The School of Information Sciences has long supported a Ph.D in Library and Information Science and for the past decade students have been able to focus their examinations and research in Archival Studies. The Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science program prepares students for advanced work in research, teaching, and administration. The primary purpose of the PhD program is to develop an understanding of library and information science beyond the Master's degree, with particular emphasis on the conduct of original research, the production of significant and generalizable research findings, and the contribution of such findings to public knowledge.  Full information on the doctoral program, including details about admissions and degree requirements, can be found elsewhere on the School’s Web site.  As there is a critical shortage of individuals qualified to fill graduate archives and records management faculty positions, the doctoral program is a major focus of the Archives and Records Management area.

Doctoral students have done major studies on a wide variety of topics relating to archives and records management, usually focusing on some aspect of archives and records systems for accountability, public policy, and public memory.  Completed dissertations include “Archival custody: its impact on the relationship between communities and their historical records in the information age; A case study of the United States Virgin Islands”; “The influence of warrant on the acceptance and credibilty of the functional requirements for recordkeeping”; “The public's use of federal recordkeeping statutes to shape federal information policy: a study of the profs case”; “Evolutionary change in the accession record in three American natural history museums”; and “Recordkeeping literary warrants and personal recordkeeping: the United States Internal Revenue Service's Income Tax Codes and Regulations -a case study.”  Studies underway are focusing on the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, documenting archival appraisal, and the analysis of access to documentation concerning a massacre during the Korean War.

Graduates have gone on to hold a number of academic and professional positions in the field.  They have taught at the School of Library and Information Science, The Catholic University of America; School of Information, University of Michigan; Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College; and Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto.