Information economics looks specifically at the financial aspects of information management, including financial tools for use in system evaluation. The programme also touches on various basic concepts and principles of marketing, including marketing strategy and market information. The methodology course continues during Part 2 with a review of methods and techniques for in-depth statistical analysis, and students learn about analysis of variance, statistical quality control and decision theory. Part 3 of the programme focuses on applied information science, looking at the analysis and design of information systems, indexing languages and the design of user interfaces. Its practical elements bring together the theoretical knowledge gained from the previous two semesters.
Emphasis is given to the design of information systems from the perspective of finance and service.
Various methods for the analysis and design of information systems are examined theoretically and through practical examples, as well as in terms of different user groups. The curriculum also covers issues more closely related to LIS in areas such as descriptive data, format design, indexing and representation - all areas of vital importance for information retrieval from large volumes of data. The user perspective is crucial to the design of user interfaces - how users encounter a system. Here students explore the categorisation of users, their needs and their search behaviour, and work with methods for the evaluation of systems. The needs of different user groups in terms of documentation and training are also examined.