The Department of Information Studies is part of the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Our top-ranked MLIS program is accredited by the American Library Association (ALA) and is one of the most innovative and comprehensive in the country. Our graduates are highly successful and accomplished information professionals who work in a wide variety of institutions after graduation.
Archival Studies
Courses in this area explore the full spectrum of archival materials (e.g., paper and electronic records, manuscripts, still and moving images, oral history), the theory that underlies recordkeeping, archival policy development, and memory-making, and the historical roles that recordkeeping, archives, and documentary evidence play in a pluralized and increasingly global society. In addition to covering traditional archives and manuscripts theory and practice, this area of specialization addresses the dramatic expansion of the archival field. Advanced seminars and an outstanding array of internship opportunities prepare students to play leadership roles in archives and manuscripts administration, records management, archival education and training, preservation, digital curatorship, recordkeeping policy development, archival systems design, electronic records management, and digital asset management.
The Community Archives Lab
The UCLA Community Archives Lab was founded by Professor Michelle Caswell in 2016 to explore the ways that independent, identity-based memory organizations document, shape, and provide access to the histories of minoritized communities, with a particular emphasis on understanding their affective, political, and artistic impact. In 2022, Professors Thuy Vo Dang and Tonia Sutherland joined the Lab as Co-Directors.
Since 2018, the UCLA Community Archives Lab has run a paid community archives internship program for second-year MLIS students with support from the Mellon Foundation. In 2024, we expanded this program through the establishment of Faculty Organizing for Community Archives Support (FOCAS), a collaborative of faculty from nine universities in the U.S. and Canada. With support from the Mellon Foundation, FOCAS transforms archival studies by administering paid internships at community archives, implementing curricular development, providing offsets costs for community archives, and supporting student participation in conferences and professional associations. You can read more about this exciting new work in the SEIS newsroom. FOCAS collectively authored this article.