Information Science University of Porto

Overview

The study plan of the Information Science programme of the University of Porto takes into consideration the competences defined by the "Dublin Descriptors" for the master level and pursues the following goals:

• prepare for employability, ensuring that master graduates (Bologna second cycle) are able to exercise a profession, which core is in general the ability to select, organize, manage, and preserve information which may be used for several purposes, no matter its format or support;

• educate for a professional activity that may take place in all kinds of libraries, archives, documentation or information centres, as well as in the context of many organizations where the professional acts as an information manager, a content manager or an information analyst;

• produce a professional able to apply knowledge, to solve problems in new or unknown environments and in the scope of generic and multidisciplinary contexts, to assess situations, to develop analysis and synthesis studies, to comunicate the conclusions to specialised and generic audiences, to be autonomous and independent in action, and to develop applied research projects in the Information Science area.

Professional Abilities

The competences to be acquired through this 2nd cycle of studies in Information Science are defined as follows:

• Know the nature of information, its various production modes, its lyfe cycle, and the legal and ethic aspects of its access and use, irrespective of its recording media.

• Dominate well the theoretic and methodological principles for planning, organizing and evaluating information systems and services, while being aware of the information policy defined for the context where the activity is being carried.

• Dominate well the principles of selection, acquisition, organization, representation, retrieval, preservation, access, and use of information.

• Dominate the information and communication technologies.

It is thus expected that the Information Science master be able to:

• organize, manage, and evaluate information systems and services;

• design information management processes along its lyfe cycle;

• be proficient in using information technologies;

• soundly apply assessment techniques to information sources and resources;

• conduct audits, perform expert analysis and act as information consultant for the most diverse organizations.