Information & Library Studies

Digital innovation and developments have changed the way people and organisations interact, bringing both opportunities and challenges for libraries, information services, museums and archive repositories.

Library and information professionals are now in high demand as employers need to manage their most valuable assets in our global ‘information economy’.

Our courses are designed to educate you in the skills required for collecting, curating and managing information, heritage resources, archives and records in both digital and physical formats to ensure the preservation of our cultural heritage and knowledge into the 21st century and beyond.

Aberystwyth is an historically ‘information rich’ town.
Top 10 in the UK for Student Experience and Teaching Quality for the subject of Librarianship and Information Management (Good University Guide, The Times and Sunday Times 2021)
Situated next to the University campus is the National Library of Wales, one of the UK’s five copyright libraries, which houses more than 6,000,000 volumes.

Why study Information & Library Studies at Aberystwyth University?

Established in 1964, the Department of Information Studies has a long-established international reputation as a provider of high quality, professionally-orientated and student-centred courses.
Aberystwyth is an historically ‘information rich’ town that includes the National Library of Wales (one of only five copyright libraries in the UK, and home to the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales); the Welsh Books Council; the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments; county museums and archives collections.
Staff expertise is complemented through close professional links both locally and nationally. Contributions to teaching, practical work and research projects are made by the National Library of Wales, local record offices, the University’s library services, and national memory organisations such as the British Library, as well as fellow members of the Digital Preservation Coalition.

Employability

Career opportunities exist within the traditional library and information service sectors, within cultural and heritage organisations, the media, publishing and journalism. Graduates also go on to work as Information Officers and Managers or Information Analysts.

Research

The Department has research interests across the subject areas of information studies, archives and records management. Here are some of the main themes:

information society including digital inclusion and social inclusion, information disclosure, privacy and employer surveillance of social networking sites
archives and records management including digital curation, estate records, cultural memory and identity
information behaviour including the impact of information behaviour on information failure, everyday life information seeking, cross language information seeking and serendipity
knowledge organisation and information retrieval, including data modelling for analysis, discovery and retrieval, classification and indexing, ontologies and taxonomies, tagging, image retrieval and intertextuality
academic communication including changing styles of academic communication in relation to the developments in communication technology and journal impact factors
knowledge management, including inter-organisational knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity.

Study or Work Abroad

Aberystwyth University offers every student the opportunity to study, volunteer or work in another country either for an academic year, a single semester, or a few weeks during your holidays.

Find more information on our Global Opportunities webpages.

Studying through the medium of Welsh

Aberystwyth University prides itself on being a bilingual University. As a leading Welsh university, we are proud to offer dedicated support services and Halls of Residence for Welsh-speaking students, encouraging the sense of community and the feeling of a home away from home. Qualifying students will automatically receive the University's Welsh-medium scholarships and can also apply for Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol scholarships. Find out more about our Welsh Medium Scholarships here.