LIS520 Information Resources, Services and Collections Janes

Autumn 2007

Syllabus

Information has been around for a long time, in various forms and guises, recorded by all sorts of people for all sorts of purposes. It sometimes seems that the desire to tell our stories, to write it down, is in the genetic code, part of what makes us human. From simple beginnings scratching marks in wood and rock to the recent explosion of digital media, we distill our knowledge and our selves into tangible form, perhaps (we might hope) for all time.

Then comes the fun part--somebody might want to try to get at it. Professions that deal primarily with information and information objects (archivists, librarians, information brokers, and so on) have arisen in large part to facilitate the process of finding what others have left behind. They amass collections of those information resources and develop services to help people to identify and articulate their information needs, find potentially useful or interesting things, evaluate them, and use them. This course will focus on these aspects of the life cycle of information.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, it is expected that students will:

know the history and characteristics of recorded knowledge, important formats and genres, how they are evolving and changing, including the publishing and information industries
have basic skills in identifying information needs, searching for information to satisfy those needs, presenting and formatting the results of those searches
be able to evaluate resources for individual users and communities
understand principles of developing and maintaining collections

Tentative Outline of Topics including What to Do This Week updated 11/19 and the food list

· Introduction to the Course

· The Monograph, its Structure and History, Ancestors & Descendants

· Finding Monographic Resources

· Evaluation of Resources

· The Scholarly Journal, its Structure and History

· Finding Serials Resources

· Information Services & Information Service Providing Environments

· Finding Out What People Want: Reference Interview/Queries & Query Negotiation

· The Web, its Structure and History

· Searching the Web

· Databases and Reference Sources on Everything, on Words and Their Uses, on People, on Facts

Text

There is no textbook for this course.

Evaluation Criteria

There will be several categories of work that will be used to assess student progress for this course. There may also be other, ungraded, small assignments and exercises.

Important note: Assignments will be due in class on the date specified. Late assignments will only be accepted (a) if you have discussed this with me and received an extension in advance or (b) if a sudden illness or other emergency arises. In such an instance, after receipt of appropriate evidence, a reasonable extension will be graded. I reserve the right either not to accept other late work or to assess a penalty, at my discretion.

Final grades will be assessed according to the following schedule:

Searching Assignments One Two Three searching assignments will be made available one week before due dates	35 individual
Evaluation Assignment Part B	15 individual
Briefing Paper	25 group
Research Consultation	25 individual
	100

Other Stuff

office:	330M Mary Gates Hall
phone:	206 616-0987
email:	jwj@u.washington.edu
office hours:	Wednesday 3-4 + by appointment

See also my general expectations for classes. I will assume that you have read and understood these expectations; always feel free to ask any questions you like about them.

Students with Disabilities

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services: 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from DSS indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in the class.

Academic accommodations due to disability will not be made unless the student has a letter from DSS specifying the type and nature of accommodations needed.

Academic Integrity

The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others, but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited.

Specifically, in working on assignments for this course, I encourage you to feel free to work together with other students in discussing the assignments, possible approaches and ideas, etc. For the Searching Assignments, I’d prefer that you work independently when actually looking for answers but it’s OK to talk in a general way about what you’re planning or actually did. In group work, I will assume that the product submitted equitably represents the work of all members.

For writing assignments, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited. The format is not that important--as long as the source material can be located and the citation verified, it's OK. What is important is that it’s clear to me what’s yours and what isn’t.

Please acquaint yourself with the University of Washington's resources on academic honesty (http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm).

Students are encouraged to take drafts of their writing assignments to the Writing Center for assistance with using citations ethically and effectively. Information on scheduling an appointment can be found at: http://depts.washington.edu/wcenter/

In any other situations, if you have a question, please feel free to ask. Such attention to ideas and acknowledgment of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.