University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Library & Information Science Program
SYLLABUS LIS 610: Introduction to Library k Information Science (3 Credits) (Fall
2003)
Classroom: Hamilton Library, Room 4V
Schedule: 1:00 - 3:40 Wednesdays
Instructor: Andrew (Drew) B. Wertheimer, Assistant Professor
Contact Information:
* 4N Hamilton Library, 2550 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu HI 96822
( 808/ 956. 5839 FAX: 808/ 956. 5835
OFFICE HOURS: TUE: 1:00 - 3:30, THU: 10:00 - 11:30 or by appointment
E-mail: wertheim@hawaii.edu
Please put LIS 610 in the message line. I try to respond to e-mail within one day.
Homepage: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~wertheim/
Course Catalog Description (from the LIS Program home page):
LIS 610 Introduction to Library & Information Studies introduces students to the role of libraries and their social utility in an information society. We consider the historical context and discuss the future of libraries and information centers in a changing technological world. Topics include: characteristics of the information professions, information ethics, intellectual freedom, and intellectual property, access to information, as well as national and international library development. Prerequisites: None
This introductory survey course addresses the following objectives of the LIS Program, enabling students to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the philosophy, principles, and ethics of library and information science;
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the development and communication of knowledge;
3. Attain basic competencies and knowledge that are essential for providing, managing, and designing information services in a variety of information environments;
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the development and interrelationship of librarianship and information science;
5. demonstrate an understanding of the theories and processes for selecting and organizing information sources;
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the theories and processes involved in retrieval, dissemination, and utilization of information sources.
This is an introductory survey course, enabling students to:
(1) Become acquainted with a variety of aspects of their chosen profession;
(2) Develop an understanding of the relationships and roles that libraries and comparable information agencies fulfill in the larger society, throughout history and into the future;
(3) Develop capacities for critical thinking, particularly in viewing major social issues and problems of concern to the profession;
(4) Gain experience in making informative presentations to colleagues on topics of interest to the profession;
(5) Gain experience in accessing information structure and assessing its uses;
(6) And, on a personal level, to understand the potential scope and dimensions of the careers for which they are preparing, in order to perceive their own pathways to meaningful and rewarding work.
Teaching Method
Primary emphasis is on reading, group discussion, and
critical analysis. Oral and written assignments are designed to promote these
activities. The assignment due dates are on the course schedule. Attendance and
constructive participation are required. Because it provides a sensitizing
framework for understanding the concerns of the profession, this should be the
kind of course that students find more useful five years hence, rather than on
their first day as a new librarian or information specialist.
Grading:
Assigned Papers (6 x 10) 60 %
Group Project: Position 15 %
Class Participation 10 %
Student Portfolio and Vitae Final Draft 10 %
Student Portfolio and Vitae First Draft 05 %
Grading Scale: 100-98 A+, 97-94 A, 93-90 A-;
89 - 87 B+, 86-83 B, 82-80 B-; 79 - 77 C+, 76-73 C, 72-70 C-; 69 - 67 D+, 66-63 D, 62-60 D-.
My personal and professional ambition is to facilitate your learning, so I welcome specific or rough proposals for alternative learning experiences to assignments.
I reserve the right to reject or make counterproposals, but I encourage you to consult me about this. If you want to pursue this, please talk with me well in advance of the deadline of the assignment you want to replace.
Class participation is based on: (a) Attendance (e-mail me in advance if you are unable to attend). You need to bring a doctorıs slip or evidence of a family funeral in order to be officially excused. (b) Active participation in classroom discussion. This does not mean monopolizing discussion, but does mean being prepared and actively contributing to discussion. If you were absent because of illness or emergency, please submit evidence along with your paper. Please notify me in advance of any excused absences.
Required Textbook:
&
Richard E. Rubin, Foundations of
Library and Information Science
(New York: Neal-Schuman, 2000). ISBN: 1-55570-402-6 (at University Bookstore). Additional required readings are specified below. They are available via Electronic Reserves or at the Sinclair Library.
Course Schedule (subject to
change)
Class 1: Introduction
Objectives: Review syllabus, Course objectives, Class Photos, Rothsteinıs
Theory XYZ, How to approach the text.
Readings: None.
DUE: Nothing.
3 September
Class 2: Information Needs
Readings: & Brenda Dervin, and M. Nilan, ³Information Needs and Users.² Annual Review of Information Science and Technology Vol. 21 (1986):
3-33.
& T. D. Wilson, ³On User Studies and Information Needs.² Journal of Documentation 37 (1981): 3-15.
& Lynn Westbrook, ³User Needs: A Synthesis and Analysis of Current Theories for the Practitioner.² RQ 32(1993): 541-549.
DUE: ASSIGNMENT (1): INFORMATION NEEDS
10 September
Class 3: Information Professions Part I
Readings: & RUBIN: 1-56; 457-464; skim 449-455.
Class 4: (a) Information Professions Part II
(b) Historical
Context for LIS: Literacy, Education & Printing
Class 5: Brief History of Archives, Research and National Libraries
Readings: & RUBIN: 207-264.
Class 6: Growth of Public, School & Special Libraries
Readings: & Buildings, Books, and Bytes: Libraries and Communities in the Digital Age (Washington, D.C.: Benton Foundation, 1996).
& Sidney Ditzion, ³The District School Library,² Library Quarterly 10 (1940): 545-577.
DUE: Nothing.
Class 7: Professional Associations, Certification, LIS Education & Research
Readings: & Christine Pawley, ³Hegemony's Handmaid: The Library and Information Studies Curriculum from a Class Perspective.²
Library Quarterly Vol. 68 no 2, (April, 1998): 123-144.
& Skim: Pierce Butler, An Introduction to Library Science (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1933).
DUE: ASSIGNMENT (3): HISTORICAL OR BIOGRAPHICAL PAPER
15 October
Class 8: Organization of Information
Readings: & RUBIN: 171-205.
DUE: Nothing.
Class 9: Information Science
Readings: & Michael Buckland, ³Documentation, Information Science, and Library
Science in the USA.² Information
Processing and Management Vol. 32 (1996):
63-76.
DUE: Nothing
29 October
Class 10: Technology
& National Policy
Readings: & RUBIN: 57-169, 425-435.
DUE: ASSIGNMENT (4): RESEARCH CRITIQUE
Class 11: Intellectual Freedom
Readings: & RUBIN: 265-296, 419-424, 437-441.
& Lester Asheim, ³Not Censorship But Selection.² Wilson Library Bulletin Vol. 28 (September 1953): 63-67.
& Lester Asheim, ³Selection and Censorship: A Reappraisal.² Wilson Library Bulletin Vol. 58 (November 1983): 180-184.
&
Skim: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, Intellectual
Freedom Manual (6th Ed.)
(Chicago: ALA, 2002)
DUE: Nothing.
Class 12: Intellectual Property
Readings: & Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of
Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York:
New York University Press, 2001).
DUE: Nothing.
Class 13: International and Comparative Librarianship
Readings: None.
DUE: ASSIGNMENT (5): BRIEF NATIONAL STUDY
Class 14: zz TOUR: BEHIND THE SCENES AT HAMILTON LIBRARY zz
Readings: & RUBIN: 297-395.
DUE: Final Draft of Student Portfolio and Vitae
Class 15: GROUP PRESENTATIONS
Readings: None.
DUE: ASSIGNMENT (6): LIS PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION PAPER
Class 16: GROUP
PRESENTATIONS CONTINUED & WRAP-UP
Readings: None.
DUE: Nothing.
There is no exam in this course or class meeting during Finals
Week.
All papers and extra credit must be handed in by 16 December.
EXPECTATIONS FOR
ALL ASSIGNMENTS
** Plagiarism, if caught, will result in failing the class. It also will be reported to the department for appropriate action. Please donıt do it.
As a review, any quotes should either be placed in quotation marks or block quotes for longer extracts. You may use any recognized citation style (Chicago, APA, ASA, MLA) to cite sources of quotations or other information as long as you are consistent in doing so. If you will be citing the same source (such as in the article critique), then I suggest you use parenthetical references such as the MLA style. For example, you can write (Daniels, 1995, 15), or (Daniels 15) if you have only one citation by Daniels, or (15) if you only cite one article. For papers using parenthetical references, you need to submit a bibliography of works cited. You do not need a bibliography, however, if you use complete citations in the footnotes. Information from personal conversations, letters, and the Internet should also be cited with the date (and URL for the Internet).
Please use 12-point Times (or comparable) font and double-space your written assignments and leave a 1-inch margin. Papers should also be stapled. You do not need a cover page per se, but should include your name, the date, and assignment name on the first page of all materials. You are encouraged to use a title for each paper since this often helps writers to establish a focused theme.
Papers should be spell-checked and proofread. My interest is to see that you follow the instructions and are able to develop a logical, analytical paper, and provide evidence for your observations. Papers are due during class. One point per day late will be subtracted from overdue assignments. No overdue assignments or extra credit projects will be accepted after 16 December.
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENTS
(DUE 3 September) (10 points)
The first assignment is to conduct a very small, informal survey of a few people in your community about their library use, reading habits, and their information needs. This will provide a real context for the readings on formal national and regional library surveys.
Procedure:
Please make five copies of the LIS 610 Library User Survey Form, which will be handed out in class. Select five or more people and ask each of them the questions on the form. Use a separate copy of the form for each individual interviewed. Fill in the form as the person provides his or her answers, so that you obtain all the information for each person. Record their responses accurately. Try not to put words in their mouths, like a multiple-choice quiz. Some people arenıt used to talking about such things, so help them describe their experiences. You may interview more than five people if you wish. You may choose family members, friends, co-workers, students, or strangers. You may include any age group. Please inform them that you have a class assignment to ask people about their library and reading habits. Tell them your questions may take 20 minutes to answer and ask if they can give you the time to complete it. Some people take longer because they enjoy discussing these topics.
Go over your results and organize the information in some meaningful way (What types of information needs did people mention? Where do they usually get their information from? etc.). Come to class prepared to discuss your results and to compare them to othersı. We will discuss your results in class and compare findings with each other. It helps to summarize your data for each question in a table. You will hand in this table or survey findings.
(DUE 17 September) (10 points)
Select an LIS professional LIS specialization that you are
interested in pursuing, and do research on key employment trends. I encourage you to choose a
specialization that you are interested in for your own future employment. For
the first part of this assignment, you should examine at least 30 recent
detailed job postings related to your profession, and then write up a summary
of trends, such as: salaries; future prospects for employment and advancement,
desired skills and abilities, etc. You also should do additional research using
LIS literature and talking with professionals. You will find many sources linked from http://www2.hawaii.edu/slis/resources/employment.html.
If you are interested in working in a specific locale, I encourage you to add this parameter to your search. For example, if you want to work in a New York school library media center, you should look up certification requirements, expectations (such as languages or other skills), salaries (compared to the cost of living), recent job ads, and ideally contact someone working there for additional information. You should also explore what organizations (and section/ division/ roundtable) and listserves, professionals in this specialization belong to.
The second half of this assignment is for you to reflect on the list of desired and required qualifications for candidates and relate these to your own abilities. You should explore your strengths, and possible weaknesses. You should then set specific long and short term learning objectives. You should specify which goals you hope to achieve in classes, learn on the job or how you hope to achieve them.
This assignment will be evaluated primarily on the diversity of credible sources and the quality of your analysis of current and future job trends (80 %). I will not grade your goals per se (in the second part), but want to see evidence of reflection on your own background relevant to employment opportunities and expectations for the remaining (20 %). This paper should be between 6 and 10 pages long.
STUDENT PORTFOLIO AND VITAE
(First Draft DUE 24 September) (5 points for first draft, 10 for Final)
For the first draft, I want to see: (1) A first draft of your curriculum vitae (professional résumé), (2) An outline and a first draft of the text you will put on your student portfolio homepage. This will be discussed in class in more detail.
(DUE 8 October) (10 points)
For this assignment you are to choose an important LIS professional, institution or association in the United States and write a 5 to 7 page paper including:
a) Brief summary of the life of the person/ institution/ association
b) Summarize why this person/ institution/ association is important to LIS
c) Briefly evaluate the secondary sources you used.
You should be prepared to give a three-minute informal round-robin summary of your paper, with emphasis on the significance of the contribution to LIS.
You should use at least one book or one thesis/ dissertation or 3 articles to complete this paper. For sources consult:
§ Dictionary of American Library Biography (and supplements) and the bibliography, American Library History by Donald G. Davis, Jr. and John Mark Tucker (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1989) [HAMILTON: Z720. A4 D5, Z720. A4 D5 Suppl.].
§ Arthur P. Young, American Library History: A Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations and Theses 3rd ed. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988). [HAMILTON: Z666.Y68 1988 ].
§ Articles
published since then are reviewed in the biannual review of the literature in
the journal Libraries and Culture. HAMILTON:
Z671. J67 ].
§ Many are also listed on the homepage of the ALA-Library History Roundtable (www.ala.org).
****As an alternative, you can do an oral history interview with an LIS professional and write a 5 to 7 page paper on this personıs life and contribution to the profession.
(DUE 29 October) (10 points)
It is important for LIS professionals to be able to engage
with LIS research. For this assignment, you are to select a research article
(either qualitative or quantitative) in a peer-reviewed LIS research journal
(published within the past two years), and then write a 4 to 5 page critique of
the article. Your critique should include: a brief summary of the authorıs
thesis statement and findings, methodology, significance of the findings, and
qualifications for the study. You should then critically evaluate the overall
contribution of the study, what you learned from it, or how the study could
have been improved in terms of research methodology, sampling,
generalizability, etc. We will discuss this in class, including defining the
above terms and helping to select an article. You are encouraged to consult Diane Nahlıs Strategic Research Approach for Reference
Librarians (Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt,
2001) [HAMILTON: LB2369 .N34 2001] for more on
research methods.
(DUE 19 November) (10 points)
This assignment is similar to Paper (3) regarding the United States. For this paper though you are either [OPTION A] give an overview of the LIS context in one nation OR [OPTION B] choose an important foreign LIS professional, institution or association not in the United States. Your 5 to 7 page paper should include:
[OPTION A]
a) Briefly explain when libraries were established, who founded them (and why).
b) How are LIS professionals trained / educated?
c) What are the major LIS issues today?
[OPTION B]
a) Brief summary of the life of the person/ institution/ association
b) Summarize why this person/ institution/ association is important to LIS
c) Briefly evaluate the secondary sources you used.
You should be prepared to give a three-minute informal round-robin summary of your paper, with the emphasis on the significance of the contribution to LIS.
You should use at least one book or one thesis/ dissertation or 3 articles to complete this paper. For sources, check:
§ Library Literature [online on/off-campus from UHM Libraries]
§ Wayne A. Wiegand and Donald G. Davis, Jr., Encyclopedia of Library History (New York: Garland, 1994). [HAMILTON REF: Z721 .E54 1994 ].
§ Allen Kent, The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (New York: M. Dekker, 1968-). -) [HAMILTON REF: Z1006 .E57 ].
§ Robert Wedgeworth, ALA World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services (Chicago: ALA, 1986). [HAMILTON: Z1006 .A18 ].
§ Wilfred J. Plumbe, Tropical librarianship (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987). [HAMILTON: Z730.5 .P57 1987].
STUDENT PORTFOLIO AND VITAE
(Final Draft DUE 26 November) (10 points for Final Draft)
For the final draft, I want to see (1) your complete curriculum vitae (professional résumé), (2) Your student portfolio homepage. Your homepage should include at least your vitae, but may include other information relevant to your professional identity.
You are encouraged to use a web editor to create your homepage. You will be evaluated by (a) the Vitae (3 points), (b) Professional portfolio content (e.g., sample papers)
(4 points), (c) Additional content on your student homepage and professional aesthetics (3 points). For help on creating a homepage, visit
http://www2.hawaii.edu/slis/resources/compskil.htm.
WARNING: You are strongly encouraged to consider your privacy when creating your homepage, and should not include your social security number, birth date, motherıs maiden name or other confidential information.
(DUE 3 December) (10 points)
Another facet of professionalism is developing a set of working ethics and a philosophy. Throughout this course you will be introduced to many perspectives from questions of freedom and responsibility to the role of libraries service to minorities, to feminist and class-based questions of librariesı roles in societies. For this assignment, I want to you select a question that concerns you. You are then to do research in Library Literature and for information to better understand the argument. You should locate several sources (journal articles, articles, editorials, and websites, etc.) taking different positions.
In your 6-10 page paper, you are to: (a) summarize the problem or question, (b) present several responses to the issue, and (c) develop your own response or philosophy. You may either write the entire paper or simply part (c) as a persuasive argument.
You will not be evaluated on the basis of your opinions, but on your thorough research (using diverse sources), summary, and grasp of the issue (70 %), and then your ability to write a persuasive, logical argument (30 %).
GROUP PRESENTATIONS (3 December) (15 points)
While assignment (6) is an individual assignment, the group project is an opportunity for you to collaborate with others to express your professional philosophical position. Groups should range in size from two to five members. You will have five minutes presentation time per group member. You should also prepare for another five minutes for questions and class discussion per group. Possible formats include:
(a) Debate, (b) Individual Speeches or Lectures, (c) Skit, (d) Video or PowerPoint presentation, etc. You are strongly encouraged to be both creative and informative on this project. Humor is encouraged (as long as it is not offensive). Handouts or other supplements are optional.
Each group will be evaluated together by students (50 %) and the instructor (50 %) on the basis of content (60 %), and delivery (30 %). Each group member is also expected to evaluate other memberıs contribution to the final project. Your individual score will be a combination of your group evaluation and your groupıs evaluation of your contribution to the group.
OPTIONAL EXTRA CREDIT (DUE 16 December) (5 extra credit points)
Report on Hawai'i Library Association 2003 Annual
Conference
(13-14 December). You should submit a brief (3-6 page) report
summarizing and evaluating professional aspects of the HLA conference. Rather than simply listing programs,
you are encouraged to focus on one to three elements and
summarize and critique the most noteworthy aspects.
Alternative extra credit projects (LIMIT: 1
extra credit project per student only) include a report on another professional
conference related to LIS or some professional project (e.g., internship,
presentation, paper, book review) as long as you are not getting credit for
this in another class. Consult with the professor regarding
alternatives.