.

I wish 'our' academy was helping us rather than abandoning us though.