IRLS 460/560
Information Resource Development
Instructor: Bill Edgar
No prerequisites
This course is designed to familiarize students with the theory, practice, and issues of collection development. Learning will be through lecture, group presentations, virtual discussions, evaluation of collection aids, guest speakers, and completion of a final project proposing a library collection in some detail. Three credit hours.
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to develop and maintain library collections meeting the needs of various user groups. They will gain understanding of selection and acquisition of materials in various formats, value provided by collections, types of materials, types of users, collection development policies, collection evaluation, intellectual freedom, weeding, and cooperative collection development.
Evans, G. Edward. Developing Library and Information Center Collections, 5th ed. Englewood, Colo: Libraries Unlimited. There are copies of this available through the UA bookstore. It’s ISBN number is: 1-59158-219-9, if you’d like to order it.
All students are required to:
1. Complete six collection development tool assessments. A handout describing this assignment will be provided.
Value: 30%
2. Complete a collection evaluation assignment. A description of this assignment will be provided.
Value: 10% 3. Participate in a group report and presentation. A handout describing this assignment will be provided.
Value: 20%
4. Complete an opening day collection assignment. A handout describing this assignment will be provided.
Value: 40%
Please note:
. Late work will lose one letter grade from the grade it would have gotten had it been turned in on time. However, the final project, the opening day collection, will not be accepted late.
· Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the assigned due date. · Please include your name on the first page of all your assignments
Academic Code of Integrity
Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity. '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
<Put your own material for the stuff in red>
- How to submit your assignments: How do you want students to submit assignments? Do you want them to include any particular identifying information on their assignments? Will assignments be returned to them, or will they just see a posted grade? Anything else that they'd need to know?
- Assignment due dates: Since the Course Schedule section (above) will spell out specific due dates, this section is used to describe any late penalties and any particulars about exactly when items are due (e.g. "Surface-mailed assignments must be postmarked no later than the stated due date.")
- Writing style: Are students supposed to use any particular writing style, such as APA or Chicago Manual? Are there any on-line writing resources that might be helpful to your students as they prepare their assignments? What if English is not their native tongue...is help available to them?
- Late Policy
Incompletes
The current Catalog reads
The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a term, when all but a minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed. The grade of I is not to be awarded in place of a failing grade or when the student is expected to repeat the course; in such a case, a grade other than I must be assigned. Students should make arrangements with the instructor to receive an incomplete grade before the end of the term ...
If the incomplete is not removed by the instructor within one year the I grade will revert to a failing grade.
Grading criteria: A=90-100
B=80-89
C=70-79
D=60-69
F=59 and below
Office Phone: 520-621-5220
E-Mail: bedgar@u.arizona.edu
Office: No. 2
Office Hours: Mondays, 2:00 to 3:00 or by appointment
