About Us
The Department of Information and Communications has roots going back over 50 years and has a world-wide reputation for excellence. It is situated on the Central All Saints campus of the University, close to the City centre.
The campus has indoor sports and recreation facilities (including The Manchester Aquatics centre Swimming Pool for the 2000 Commonwealth games) and is the site of the main University Library, Student Services and the Students' Union Building.
The Department is part of the Faculty of Humanities, Law and Social Science and is based in the recently built Geoffrey Manton building which houses the latest teaching and IT facilities. In addition to excellent general facilities such as the Faculty Drop-in Centre, the Department has its own Multi-Media Resource Laboratory (MRL), managed by our Information Officer. The MRL provides printed class materials, including business directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias and a large collection of children's literature.
It is superbly equipped with two dedicated IT Labs (40 Pentium Pc's) with facilities for multimedia, scanning, e-mail and full internet access. The standard networked 'Office' application is Microsoft Office. Besides the book stock, the MRL holds a large collection of Video and CD-Rom titles for class and personal use. There is also accommodation available for private study.
The Department is building up a strong research base, and has developing research foci in such areas as access to electronic information, information management, decision-making, user studies, adult education and the evaluation of broader social and economic effects of information systems. The Department's research staff comprises a multidisciplinary team with a range of skills needed to address complex issues in the emerging "Information Society". As well as information management and librarianship expertise, this includes labour market and information economics, information and communications technology, adult education, project management and technology assessment. The Department also carries out consultancy activities in all its areas of expertise. In addition to staff research and consultancy activities, the Department is home to a lively community of MA/MSc and research students with a wide range of research interests.
History
A History of the Department by Peter Stephen