The School fosters faculty and student research. Faculty regularly seeks grants for research, and the School utilizes its own funds to support research projects. Research productivity is a major factor in faculty evaluation, merit salary determinations and in promotion of faculty. FSU, because of its location in the state capital, has a major public service mission, as does the School. Service activities are regularly undertaken on behalf of the state and local agencies.
Faculty members are highly active in state, regional, and national professional associations.
The goals are reflected in the statements of objectives for the School's degree programs, and are found in the descriptive material for each program. The field represented by Information Studies contains some of the most diverse, fascinating, and expanding professional opportunities available today. Positions in this field range from those involved in the design, building, and use of on-line information bases in a wide variety of disciplines to those involved in academic, public, school, special libraries, and information centers. The tasks of fitting information systems to human needs rather than requiring human needs to fit an information system is the critical function of the information professional. This field offers diversity, opportunity based on growth and expansion, important and fascinating work, and an opportunity to work with emerging technology from a humanistic perspective.