JU Institute of Information Studies
Address: ul. prof. Stanisława Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348 Kraków, Poland
Website: https://isi.uj.edu.pl
Secretary’s office: isi@uj.edu.pl

Katarzyna Tlałka
Director’s Office: human resources, finance, general affairs
Phone: +48 12 664 55 30
E-mail: katarzyna.tlalka@uj.edu.pl
Room 3.208

Ewa Jargus
Student affairs – Information Management
Please book appointments in advance: isi.uj.edu.pl/rezerwacja
Phone: +48 12 664 58 46
E-mail: ewa.jargus@uj.edu.pl
Room 3.204

Elżbieta Tyrowicz
Student affairs – Electronic Information Processing
Please book appointments in advance: isi.uj.edu.pl/rezerwacja-wizyt
Phone: +48 12 664 58 48
E-mail: elzbieta.tyrowicz@uj.edu.pl
Room: 3.204

Director: Dr hab. Magdalena Wójcik, Prof. UJ
E-mail: magda.wojcik@uj.edu.pl

Deputy Director for Teaching: Dr Sabina Cisek
E-mail: sabina.cisek@uj.edu.pl

How to get to the JU Institute of Information Studies:

From Kraków Main Station: tram line 52 (direction: Czerwone Maki), get off at the Norymberska bus stop

From the AGH University in Kraków student housing centre: bus line 194 (direction: Czerwone Maki), get off at the Norymberska bus stop

From the Grunwald Roundabout: tram lines 52, 18 or 11 (direction: Czerwone Maki), get off at the Norymberska bus stop

From Łagiewniki: tram line 23, get off at the Norymberska bus stop

Click to enlarge

The JU Institute of Information Studies was established in 1996 as the Institute of Library and Information Science within the JU Faculty of Management and Social Communication. It was based on a unit that had previously operated within the JU Institute of Polish Studies, first as a department (from 1974) and later as a chair (from 1992). In 2002, it was renamed the Institute of Scientific Information and Library Science. A gradual shift in research and teaching profile led to the adoption of its current name in 2019.

The undergraduate and graduate programmes in Information Management offered by the JU Institute of Information Studies are designed for individuals with broad intellectual horizons. These programmes combine knowledge of the relationship between humans and information with insights from communication and media studies as well as other disciplines. They also focus on developing practical skills and competencies essential for professional information management across various occupational contexts.

Information Management

The Information Management programme at the JU Institute of Information Studies offers the opportunity to acquire reliable practical skills that are in high demand across the job market. These skills provide a strong foundation for developing a professional career in various directions:

• Information management in organisations, including designing, evaluating and maintaining information solutions used in companies and institutions, management of electronic document workflows, creation and administration of digital collections and archives as well as digitisation of information resources and their dissemination in online environments. These competencies prepare graduates for roles such as information management specialists or information managers.
• Information services for business, science, education, administration and everyday needs – preparing students for modern professions such as information broker, researcher, business intelligence analyst or information analyst as well as for work in institutions providing public access to information, including libraries and various information centres.
• Design and evaluation of information products and systems – providing the basic skills necessary for professions such as UX specialist or web designer.
• Information transfer in society – involving the organisation, assessment and direction of information flows between various stakeholder groups in science, technology, economy and culture.

Aside from preparing students for their future careers, the programme also equips them with the tools to conduct independent research: a skill that has long since been proved to be useful outside of academic settings. It enables graduates to thrive professionally, grow and gain a competitive edge in various sectors of the economy. We also put great emphasis on the development of soft skills, which help our graduates adapt effectively and confidently to any professional environment. These include:

• communication skills,
• teamwork,
• creativity,
• responsibility – essential for independent and managerial positions,
• project-based working, planning and time management.

We welcome individuals interested in pursuing information management as their primary field of study, as well as those currently studying or who have completed other programmes and wish to gain additional practical skills, broaden their horizons and obtain a future-oriented education.

We offer access to a highly qualified teaching staff, great opportunities on the job market, well-equipped computer labs, excellent facilities in a modern building and a state-of-the-art library. Students are also able to complete part of their studies abroad through the ERASMUS programme.

At the Jagiellonian University, students can earn a degree from the oldest and one of the most prestigious universities in Poland – a degree recognised worldwide and valued on an increasingly competitive job market; a degree that commands respect.

First-cycle (Bachelor’s) programme – designed for individuals interested in professional research, acquisition, collection, processing, analysis, evaluation and dissemination of information in companies, institutions and communities as well as in the design and evaluation of various information solutions, products and services. Students learn about:

• the fundamentals of information brokering and market intelligence,
• principles of implementing information projects based on UX design,
• the functioning of the human information environment,
• professional information sources,
• popular tools used in professional information management,
• effective methods for searching, processing and organising information resources as well as analysing their use,
• basic principles of information visualisation and architecture,
• how to identify and interpret various human information behaviours.

Students also explore selected aspects of social communication, operation of institutions responsible for public access to information (including libraries and archives), and the role of information in society both in the past and the present. They are introduced to the basics of research theory and methodology.

Second-cycle (Master’s) programme – open to all candidates, regardless of their undergraduate background, who are interested in the scientific study of information phenomena and processes in key professional contexts:

• information services (including information brokering and market intelligence),
• information management in organisations operating in business, science, public communication, culture, education and administration (including the creation and management of digital collections),
• information transfer between different social groups and economic sectors.

The programme also enables students to acquire and broaden their research and professional competencies in areas such as:

• individual and group information management,
• information-based decision support,
• institutional information management,
• information management in the science sector,
• through elective courses: information management in the cultural sector, modern library science, and more.

Students also learn about the legal foundations of information activities, gain insight into the job market for graduates, and have the opportunity to improve their foreign language skills to at least B2+ level.

Electronic Information Processing

The Electronic Information Processing programme at the JU Institute of Information Studies is an interdisciplinary course combining computer science and the humanities. Its aim is to explore natural (human) communication mechanisms and apply this knowledge to the design and implementation of interactive computer systems.

In line with this goal, the programme not only provides theoretical and practical foundations in computer science, but also introduces students to issues related to human communication mechanisms – linguistic, visual and auditory. During the first-cycle (Bachelor’s) programme, students learn the basics of programming and become familiar with operating systems, computer networks, databases and software engineering. They also study the structure of language, text, image and sound within a cultural context, and learn how to use the results of such analyses to create logical and clear information structures and to design functional and aesthetically pleasing user interfaces for web applications.

Upon graduation, students are prepared to:

• design and develop information services using web technologies,
• design and implement ergonomic graphical user interfaces (GUI),
• create graphics and computer animations for web services,
• administer complex web services.

The curriculum includes:

• Computer science subjects: introduction to computer science, programming (C, C++), hypertext documents (PHP), graphical interfaces (Python), databases, operating systems (UNIX), computer networks, computer graphics, computer animation, modelling and design of computer systems, interactive systems;
• Humanities subjects: introduction to linguistics, poetics, introduction to semantics, composition with elements of rhetoric, psycholinguistic mechanisms of perception, graphic design, film, sound processing, symbolic culture, anthropology of image, intellectual property law and Internet law;
• General subjects: mathematical analysis and linear algebra, English.

The programme is designed to combine theoretical knowledge with practical skills. All computer science subjects and selected humanities subjects are assessed based on student projects. The Bachelor’s thesis illustrates the full range of computer science and humanities skills acquired during the programme.

Courses are taught by specialists from several JU faculties, the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow as well as from the IT industry.

Graduates of Electronic Information Processing are prepared for working as designers, programmers, testers and administrators of web applications as well as computer graphic designers.

They are sought-after specialists in the IT industry and the growing information sector. Graduates are equipped to work in companies that develop or maintain web services, as well as in organisations and institutions that use such systems.

Graduate career tracking shows that over 90% of alumni work in the broadly defined IT sector. The qualifications of our graduates are well-regarded by employers.

Our graduates may also continue their education in third-cycle (doctoral) programmes – for example, at the JU Doctoral School in the Social Sciences (programme: Social Communication and Media Studies).

The research activities of the Institute lay within the field of social sciences (in the area of social communication and media studies), the humanities (in the area of linguistics, literary studies and art studies), and engineering and technical sciences (in the area of technical computer science and telecommunications).

A key area of interest includes topics in information science and book science, with particular emphasis on:

• Information management: various aspects at the individual, team, organisational and broader societal levels; information processes – from acquisition (including search), through processing, organisation, transformation and protection, to dissemination and transfer; diagnostics of information products, services and systems; functioning of information services (especially information brokering); information logistics; data management; and tools for organising information, particularly information retrieval languages and metadata.
• Human information behaviour and its various determinants: selected aspects of information culture, information ecology and information literacy, as well as issues related to information and communication technologies from the user perspective.
• Scientific communication: various aspects including the functioning of academic repositories and issues related to digital and printed scientific information resources.
• Theory and methodology of information research with an emphasis on qualitative methods.
• Contemporary library science, especially the use of new technologies and digital libraries, as well as the role of the book in social communication processes from a historical perspective.
• Automatic analysis of Polish texts with a particular focus on vocabulary analysis and the development of computational dictionaries.