  These informal lecture notes describe the progress in semiconductor
spintronics in a historic perspective as well as in a comparison to
achievements of spintronics of ferromagnetic metals. After outlining
motivations behind spintronic research, selected results of investigations on
three groups of materials are presented. These include non-magnetic
semiconductors, hybrid structures involving semiconductors and ferromagnetic
metals, and diluted magnetic semiconductors either in paramagnetic or
ferromagnetic phase. Particular attention is paid to the hole-controlled
ferromagnetic systems whose thermodynamic, micromagnetic, transport, and
optical properties are described in detail together with relevant theoretical
models.
