The Ph.D. in information studies expands SLIS' mission and vision by educating students to thoroughly understand the discipline of information studies; develop expertise in using the various research methods necessary for investigation in the field; conduct effective, sustained research; and understand the ways in which information in all its forms is produced, recorded, organized, preserved, retrieved, communicated, managed, and used. Additionally SLIS seeks to educate researchers that are able to understand the ways in which people's information-related? activity shapes - and is shaped by - information technologies,? information structures, and information institutions such as libraries, archives, and museums. The answers to the research questions posed in information studies help to improve information systems and services, to guide information policy, and to enrich life in today's information society.