Information and Archive Management
Acquire the formal training and technological skills demanded by the international information economy.
- Design and implement information-based systems that advance the core mission of a commercial enterprise, nonprofit organization, or governmental agency.
- Conduct problem-based research using business and government databases and documents.
- Develop a capacity to think carefully about the legal, social, and policy questions raised by the handling and use of information.
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About the Program
Today, business, government, and nonprofit organizations face the enormous challenge of how to make more effective use of the information they create, gather, organize, and maintain. Information professionals are key decision makers who work with the principal business, program, and policy professionals in organizations as well as with IT experts. Anyone who works in an office has to be an information professional. Understanding how information systems work-—how information is categorized, stored, and retrieved-—is essential.
To advance the core mission of any organization, information managers must have an increasingly complex understanding of the information over which they preside. They must be able to create and manage an information archive, analyze a data set and the needs of its users, and evaluate database design. They need to have a practical understanding of the laws governing the use of information, and they must consider the social and policy questions that involve the lawful handling and use of information. They need to master the wide range of government and business information resources produced by city, state, and national governments, as well as by international governmental organizations and by commercial vendors. They must be able to work with an organization’s IT department to design and implement systems to house and retrieve information, and they must be able to work with commercial vendors to design information products that serve an organization’s specific needs.
Many individuals performing these functions today find that while their responsibilities are great, they do not have the systematic, formal training and up-to-date technological skills they need.
Columbia’s master's degree in Information and Archive Management trains students in the practical, real-world demands of solving complex problems in organizing information. This is a part-time program with courses offered during the evening to accommodate the schedules of working professionals.
Program Objectives
Columbia’s Information and Archive Management master's degree program is designed to teach the systematic and technical skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities demanded by business, government, and nonprofit organizations in what is now appropriately termed the "international information economy."
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I have attended the informational session for this degree program which was held at the School of Continuing Education. It is a three year program, all of the courses to be held in the evening and a B average must be maintained throughout. In addition, each course has a practical, applied component in which each student designs and works on an individual project that grows out of the course readings and lectures and that, when possible and appropriate, can also be related to the student’s own workplace.
Although I, myself, am not interested in obtaining the MA credentials, if some others are interested I don't mind working with them as part of my daily responsibilities. I can assist them with whatever workplace project they chose, (as time permits, of course, from my regular responsibilities) since I have had some records management experience in the past.
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