The School of Information Management (SOIM) at Central China Normal University (CCNU) is developed from the Library Science of Boone Memorial School, which was established in 1920. In 1983, the school carried out its first non-normal specialty, Library and Information Science, and resumed establishing the Department of Library and Information Science. In 2012, the specialty was officially renamed School of Information Management.
Academics
To May 2019, the SOIM has 3 specialties for ordinary full-time undergraduates, 5 Master's degree authorizations and 3 doctoral authorizations, with the total number of existing undergraduates, Master's degree candidates, Doctoral candidates and foreign students being more than 800. Faculties in the SOIM (16 professors, 17 associate professors, 14 doctoral supervisors and 38 master mentors) have rich teaching experiences and outstanding academic achievements. They are hosting or participating in advanced research projects granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Social Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education, and local government agencies. And more than 500 articles have been published in CSSCI and SSCI.
The SOIM has also achieved remarkable results in discipline and specialty construction. Information Science is a key discipline in Hubei Province. Besides, E-Commerce is a brand specialty in Hubei province and one of the National E-commerce model specialties. In the 2012 results of the discipline evaluation announced by the Ministry of Education, the first-class discipline Library Information Science and Archives Management under Information Resource Management ranked fifth nationwide. Moreover, Information Management & Information System was named A+ specialty. As for the course construction, we have 1 national top-quality curriculum project (E-commerce management), 1 national model course of bilingual demonstration (An Overview of E-commerce), and 1 national top-quality course of network education.
Resources
Currently there are 2 provincial research centers and bases, 5 university research centers, and 4 affiliated training centers. In addition, the professional documentation centers and libraries provide a great variety of books and periodicals, together with the well-equipped teaching experimental centers.
The SOIM has actively promoted the internationalization process and has conducted extensive academic exchanges and cooperation with international academic organizations (the United States, Finland, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia, Canada, etc.) and scientific research institutions (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and iSchool. We carried out “2+2” double bachelor program and “1+1+1” double master program with some well-known universities in Finland and America. Undergraduates, masters and PhD students who meet the graduation requirements can obtain both Chinese and foreign academic qualifications and degree certificates.
After 30 years’ advancement, we gradually established educational ideas and developing direction of “seeking development through innovation, displaying strengths by originality”, aiming at constructing a training mode characterized by “an intersection of liberal arts and science, an integration of disciplines, an interpenetration of theory and applied technologies”, placing an emphasis on the student cultivation of practical manipulation, international communication and academic research ability to advance students’ core competence.
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