Doctoral degree program
Graduate School of Library, Information, and Media Studies

The Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies offers a two-year master's degree program and a three-year doctoral degree program.

The importance of the information network, mainly the Internet, in sending, transmitting, and collecting information is astonishing. Recently, it has been used not only in academic fields, but also in business, industry, and our daily lives. A huge amount of information in multi-media form is circulating on the network. The network has become the place to exchange information and this has greatly influenced our society and culture. Today, libraries are expected to be centers for lifelong learning. The aim of this Graduate School is to produce leaders in our highly information-oriented society, by helping students study within a wide range of disciplines that are the base of human intellectual activities.

The master's degree program provides training in fundamental techniques and concepts that are essential for a professional. In the doctoral degree program, students pursue highly specialized research under the close supervision of their professors. We aim to produce international researchers and skilled specialists with expert knowledge and abundant creativity who are able to pursue original research and to apply highly-developed technology.

The degree programs consist of the following four fields of research:

• Social Studies for Information and Media
• Management for Information and Media
• Information and Media Systems
• Information and Media Development

Admission to either the master's degree program or the doctoral degree program is not limited by the applicants' former major, career, age, or nationality. We welcome everybody willing to learn and study Library, Information and Media Studies.

The Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies has some adjunct professors in the Cooperative Graduate School affiliated with five research institutes: the National Institute of Multimedia Education, Toppan Printing, NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories, Dentsu, and RIKEN (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research). Students can attend lectures of, and will be supervised in their research by these professors.

The research field of library management has been established with a donation from TRC Inc. From 2006, a library administration and management course is also part of our master's degree program supported by the same fund.