The iSchools announced that School of Information Resource Management at Renmin University of China officially got the membership during 2016 iConference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of United States from March 20 to 23. The internationalization process was therefore accelerated after this historic moment. On behalf of of School of IRM, the delegation including Associate Dean Professor Xiaobin Lu, Assistant Dean Professor Jian Wang, and Associate Professor Tian Xia attended the conference and built official liaison with the iSchools and  more world-class information education institutions and scholars.

Founded in 2005, the iSchools alliance was evolved from the iSchool campaign launched by seven famous library and information science education institutions in 2003. Until March 2016, the alliance owns 77 members from North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and other regions, including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Washington, Syracuse University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Rutgers University, Texas State University at Austen, Indiana University Bloomington, Mcgill University, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, University of Sheffield, University College London, University College of Dublin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Copenhagen, University of Amsterdam, University Carlos Ⅲ of Madrid, New University of Lisbon, Melbourne University, University of Tsukuba, Yonsei University, Seoul National University, Singapore Management University. By March 2016, the School of Information Resource Management at Renmin University of China, the School of Information Management at Nanjing University, the School of Information Management at Wuhan University,  the School of Information Management at Zhongshan university are the only four Chinese members of iSchools.

iSchools members are committed to upgrade the traditional library science, information science, archival science, information science, information technology and other educational programs to information education programs suitable for the new information age. The iSchools organization seeks to maximize the visibility and influence of its member schools, and their interdisciplinary approaches to harnessing the power of information and technology, and maximizing the potential of humans. The main concern is across spatial information design and preservation problems, from the digital and virtual space, for example, online communities, community network, Internet and database, to physical space, such as libraries, museums and archives. The iSchools believes the advancements of society, business, education, and culture require various information expertise, including understanding of the using process of information, information users, information itself, as well as information technology and its applications .

Based on the traditional advantages of archival science, the School of IRM at RUC vigorously promotes the reformation of information education to adapt itself to development of the Internet and especially the era of big data, to sustain library and information science, and strengthen information management and information system, information resource management, information analysis and other new disciplines. Our reformation and development direction match perfectly with iSchools’ vision, who will provide a more powerful boost for our school to evolve into an internationally renowned information education institution.