The School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS) at Rutgers University is a leader in responding to the information revolution and the fast-paced changes occurring in the fields of communication, information, and media.

SCILS is a community of scholars who enjoy and excel at educating individuals who make lasting contributions to the interdisciplinary study of communication, journalism and media studies, and library and information science. Our educational, research, and scholarly activities are informed by the philosophy that communication and information processes must put people first.

Our core research and educational concerns focus on the impact of the digital revolution, the globalization of economies and societies, and the transformation of the media landscape on the nature of work, the senses of self and the qualities of human relationships, and social organization and the shape of institutions.

The school was created in 1982 with the merger of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and the School of Communication Studies, each of which had roots in programs established in the 1920s. 

SCILS offers three undergraduate programs leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree:

• communication
• information technology and informatics
• journalism and media studies

two master's programs in

• Communication and Information Studies
• Library and Information Science (both on campus and online)

a Ph.D. program in

• Communication, Information and Library Studies 

and non-degree graduate study in school librarianship, preservation management, youth literature, and other areas.

SCILS has about: 

• 1,250 undergraduate majors in three degree programs (about 700 Communication, 345 Journalism and Media Studies, and 200 Information Technology and Informatics)
• 400 masters students in two degree programs (about 350 MLIS and 50 MCIS)
• 100 graduate students pursuing nondegree certificates
• 125 doctoral students
• 12,650 course enrollments per semester 
• 55 full-time faculty
• 75 part-time faculty per semester
• 16 teaching assistants and 5-15 graduate assistants (depending on current grants)
• 20 full-time staff
• 12 part-time staff

SCILS has offices, classrooms, and laboratories in New Brunswick at 4 Huntington Street, in the adjacent DeWitt House at 185 College Avenue, at 192 College Avenue, and the newly acquired building at 184 College Avenue.  Microcomputer, multimedia, broadcast, information organization, and communication interaction laboratories and facilities are available for the use of SCILS students.

Among the distinguished faculty of the school are Fulbright Fellows and Annenberg Scholars; recipients of awards from the Academy of Management, American Society for Information Science, Association of Computing Machinery, American Library Association, the Journal of the American Society for Information Science, and the National Communication Association; Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Center for Historical Analysis, Institute for Research on Women; and recipients of Rutgers University awards for teaching, research, and service, among other honors. 

Our outstanding students include recipients of dissertation awards from the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T), the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), and the National Communication Association (NCA), as well as Beta Phi Mu Dissertation Fellowships; winners of the student chapter of the year awards from ASIS&T and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSSA); recipients of the Ralph Bunche Fellowship Award, National Research Council Associateships, and Johnson & Johnson MCIS Fellowships; and hundreds of inductees into disciplinary honor societies.