Information Science is the study of information and how it is used by people within organisations.

Information Science is important because information plays a vital role in just about everything we do in modern society. Accordingly, information systems are vital to the operation of modern organisations and information scientists are involved in almost every field of endeavour imaginable.   People with information science skills are in high demand, and there are many and varied career opportunities in fields such as business, science, education, health, music and mass media.  

Information Science sits at the intersection of technology, people, and organisations. It is a distinct discipline and has a focus on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) used by people to manage information within organisations.

The study of information usage covers activities such as information collection, processing, storage and retrieval, presentation, and communication of information. It also encompasses study of the organisational contexts in which information is used, and of information systems that support information usage.

Information Science is a field that is changing rapidly. Some of these changes are driven by technology. For example, the rapid adoption of mobile devices over the past few years has created opportunities for new applications and business models. Still other changes are driven by organisational or business needs. For example, in a connected world, businesses increasingly need to manage their supply chains as large-scale coordinated networks. There is also greater demand for more "intelligent" information systems.

The Department of Information Science at Otago focuses on the following areas:

  • Artificial Intelligence applications, including computational modelling, evolutionary computing, machine learning and data mining
  • Databases, including geographic and spatial information systems
  • Distributed information systems, including multi-agent systems, and wireless and mobile applications
  • Health informatics
  • Human-computer interfaces, including multimedia systems and augmented reality
  • Information assurance and security
  • Information systems development and management
  • Social networking and organisational computing, including decision support systems
  • Software engineering and application software development.