During the Spring 1999 term, the faculty contributed to a new statement of identity and mission. Drafts were presented in May of 1999; the following version was adopted at its meeting of September 22, 1999.

The Faculty and its Mission

We are here to conduct inquiry devoted to information generation and use; to prepare reflective, adaptive information professionals for actin in the present and the future, and to transfer to them an uncompromising advocacy for knowledge.

We are, foremost, colleagues with multiple perspectives on information. We are behavioral and social scientists, archivists, librarians, consultants, information scientists, computer scientists, educators, counselors, bibliographers, scholars and researchers. Through these identities, we share a common mission, working to understand all aspects of information and librarianship. We study the values of information in human life, how people construct information as they learn and work, and how the creation, management, and use of information empowers individuals in organizations, communities and societies.

As information technology transforms us, we explore and shape its effects on individuals, organizations and cultures, guided by questions about the future of knowledge, the direction of practice, and the value of change. We educate professionals and researchers to learn, teach, and inquire using both traditional professional knowledge and innovative tools. We expect our students and ourselves to design and improve systems that deliver information to diverse users, to evolve with technology, and, in an era of change, to understand the relationships between human beings and knowledge.

As a faculty, our primary task is to help shape the expanding domain of information. In research, each of us works to discover new knowledge about information creation, dissemination, seeking, retrieval, and use, and to share that knowledge with our students and others. As educators, we are engaged by the challenges of integrating issues of theory and practice; assuring that themes of society, technology, and law are brought into the classroom; and assisting students to evaluate their experiences critically as they interact with information and other people.

We are constantly engaged in building and maintaining bridges of communication with our students, each other, and our colleagues in other disciplines, here and abroad. Among the expanding information professions, we strive to promote a collective conversation for mutual learning, toward understanding the scope of our discipline and its applications in practice. We nurture a curriculum that promotes the traditional values of service and scholarship while interpreting those values in the face of social, cultural, and technological transformations. As leaders in research and the applications of technology, we define and redefine these changes without sacrificing our rich continuities with the past.

At its COA faculty review meeting of May 12, 1999, colleagues considered the aspects of our program that they feel differentiate North Carolina from other schools of information and library science. A consensus suggests that these three themes - integration, depth, and quality -- are pervasive in our work and are formative to our integrity as a program; they will reappear in other parts of this document.

Integration. We strive to assure a comprehensive view of the information and library field, no matter which areas of specialization a student may select. Our curricula depend on faculty interactions and collaborative processes. The mission and public responsibilities of the school are aligned with, and responsive to, those of the University. We are integrated with the institutions, agencies, and corporations of the region through partnerships, internships, and mutual consultation.

Depth. Our programs are extensive in time and rich in diversity. They allow a fabric of course offerings, specialization for students in the second year of study, extended relationships between students and mentors, and opportunities for faculty to teach advanced courses integrating research and teaching interests. The required master's paper and qualifying examination, and abundant internship opportunities, assure the integration of scholarship and practice. Most students attend full time; consequently, the perspective of a community -- including student participation in professional associations and school governance - evolves as a natural outcome of this immersion.

Quality. The themes of depth and integrity are indicators of our abiding commitment to quality in all aspects of what we do and strive for. We value teaching as highly as we do scholarship; we regularly discuss classroom practice and research work with equal engagement. Regular, adjunct and clinical faculty members are under regular review. Faculty members are physically present for their students and typically engaged in critical interactions as they design their experiences. We emphasize excellence as we advise and counsel our students -- from the point of first contact through (and sometimes beyond) their first professional position.

We believe that, through integration and immersion, the experience of professional studies in information and library science at North Carolina is coherent and continuous with the best qualities we know as professionals in higher education. We are sensitive to meeting the expectations of the University and the community, but we are also mindful of the need to evolve and transform, and to reflect on our choices and directions as we change.

"A school's mission and program goals are pursued, and its program objectives achieved, through implementation of a broad-based planning process that involves the constituency that a program seeks to serve."	All members of the School community are involved in the planning processes of the school. Formal planning is conducted through the various standing and ad hoc committees composed of faculty, staff and student members. Adjuncts are invited to the monthly open faculty meetings (although they rarely attend) where students and staff are also represented. The Delphi study in the fall 1998 is another formal example of the faculty's collaborative planning as is the annual Faculty Planning Day. The faculty listserv in the school is used for less formal discussions, as are monthly brown bag sessions on topics of research interests and monthly seminars on teaching for doctoral students and faculty. Students are involved in the planning process through their voting membership on all standing committees of the School. Faculty liaisons to the five student associations regularly seek input from students on issues relevant to the group's interests. Staff members as well serve on committees in either voting or ex officio capacity. The Dean's regular staff meetings provide another formal avenue for staff involvement in planning. The Dean meets with the Alumni Association leadership on a regular basis. The alumni maintain a strong connection to the School through the alumni listserv, frequent informal vitis and invitations to speak in classes. The School's Newsletter reports plans and solicits input from alumni. The School's web page (http://ils.unc.edu) also provides news and updates for the general public with an opportunity to contact the School. Our Board of Visitors represents the employer community. The Board meets formally two times a year. Informally the Dean consults with individual members on various planning issues, especially those involving resource needs. Regular employer surveys solicit input and suggestions.
"Consistent with the values of the parent institution and the culture and mission of the school, program goals and objectives foster quality education."	The mission of the school is highly consistent with the mission of the university (see http://www.unc.edu/about/mission.html for the University's mission). We believe our program goals and objectives and the way the various constituencies of the school -- faculty, staff, and students -- address them help us maintain a consistently high level of education for our students. It is important to our mission the University of North Carolina is, by its identity, a research university. Examination of our records as individual scholars and educators show that we are "a faculty actively involved in research, scholarship, and creative work, whose teaching is transformed by discovery and whose service is informed by current knowledge." We are further mindful that "The mission of the University is to serve all the people of the State, and indeed the nation, as a center for scholarship and creative endeavor. The University exists to teach students at all levels in an environment of research, free inquiry, and personal responsibility; to expand the body of knowledge; to improve the condition of human life through service and publication; and to enrich our culture." In our work, especially in our interactions with students and colleagues, we believe we live up to these values. As the mission asks of us, we believe that we are strongly engaged in the provision of "high-quality undergraduate instruction," informed by "original inquiry and creative expression." In this pursuit, our commitments to intellectual freedom, personal integrity, and the development of leaders are uncompromising. Our engagement with graduate studies is deep and continuous and through it we live up to the University's mission to "provide graduate and professional programs of national distinction at the doctoral and other advanced levels to future generations of research scholars, educators, professionals, and informed citizens." As a school and as a collection of scholars, we experience and reconfirm this value every day. Finally, we are mindful of the University's advocacy for the extension of "knowledge-based services and other resources of the University to the citizens of North Carolina and their institutions to enhance the quality of life of all people in the State." We strive to conduct this aspect of our work in the most effective way possible. These aspects of the University's mission are clearly embodied in our own strivings as a professional school.
"Program objectives are stated in terms of educational results to be achieved ..."	The seven basic educational objectives listed above are generally stated in terms of the results to be achieved. Among the results we point to are the successful practicing information professionals whose qualifications have led them to employment in excellent settings. We know that each objective is addressed throughout our program by specific coursework and advising across both master's degree programs; by student research such as the required master's paper; by innovative courses developed to serve specific information users; by diverse faculty research interests, mentorships and teaching styles; by internship and field placement opportunities in an array of user communities; and by the supprotive structures of alumni, professional development and continuing education. [A table addressing the relationship between our objectives (referred to by number from the list above) and the accreditation guidelines follows.]