"Online instructional course on the Organization of Information." (3 credit hours)
General overview
The SIRLS catalog description is: Introduction to the theories and practices used in the organization of information. Overview of national and international standards and practices for access to information,
This course studies the history, theory and practices of information organization, primarily in traditional and digital libraries. However, other organizations and information environments such as archives, museums and management information systems are also included. This is an introductory course that surveys the information and knowledge organization techniques that exist or are emerging, and focuses on standards and tools that are used in large information environments.
It is recommended that you complete your evaluation and information technology electives before enrolling in IRLS 515.
Read Coleman, A. 2002. Interdisciplinarity : The Road Ahead for Education in Digital Libraries. D-Lib Magazine , 8 (7/8), July/August. This article will help you understand the sequence of courses that you can take in the area of Knowledge Organization (= Information Organization).
How this course will be taught
This is an online course taught virtually at a distance using the Web. The course is conceived of as discussions on 15 (or so) topics. A lecture course in the University of Arizona amounts to 37 1/2 hours of instruction spread through a semester. Our 'discussions' will be the virtual counterpart of 15 (or so) two and a half hour lectures, delivered at a rate of two a week. There will be notes, readings, discussion groups, chat, and (of course) assignments.
The course has a start date and an end date, and the class as a whole will move through the course together The primary means of introducing the scholarly material will be Notes. These are going to be posted one at a time steadily through the session, keeping the whole class moving forward through the material. There are 15 plus sets of Notes, and these normally will be delivered at a rate of one a week (usually put up on a Tuesday). There will be assignments, with due dates, and formal discussions, and these will serve to check progress. There also will be readings or references to be followed up on the Web.
Almost all interactions will be asynchronous. That is, students can log on whenever they wish, and read material and post replies on timetables that suits their individual needs. A student will typically need to log on about 5 times a week. (An analog here is email-- most folk check their email at least five times a week.)
d2l (desire to learn) is used as the instructional and course management environment. Students who enrol in the course will be given an account. They will be able to log in to their account via the Learning Technologies Center E-Learning Portal. d2l has facilities for internal email, and this will be one way to contact the Instructor or the Graduate Assistant Teacher (GAT).
Students are expected to log on reasonably regularly, to read and study the Notes and references, to participate in the online discussions, to interact by email (and other means) with their fellow students, to write (or otherwise answer) the assignments, to download and upload files (this will be taught), and to carry out various other activities. It is hard to anticipate accurately how much time all these course related activities will take in total (and such a figure would vary from student to student and from week to week), but, seven hours a week is a rough order of magnitude estimate.
The course will start in earnest a few days after the start of the semester. The d2l software can detect when students log on, and when most of the students have shown that the are present by logging on, the Instructor will get the course underway.
The main goal of the course is to help students become familiar with the concepts and practices of bibliographic and non-bibliographic information organization. By the end of the course, the student will be able to:
- Define the knowledge structures (a.k.a. information handling tools) used in various information environments for organizing information and knowledge
- Describe the main theories in library and archival cataloging (including recent trends in metadata), categorization, classification, and subject analysis
- List the uses, advantages, and disdvantages of a sample range of knowledge structures (information handling tools)
- Demonstrate basic skills in subject analysis
- Demonstrate basic skills in metadata creation
- Demonstrate basic knowledge of at least two metadata standards
- Articulate the similarities and differences between a thesaurus, ontology, authority file, subject heading list, and library classification scheme
Students need online access, either by way of their own computers and Internet connection; or by public access means (such as those provided in Public Libraries or in on campus labs).
- Taylor, Arlene. 2004. The Organization of Information . Englewood , CO : Libraries Unlimited.
NOTE: Order directly from Amazon or other vendor of your choice, such as the book publisher, Libraries Unlimited...not available through the UA Bookstore - Knowledge Structures Toolbox, http://radio.weblogs.com/0109575/stories/2004/09/07/2004KnowledgeStructuresToolbox.html
And online materials are available either directly on the Web, or through password protected electronic reserves at the library (http://eres.library.arizona.edu with password xxx)
The course requirements are
- coursework
- participation
The coursework requirement will be two Exercises and two Assignments. One Exercise will be due about 2 weeks and the other 4 weeks into the course, at times to be announced in class. The Assignments will be due toward the end of the class.
The participation requirement is that you contribute to the online discussion groups or forums. You can meet this requirement by posting at least 5 times during the semester. We do not want these forums to be cluttered up by folk posting when they have nothing to say. But you should have something to say from time to time, and we would like to hear it.
Participation will count for 10% of the final grade; Exercise 1 20% and Exercise 2 20%; and Assignment 3 20% of the grade, and Assignment 4 is the remaining 30%.
Academic Code of Integrity
Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity, see . 'The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work must be the student's own.' If you have any questions regarding what is acceptable practice under this Code, please ask an Instructor.
Accommodating Disabilities
The University has a Disability Resource Center. If you anticipate the need for reasonable accommodations to meet the requirements of this course, you must register with the Disability Resource Center and request that the DRC send me, the Instructor, official notification of your accommodation needs as soon as possible. Please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss accommodations and how my course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate.
Assignment Policies
- Submission: The papers are to be submitted usually by the d2l assignment Dropbox, which can be found as a link on the toolbar. (A less preferable alternative is by d2l internal email to the Instructor, put, for example, 'Assignment One' as the subject and send the assignment either as the message or as an attachment to the message. Pure electronic documents need to be either plain text or formatted using HTML (just 'Save As' HTML using your favourite word processor).
- Format, style and content: Content is all important in this course. Style should be plain and transparent (be guided by the classic Strunk and White Elements of Style). If English is not your native language, and you would like some assistance, please contact the Instructor. The format is unimportant, except that it should be html.
- Late papers: There will be due dates and students are expected to meet them. With an online course like this, difficulties can arise (such as computers or d2l being temporarily out of service) and appropriate decisions will be made as needed.
Incompletes
The 1997-8 University of Arizona General Academic Manual, p.23 reads
The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a semester, when all but a minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed. The grade of I is not to be awarded when the student is expected to repeat the course; in such a case the grade of E must be assigned. Students should make arrangements with the instructor to receive an incompete grade before the end of the semester ...
If the incomplete is not removed by the instructor within one year the I grade will revert to a failing grade.
The following scales will be used
For IRLS415 students
|
Internal |
For the University |
|
85-100% |
A |
|
65-84% |
B |
|
below 65% |
C |
For IRLS515 students
The following scales will be used
|
Internal |
For Graduate School |
|
90-100% |
A |
|
80-89% |
B |
|
below 80% |
C |
General grading criteria: For ordinary papers, and unless specified otherwise, you should write about the equivalent of four pages of ordinary text (ie about 1200 words). Grammar, style, or spelling are not central-- provided the paper is understandable and the faults are not so severe as to be a distraction. Then, important grading criteria include:-
- clear articulation of your views and arguments
- soundness of what is said
- appropriate appeal to evidence
- clear and concise exposition of the points you are making
- consideration of intellectual context and relevant literature
How to find out your grades: d2l has two main ways to help a student find grades. There is a link on the toolbar named 'Grades' which, if clicked on, will display all the grades. Second, if a student clicks on a submitted and graded assignment in the Dropbox, the grade, and feedback comments from the Instructor, will be displayed.
