Impress Your Professor: Information Architecture

So in the spring semester I did a report for 551 about Information Architecture. It sounds easy right? So I spent about 15 minutes fumbling in front of a class talking about the metaphor of Architecture and how it applies to Information. How we "build" and "structure" information to make it easily acceptable. Needless to say, this was not the most articulate or accurate report ever given in 551.

But Information Architecture is very important to the development of our profession. According to KM Column, "Information architecture is the term used to describe the structure of a system, i.e the way information is grouped, the navigation methods and terminology used within the system." Obviously, because this describes ways to structure information, there is on going research into improvements in IA. In the current issue of the ASIS&T Bulletin there is an article about the future of research into Information architecture.

In this article the author identifies several questions for the future of IA Research.

• What should information architecture research be doing?
• What should the research track be encouraging?
• What should we be asking for in our call for papers?
  

This might be one of the more interesting ideas, for me, as a student. It is our profession that will be directing the future of research. So start thinking!

Also in this issue there is another article about serving communities and how Information Architecture effects the creation of an information commons in the library environment.

These articles are a nice way to begin thinking about Information Architecture and its applications. So I encourage you to take a look!!